Just to get ahead of it, yes I heard of Paintball Royal, which sadly looks like it didn't make it's kickstarter goal. But that was a collectible card game, the kind of thing where you'd buy booster packs and there would be card rarity and stuff. That's not what I'm looking to make. Think more like the game Boss Monster or something like that, where it's kind of like a board game, but all cards. And maybe a little dice rolling.
So I'm at the early concept stage, but this is how I envision it so far....
Two players sitting across from each other at a table. Since it's their first game they each take a Newbie Renter card as their Player. The Newbie Renter has base stats of zero for Accuracy (though Stability might be a better name), Evasion, and Stealth. Since they're playing Renters they each take a Rental Blowback as their Gun (Marker? Eh, screw it, it's a gun) card, which has no bonuses, a range of 5 (most guns will have identical range of course), a Reliability of -4, and two firing techniques of Single Shot (no bonuses or penalties, 1-4 balls) and Short Burst (-3 Accuracy, 10-40 balls). Variable numbers will need some tweaking to see what works best for gameplay. Do note that these are firing "techniques" and not firing "modes". Yes a basic rental is one shot one pull semiauto, but there's a difference between a few attempted carefully aimed shots and just hammering the trigger while pointing the gun in a general direction. This will become important later. Different Guns will have between 1 and 3, maybe 4 firing techniques. The Rental gun comes with a Basic Hopper that holds 200 rounds of paint, and a Steel HPA Air tank with 400 shots of air. You'll have to keep track of these two numbers. If either reaches zero you can't shoot with out reloading or replacing Air.
Do note that in later rounds the players can choose more experienced Player cards, which come with budgets to have better Guns and Gear, and the ability to purchase Accessories which all apply modifiers. But to start, we'll stick with the most basic.
Next each player chooses, or maybe randomly draws, 5 or so Terrain cards. Open space, Tree, Bush, Fort, Barrel Bunker, Pallet, and so on. Even potentially airball staples like Dorito and Snake, but I'll probably stick those in the Speedball Expansion Box. These apply their own bonuses to Evasion, Stealth, and possibly Accuracy when a Player is at that Terrain. The players lay out their cards in front of themselves in a line going from one player to another. This represents a portion of the entire field, namely their Path. More advanced play may have multiple Paths, but a basic one on one a single Path will do. Their Player cards start at each end (or maybe a token piece?). Since there are more Terrain cards between the players than their Range (eight unoccupied Terrain in-between each Player at the moment) each Player starts off as Hidden.
Each player now chooses 2 Action cards. This represents what their Players do in a turn (ok, we got players, as in the person, and Player, as in their in game character... that can get confusing. I need a different name for one of them). They can pick any combination of Move, Shoot, or Cover, but no more than 2 total. Choosing two of the same is allowed and has special effects in the game. A double Move is a Sprint, and may advance the Player two Terrain, but with some penalties to Stealth and a bonus to Evasion. A double Shoot triggers a secondary firing technique, so a Short Burst in this case. A double Cover is Hide, adds to Stealth and lets a player become Hidden if not currently so.
Each player chooses these in secret. Once both players have made their choices they put them face down on the table, and then reveal them simultaneously. In our example each player chose a Move and a Cover. Each Player card/token moves up one Terrain. There's now six unoccupied Terrain between them. Since each is out of range of the other they remain Hidden. At this point there is an opportunity to play some randomly drawn Event cards, but since the action hasn't started yet we'll get back to that later.
Next turn each player picks their cards. One players, we'll call him player 1 for now though most things happen simultaneously in this game, he chooses Move and Cover again. The player 2 though picks Cover and Shoot. Since only 1 move was played player 1 moves his Player up one Terrain, a Bush with Stealth +5, Evasion +0. The other player remains at his current Terrain, a Fort with Stealth +0 and Evasion +5. (numbers will need to be adjusted with play testing). Since there are exactly 5 unoccupied Terrain between the players they are In Range, but we need to determine if the Players have spotted each other yet. So each rolls a die, lets say a D20, mainly since it would be cool to get some that are half and half colored like a paintball. The first player rolls, gets a 2, and adds any Stealth bonuses. In this case a +5 from taking Cover behind a bush. Any total from 1-10 they are spotted, 11-20 they remain or possibly become hidden. (this range will probably need to be adjusted). 2+5 is 7, so player 1 is now Spotted. The second player rolls a 9, but he has no Stealth bonus to add, so he is also Spotted. But player 2 played a Shoot card, so he can fire at the other player. He rolls a D20 and adds any Accuracy bonus. His goal is to roll above 10 plus any Evasion bonus the other player may have. So he rolls a 12, with no bonus to add. Since his target has no Evasion bonuses to add to the target number this Hits. He also subtracts 1-4 shots from his Hopper and Air.
But not all is lost for poor player 1. At the beginning of the game each player drew 5 (7?) Event cards. Our player 1 plays a Paintcheck! card, which allows him to roll a D20 of his own and subtract it from the other player's shot. He rolls a 4, which brings the other players shot roll down to 8, so it was a Bounce. Our player 2, retaliates by playing a Malfunction card. In this case the Loose Hopper Lit card. He rolls a D20 vs 10 plus or minus any Reliability modifiers. The Rental is -4, so he easily rolls above the target number of 6, which causes 50 balls to fall out of player 1's hopper.
And the whole thing plays out until one player is successfully hit. Later matches can have more experienced Player cards, different Guns, with different Hoppers and Air, all which provide different bonuses and penalties. Equipment cards like clothing, jerseys, pants, pod packs, squeegees, fancier Goggles.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? I may be able to whip up a very, very simple card set with no art for people to print and playtest if anyone has any interest.
So I'm at the early concept stage, but this is how I envision it so far....
Two players sitting across from each other at a table. Since it's their first game they each take a Newbie Renter card as their Player. The Newbie Renter has base stats of zero for Accuracy (though Stability might be a better name), Evasion, and Stealth. Since they're playing Renters they each take a Rental Blowback as their Gun (Marker? Eh, screw it, it's a gun) card, which has no bonuses, a range of 5 (most guns will have identical range of course), a Reliability of -4, and two firing techniques of Single Shot (no bonuses or penalties, 1-4 balls) and Short Burst (-3 Accuracy, 10-40 balls). Variable numbers will need some tweaking to see what works best for gameplay. Do note that these are firing "techniques" and not firing "modes". Yes a basic rental is one shot one pull semiauto, but there's a difference between a few attempted carefully aimed shots and just hammering the trigger while pointing the gun in a general direction. This will become important later. Different Guns will have between 1 and 3, maybe 4 firing techniques. The Rental gun comes with a Basic Hopper that holds 200 rounds of paint, and a Steel HPA Air tank with 400 shots of air. You'll have to keep track of these two numbers. If either reaches zero you can't shoot with out reloading or replacing Air.
Do note that in later rounds the players can choose more experienced Player cards, which come with budgets to have better Guns and Gear, and the ability to purchase Accessories which all apply modifiers. But to start, we'll stick with the most basic.
Next each player chooses, or maybe randomly draws, 5 or so Terrain cards. Open space, Tree, Bush, Fort, Barrel Bunker, Pallet, and so on. Even potentially airball staples like Dorito and Snake, but I'll probably stick those in the Speedball Expansion Box. These apply their own bonuses to Evasion, Stealth, and possibly Accuracy when a Player is at that Terrain. The players lay out their cards in front of themselves in a line going from one player to another. This represents a portion of the entire field, namely their Path. More advanced play may have multiple Paths, but a basic one on one a single Path will do. Their Player cards start at each end (or maybe a token piece?). Since there are more Terrain cards between the players than their Range (eight unoccupied Terrain in-between each Player at the moment) each Player starts off as Hidden.
Each player now chooses 2 Action cards. This represents what their Players do in a turn (ok, we got players, as in the person, and Player, as in their in game character... that can get confusing. I need a different name for one of them). They can pick any combination of Move, Shoot, or Cover, but no more than 2 total. Choosing two of the same is allowed and has special effects in the game. A double Move is a Sprint, and may advance the Player two Terrain, but with some penalties to Stealth and a bonus to Evasion. A double Shoot triggers a secondary firing technique, so a Short Burst in this case. A double Cover is Hide, adds to Stealth and lets a player become Hidden if not currently so.
Each player chooses these in secret. Once both players have made their choices they put them face down on the table, and then reveal them simultaneously. In our example each player chose a Move and a Cover. Each Player card/token moves up one Terrain. There's now six unoccupied Terrain between them. Since each is out of range of the other they remain Hidden. At this point there is an opportunity to play some randomly drawn Event cards, but since the action hasn't started yet we'll get back to that later.
Next turn each player picks their cards. One players, we'll call him player 1 for now though most things happen simultaneously in this game, he chooses Move and Cover again. The player 2 though picks Cover and Shoot. Since only 1 move was played player 1 moves his Player up one Terrain, a Bush with Stealth +5, Evasion +0. The other player remains at his current Terrain, a Fort with Stealth +0 and Evasion +5. (numbers will need to be adjusted with play testing). Since there are exactly 5 unoccupied Terrain between the players they are In Range, but we need to determine if the Players have spotted each other yet. So each rolls a die, lets say a D20, mainly since it would be cool to get some that are half and half colored like a paintball. The first player rolls, gets a 2, and adds any Stealth bonuses. In this case a +5 from taking Cover behind a bush. Any total from 1-10 they are spotted, 11-20 they remain or possibly become hidden. (this range will probably need to be adjusted). 2+5 is 7, so player 1 is now Spotted. The second player rolls a 9, but he has no Stealth bonus to add, so he is also Spotted. But player 2 played a Shoot card, so he can fire at the other player. He rolls a D20 and adds any Accuracy bonus. His goal is to roll above 10 plus any Evasion bonus the other player may have. So he rolls a 12, with no bonus to add. Since his target has no Evasion bonuses to add to the target number this Hits. He also subtracts 1-4 shots from his Hopper and Air.
But not all is lost for poor player 1. At the beginning of the game each player drew 5 (7?) Event cards. Our player 1 plays a Paintcheck! card, which allows him to roll a D20 of his own and subtract it from the other player's shot. He rolls a 4, which brings the other players shot roll down to 8, so it was a Bounce. Our player 2, retaliates by playing a Malfunction card. In this case the Loose Hopper Lit card. He rolls a D20 vs 10 plus or minus any Reliability modifiers. The Rental is -4, so he easily rolls above the target number of 6, which causes 50 balls to fall out of player 1's hopper.
And the whole thing plays out until one player is successfully hit. Later matches can have more experienced Player cards, different Guns, with different Hoppers and Air, all which provide different bonuses and penalties. Equipment cards like clothing, jerseys, pants, pod packs, squeegees, fancier Goggles.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? I may be able to whip up a very, very simple card set with no art for people to print and playtest if anyone has any interest.
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