Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

Double wank and shit chips
John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#121

Post by John D »

I am grinding through the details so I can create our first deck. This will be playable and something we can print out. I want to push myself this weekend to get something close. The devil starts to be found in the details but I have good confidence.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#122

Post by John D »

I am grinding through the details so I can create our first deck. This will be playable and something we can print out. I want to push myself this weekend to get something close. The devil starts to be found in the details but I have good confidence.

John D
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Posts: 5966
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#123

Post by John D »

I am grinding through the details so I can create our first deck. This will be playable and something we can print out. I want to push myself this weekend to get something close. The devil starts to be found in the details but I have good confidence.

John D
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Posts: 5966
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#124

Post by John D »

haha.. triple post. sorry... I was on my phone

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#125

Post by John D »

So - A few things.

1) I made more progress today.. watched Forbidden Planet and 2001 and worked on cards today. I have created all the info for the alpha version. It is pretty rough, but close to play test level one. I need time to make actual pictures of the cards... hopefully this week. I have a snip of one of the cards below.

2) I wonder if the best way to communicate in detail is to just use email and send files. I am kind of a low tech guy. I would just prefer to have an email list for anyone who wants to help on this. What do you think? Are youall willing to just message me with your email? I will send my Excel, and Word, and Powerpoint files as I work on them.

3) I should be able to provide a pdf and powerpoint of cards that you can print out. Print them on card stock or use card sleeves. This should work. I have no art. I also used a very slapshot approach to the jokes. There is a bunch of potential to improve things. Give me a week or two.
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jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#126

Post by jet_lagg »

Email is fine for me. The paranoid such as myself can use burner accounts if they don't want their True Names broadcast to the entire list. Not that I don't trust you all, but just in case someone new wants to join up.

Spike13
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#127

Post by Spike13 »

wow, looks like this is shaping up.

i like johns approach and there is sooo much information, jokes, characters etc. to go theough.

building the game framework is the heavy lifting, once that is done the fun of fleshing out characters, meme's can really make this a winner.

there is a large audience for this kind of thing. As the SJW's invade community after community. Past Gamergaters alone would be a large target group.

I'm happy to help if anything is needed. Just send a PM

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#128

Post by John D »

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SJW - the card game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have completed a very rough version of our card game! I have played a few games on my own and I think it is ready to get more opinions. Below are a few points:

1) If you want to get the rules and Powerpoint versions of the cards please send me your email address by message. I will not share your email with anyone... even other pit members. If you send me your email address I will send you files of the cards that you can print out and play.

2) Play testing is CRITICAL and I NEED HELP! Please consider playing the game even in its current rough state. This game will only be good if lots of us contribute. There is much work to do.

3) This is a rough version. It plays pretty well, but the jokes are not refined and there is no art work. The way I see it, once we get the game play working we can then work on the jokes and work on the art. If you have thoughts about the jokes please feel free to let me know. I can work on perfecting the jokes as we perfect the game play.

4) If you play the game, please, please, please, give me detailed notes with your comments. Be as specific as possible. Saying stuff like "the permanent cards suck!" will not be very helpful.

5) Love you guys... and... this is gonna work!

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#129

Post by John D »

I have already found a major edit for the game. Some of the follower cards have special effects that only occur when the card is played. Once the card is in the pool the card has no further effects. I will fix this when I get a chance. In the mean time, effects like "Male Basher" and "Drunk" and "reparations" only have an effect the instant the card is played into the pool.

jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#130

Post by jet_lagg »

I reach some broad conclusions in the following and have recommendations on how to proceed. If there are others planning to chime in with their game experiences and potentially challenge said conclusions and recommendations, please speak up soon.

Anyway, I played a game with my wife last night, and unfortunately my first impression is that we need a redesign. What follows is going to be almost all straight criticism, which I feel bad about as you're the one doing all the work here. It won't do any good to hold back though.

We only played the one game. I won handily, but my plan consisted of playing character cards without even reading the text and paying the spoon cost to avoid discarding when each reality card resolved. All I was trying to do was trigger the end game, and so long as I could glance down and see I had more cards in my pool than her no further tactics were required. This made a huge portion of the game rote. If it were a computer game where the bookkeeping were done for you automatically I might have seen some ways to tease out a few more points each turn, but it wouldn't have changed my general play style. My brute force approach would probably still work. If another player caught on and started actively trying to stop me from triggering that end game all it would do is drag things on indefinitely. There would be no sense of progression each turn.

It might help to go through piece by piece.

The reality deck:

As originally envisioned, this would generate the events that the players must react to. In the game the particular reality card drawn had almost no impact on what the player puts out in response. For example, suppose we draw "The Latest Scandal Proves All Politicians Are Shit" (as an aside, I think this could have just been called Political Scandal). The card effect is that players must pay 4 spoons or discard a World Wide Wanker from their pool. Technically, this could affect my decision to play a certain follower. I might have no spoons to pay out and so play a Starlet instead of a Wanker, allowing me to pay nothing (my interpretation is if I have no spoons or wanker followers the reality card doesn't affect me. This is my reading, but it seems weird). The point is the reality card is more of a random effect at the end of the turn than a central thing the players are working together to combat. There's absolutely no way to "beat" it. Narratively, it doesn't do much for me either. Why does a political scandal cause me to discard wankers? Are wankers politicians? Why does the reality card "Trans athlete beats all the real women in weightlifting" cause me to discard Rapping Writer followers? Presumably there are jokes here, but if I don't get them then someone who hasn't spent the last few years bumming around a forum expressly about mocking these things won't get them either. My wife did laugh at the flavor text of one card, but otherwise didn't understand any of the humor or even how the names logically related to the actions listed on the cards.

Factions:

Factions relate to the reality deck, but only in an abstract way that I don't understand narratively or think has a real impact on strategy. The same goes for how factions interact with individual card effects. For example, the Dumb Turk is a "near famous" Wanker that makes you discard a Media Whore follower card. This makes a *little* bit of sense to me narratively (people vying for fame will push out others vying for fame to cut down on competition), but isn't funny enough to justify vastly complicating the rules. You could just drop the factions and say the card has a prima donna effect that causes another follower to be "hounded off social media" i.e. discarded (random, selected by you, selected by an opponent, whatever). Still funny, much more simple, and much more likely to be applicable on any given turn. There's an argument the complicated rules allow for more complex moves, but that violates our original K.I.S.S. philosophy (and the game is such a mix of simple with regards to limited cards and complex with regards to multiple factions I really don't believe those complex moves will come into play except by luck). In summary, I don't understand why factions are supposed to conflict from a humor standpoint (it's not obvious, like TERFs vs. Trans activists), and they ways the do conflict given the rules doesn't lend itself to any obvious gameplay choices (as the cards in Citadels do even if you imagine them without art or character names).

An addendum: some cards listed gendered effects. I couldn't see a way to tell what followers had what gender and wouldn't dream of assuming. I just ignored those rules.

Spoons:

I didn't use my spoons actively at any point during the game, since followers and permanents are free to play. I think this is borderline game-breaking. Like if you played Magic: the Gathering and mana wasn't a big deal. I did use them passively to pay the cost for whatever the reality card was that turn and thus not have to worry about discarding followers. This turned the game into 10 straight turns of me not even bothering to read what the reality card said and turning over the spoons dutifully once it activated. 10 turns of basically autopilot. My wife did use spoons to play instant cards, I'll discuss those next.

Instants and Permanents:

Some of the instants demonstrate broader issues I have about the narrative being decoupled from overly complicated rules. The instant card "can't even" allows you to ignore all card effects. So far so good, except it costs three spoons to play. I thought you couldn't even and spoons are supposed to represent your emotional/psychological capital? Also, it gives you 2 money, 2 media, and 2 momentum which I don't understand the connection to at all (more later on the m, m, m mechanics in general). The "stunning and brave" instant card does the same exact thing (with different m, m, m effects). One permanent card is just called Brexiteer with no other text. Another is called transitioned and makes it so the follower you play it on can't be discarded. Being trans makes you immune to discard effects? Since I know I'm being negative here, let me say playing permanent cards on follower cards is where some fun can be had. It just didn't come in to play in our game.

Money, Media, Momentum:

These are for tallying up at the end of the game to see who wins and otherwise don't really come into effect during gameplay (I didn't realize until halfway through the game you needed to pay m, m, m costs on instants as well as spoon costs... oops). The one rule I did notice was that cards with the commie effect cause you to lose 2 money every turn. My reading of this is you'd have to do the bookkeeping on a separate sheet of paper which is too much work, so we ignored the effect. The game ending is triggered when someone has 8 followers (or when someone has 10 victim points, except I don't even know what those are??? Very confused by that line). Since scoring is just tallying up the m, m, m numbers into one total I don't see why the three different numbers were needed at all. Again, I think this violates the K.I.S.S. philosophy.

In conclusion, I think the reality deck needs to be redesigned from the ground up. I think the factions should be dropped (maybe I'm missing something, but I just don't see how they could work even in theory). I think the m, m, m values should be compressed into a single abstract system. I think the permanent cards and character cards should be expanded upon so gameplay opens up where modifying your followers is key to victory (and funny, like transitioning shielding the follower from the effects of an instant card played by an opponent for example). Finally, I think the game should tick inevitably toward an ending each turn. It was disheartening to know my victory was a foregone conclusion and effectively just have time added to the clock when I was stripped of a follower for whatever reason.

I've got ideas for a both the reality deck as well as the followers, permanents, and instants. If you'd like I could take a shot at it, and have something ready for another round of testing come Monday. I do want to say that you've already made more progress than was ever achieved the last group effort I was involved in to design a game. The skeleton is here.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#131

Post by John D »

Thanks Jet!

Don't worry about dumping on the game right now. The first version of a game is like cutting with an ax. The point is to review the concepts and mechanics... and this is what you have done. Please play a few more times. I think I already agree with some of your thoughts... others...well... we will work on it.... haha. My goal right now is to collect ideas on the mechanic so we can get this part running well. As long as we all do this in the spirit of making a fun game we will be okay.

I realize I didn't explain a few things. Sorry about that. I missed some things in the rules.

1) I will list the female characters below so you can know the gender. I will add this to the follower card descriptions as well. Oops.

2) In order to play an instant card you need to pay spoons AND have enough Money/Media/Momentum in you pool to "pay". The idea is that it take some spoons and you have to have some power from Money/Media/Momentum. I didn't explain this well in the rules. My fault. Oops.

3) I intentionally made the reality cards very simple. I kind of wanted to see how the simple version worked. In general I think the mechanic is okay. I think we need more complex reality card effects to make the game more fun. In general, the idea is that the reality card will punish the players that are in the lead. It is a way to put in some leader control. What I want to avoid is that the person who starts the strongest is always the winner. A way to do this is for the reality cards to punish the leaders and allow the losing players to catch up a bit.

4) I want to have some kind of strategy in the game. This is why I have factions. They don't play quite the way I want yet. Maybe we should get rid of them, but I would like to try a few options first.

5) I agree that play will be more fun if we had more permanent cards in play. These will be a key to building a stable pool of followers and secure a win.

6) The commie doesn't require any book keeping. You just have 2 less money in your pool at all times. I just wanted to be clear that this is not something that only happens on the turn the card comes into play. I will work on better wording.

7) The m, m, m is fussy right now. Maybe we just lose it... but I think I need some kind of mechanic to work out a strategic element. Finding a strategic element will turn this from an okay game to a good game. Somehow we need a way to tie the factions and m, m, m points together.

8) The jokes DO NOT WORK in this version of the game. Haha. Honestly, I just tossed a bunch of suggested jokes out there and stuck them of cards. The jokes don't really affect the play testing too much at this point. I really think we will be able to make the game funny... but... I have really spent absolutely zero time on this.

9) Finally - all your suggestion will help. I will send everyone my working list of cards and such in Excel. You can mark this up etc.

followers included with gender:
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John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#132

Post by John D »

Hmmmm.... How about I lose the m, m, m and just use victim points?

Also, I can make the permanent cards to that they are not faction specific.

I will keep the factions so I can still make conflicts in the followers. I really want to make it so players can mess with each other by playing followers into each others pools.... and cause a bit of conflict.

Some will have negative spoons and/or negative victim points.

Just brain storming. The m, m, m thing is too fussy... I think. Yeah.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#133

Post by John D »

Ahhh.... Remember Jimmy Neutron... he had those events where he had a brain blast... or whatever. This happens when I walk the dog after someone has challenged some of my rules. So... everyone... please keep the ideas coming.

In the mean time, I hope to have a new version of the game just before Xmas. I hope I can keep this time frame so I can play while I am on holiday. But, don't wait for my changes.... just keep playing and commenting.

Here are a few ideas I have.

1) The game can be called "Slacktivist... the game of on-line activism... collect the most victim points and win!"

2) Each player starts the game as one of eight possible "slacktivists" cards. The slacktivists will have names and a history and will each have some special game effects. So, basically, the players will take on a character. They will have names like "Mary Jane, "Mary Sue", "Yoshi", "Bobbie"... you get the picture. Some will start producing spoons, or having point bonuses, or having faction restriction and bonuses... etc. I must say that I really really like this idea.... a lot.... so if you don't like this idea we will have to have a long talk. Haha. Well... really... anything is changeable at this point.. but... this idea makes me feel warm inside.

3) The game ends when one of the players reaches a certain number of "Victim Points". These are earned by getting "followers" who will follow you on twitter etc. The slacktivist that reaches the required number of victim points first gets to head up a UN panel on a topic that makes rich people feel guilty.

4) Permanent cards will not be faction specific and can even be played before being attached to a follower. This will allow the play of a follower that would normally be an illegal follower.

5) Reality cards will have much more story and more complex game effects. Still, the Reality cards will have a bias toward slowing down the leading player and keeping all players in the hunt.

6) Since the game is one when the first player reaches a number of victim points players can make plans to pop up their victim point score by taking a dramatic instant action (such as discarding a follower from their own pool).

jet_lagg
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Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#134

Post by jet_lagg »

We tried another round last night, and my positions are a little more nuanced now. I'm not retracting any of the broad conclusions I reached earlier though. I still think the central mechanics, the spoons and the reality deck, need to be redesigned.

What didn't change:

As predicted, my wife picked up on what the game was really about after watching me win last time and started whittling away at my follower cards any way she could. Also as predicted, this didn't change my overall strategy, but just made that strategy more tedious. It's still a race to get to 8 followers, and this race is aggravating because you've got another player and the reality deck slowing you down. 6 turns in I'd only managed to hang on to 2 follower cards and an instant card my wife played lost me enough spoons I couldn't pay the reality deck cost, losing 1 of those followers. If this were Mario Kart it wouldn't be like a blue shell knocking you in to last place. It would be like a blue shell moving the finish line another mile down the track. We went through the entire reality deck and started up again before the game finally ended. There's also a very slow liftoff period where you're trying to get enough cards in your pool to have the spoons to pay reality card costs rather than losing followers, which in turn limits your spoon totals, which in turn slows liftoff. So on. So on...

What became nuanced:

Playing followers into one another's pools still doesn't make sense to me from a narrative standpoint, but does add turn to turn decision making that is fun. Some of the faction interactions made more sense to me this time around and make me see how they can work in a different context (i.e. I still think factions should be dropped but the spirit of the idea is fun if broadened and given more sense from a story telling persepective).

Some random specifics:

-The spoon-stealing instant only let's you gain spoons if there are 4 or more players in a game (costs 4 spoons to activate and steals 2 per player).

-Commie cards should just have Money listed as -2 rather than separate text

-Waifu rants angrily that the discard played card permanent should activate before instants because I played an instant that negated it making her waste a card and FUCK YOU FUCK YOU AND THIS STUPID GAME

John D
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Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#135

Post by John D »

Haha... shit Jet... you are right.... I can just list the commie's money as minus 2. Funny that I didn't think of the obvious solution. Thanks.

Thanks for playing again. Let me ask you; how long did the game last? I am shooting for about 30 minutes.

The Waifu rant of "FUCK YOU" Is exactly what I was going for. This is the kind of drama that keeps some intensity in the game. The instant cards are really supposed to screw the other players.

Spoon stealing is not a very good card for two player games. It is a good card for three players and up. Maybe we lose this card in the end.

In general... I think the game played the way I wanted it to. The player that is in the lead initially still has to work pretty hard to win because other players will knock them off the pole position.

Also, I expect that the game will play better with more the two players.

Thanks so much for all the comments. I will read them several more time so I can integrate your ideas into the next version. Please consider trying again and I would really LOVE it if you could muster a three or four player game.

jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#136

Post by jet_lagg »

I didn't pay attention, but 20 to 30 minutes a game sounds like the right mark. We played another one last night and it ran closer to the 20 side because neither of us were trying to drag the other down using follower discard effects. I'll see about getting another player. My go to friend for this sort of thing has been swamped with work.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#137

Post by Kirbmarc »

John D wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:46 pm
Haha... shit Jet... you are right.... I can just list the commie's money as minus 2. Funny that I didn't think of the obvious solution. Thanks.

Thanks for playing again. Let me ask you; how long did the game last? I am shooting for about 30 minutes.

The Waifu rant of "FUCK YOU" Is exactly what I was going for. This is the kind of drama that keeps some intensity in the game. The instant cards are really supposed to screw the other players.

Spoon stealing is not a very good card for two player games. It is a good card for three players and up. Maybe we lose this card in the end.

In general... I think the game played the way I wanted it to. The player that is in the lead initially still has to work pretty hard to win because other players will knock them off the pole position.

Also, I expect that the game will play better with more the two players.

Thanks so much for all the comments. I will read them several more time so I can integrate your ideas into the next version. Please consider trying again and I would really LOVE it if you could muster a three or four player game.
Is it possible to organize a game over Skype? If so, then I'm potentially available.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#138

Post by Kirbmarc »

Skype or Google Hangout are both possible avenues, if the mechanics of the game can work for people who see each other through cameras.

jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#139

Post by jet_lagg »

Using software like tabletopia you could get a game going with just voice chat. You wouldn't need cameras. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to code in the cards.

https://tabletopia.com/

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#140

Post by John D »

jet_lagg wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:43 am
Using software like tabletopia you could get a game going with just voice chat. You wouldn't need cameras. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to code in the cards.

https://tabletopia.com/
It looks like you have to model the game into this system and then "publish" it to their site. I am not sure this is a good idea. I could be wrong however. Do you have a different opinion?

I am not sure how to play by skype. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but I don't know how to make it work.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#141

Post by jet_lagg »

That was just the first hit in google. There are other tabletop simulators that don't require anything like that. Playing over skype would be next to impossible as you can't really sync decks in two different physical locations.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#142

Post by jet_lagg »

This is the other one that comes up in discussion a lot if you're lurking on gaming forums. I've played a couple games of X-wing with it before at it's easy enough to use. Never tried designing my own module. Kirbmarc, if you're still interested I'll look in to it.

http://www.vassalengine.org/

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#143

Post by Kirbmarc »

jet_lagg wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:08 pm
This is the other one that comes up in discussion a lot if you're lurking on gaming forums. I've played a couple games of X-wing with it before at it's easy enough to use. Never tried designing my own module. Kirbmarc, if you're still interested I'll look in to it.

http://www.vassalengine.org/
Yup. Let's give it a try.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#144

Post by jet_lagg »

The Vassal tutorial for card games leaves a bit to be desired. I think I have the gist of it now though and should be able to get the game working inside a couple of hours. I'll email John the module files and basic instructions sometime on Saturday, and he can distribute them to anyone who wants to playtest.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#145

Post by Lsuoma »

I'd be interested in doing this. Thanks, RC.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#146

Post by John D »

Woo Hoo.... so, I am working on any idea where each player acts as a "Slacktivist" in the game. There are five Slacktivists that will be drawn randomly at the beginning of the game. I really like this concept. It adds some story-telling to the game and also forces a bit of strategy from the players. Here is a draft of the game introduction.....
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Slacktivist – The Game of on-line Social Justice


Congratulations player, you have just completed you degree in Communications (with a minor is Sociology) from that prestigious Mid-West university Whatsamatta U, in Frostbite Falls Minnisota. Since you can’t find a real job you have come to the life decision to pursue social justice as a blogger. Afterall, someone needs to point out to the world how fucked up everyone else is! It’s a calling…. An epiphany!

Each of you will play as one of the five characters, or Slacktivists, represented in the game. Each Slacktivist has a unique history, and unique talents. The first player to collect 10 Victim Points gets noticed by the United Nations and helps draft the next stupid unenforceable UN edict…AND WINS THE GAME!



Techie Ted: You are the son of a wealthy industrialist and possess a great intellect. Rather than pursue a career in tech however, you are obsessed with doing things that make “the world a better place”. You father constantly threatens to disown you, but you mother still sends you money every month. She wants you to follow your dream. You find violence to be “problematic” and so you have no patience for Brick Throwing Barbarians. Your social awkwardness means that few people have any pity on you, and you struggle with friendships.
• Male - Asian
• Earn one spoon each turn from your mommy’s allowance
• You have negative one Victim Points because of your awkwardness
• Lose one Victim Point for each Brick-Throwing Barbarian in your pool


Princess Pauline: You are the daughter of a semi-famous Hollywood, you are destined to be the spokeswoman for all oppressed peoples in all the universe. Mommy and Poppy keep you well funded and promote your causes as best they can. Afterall, they love you, “little pookie”, almost as much as the family Schnauzer. But life is all about control of the narrative and the media channel, so you don’t get along with World Wide Wankers, or Intellectual Idiots.
• Female - Hispanic
• Earn one spoon each turn from your trust fund
• Add one Victim Point for you great access to the media from Mommy and Poppy
• Lose one Victim Point for each World-Wide Wanker and Intellectual Idiot in your pool


Genderless Gil: Your friends call you Gil, Gilbert, or Gillian, depending on your mood. Most of your friends can’t tell what your mood is, so they don’t last long. Fortunately, you have the largest oppression stack on earth, and it carries you through life because everyone pities you. You hate the “main stream” so you hate Media Whores. You struggle to get a job or make ends meet.
• Genderless African
• Deduct one spoon each turn
• Add two Victim Points for your impressive oppression stack
• Lose one Victim Point for each Media Whore in your pool


Beta Bob: You are the son of a single mother who goes through boyfriends more than a Muslim faces Mecca. She has instilled in you the idea that a worm will eventually get laid as long as they can prostrate themselves enough. Facts don’t matter, and neither does dignity. You don’t get along with Intellectual Idiots, but you have a gift for talking your way into groups.
• Male European
• Pay 2 less spoons for all Permanent Cards
• Lose one Victim Point for each Intellectual Idiot in you pool


Oppressed Olive: You were abandoned by your mother, father, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins so you have come up through the foster system. Not one to be ignored, you were always the one getting all the attention. At a very young age you discovered the internet and have managed to beg your followers to pay your way through college. It is hard for you to keep your followers howver, because you really just hate everyone. You go from one day to the next trying to make ends met and trying to find more friends to abuse. You hate competition so you don’t get along with World-Wide Wankers or Media Whores.
• Deduct one spoon each turn
• Each turn you may swap one follower with any other player. Take this action at the end of each turn prior to revealing the next Reality Card.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#147

Post by John D »

Sorry.. lots of typos in the first post.... edit button????
Slacktivist – The Game of on-line Social Justice

Congratulations player, you have just completed your degree in Communications (with a minor is Sociology) from that prestigious Mid-West university Whatsamatta U, in Frostbite Falls Minnisota. Since you can’t find a real job you have come to the life decision to pursue social justice as a blogger. Afterall, someone needs to point out to the world how fucked up everyone else is! It’s a calling…. An epiphany!

Each of you will play as one of the five characters, or Slacktivists, represented in the game. Each Slacktivist has a unique history, and unique talents. The first player to collect 10 Victim Points gets noticed by the United Nations and helps draft the next stupid unenforceable UN edict…AND WINS THE GAME!

Techie Ted: You are the son of a wealthy industrialist and possess a great intellect. Rather than pursue a career in tech however, you are obsessed with doing things that make “the world a better place”. You father constantly threatens to disown you, but you mother still sends you money every month. She wants you to follow your dream. You find violence to be “problematic” and so you have no patience for Brick Throwing Barbarians. Your social awkwardness means that few people have any pity on you, and you struggle with friendships.
• Male - Asian
• Earn one spoon each turn from your mommy’s allowance
• You have negative one Victim Points because of your awkwardness
• Lose one Victim Point for each Brick-Throwing Barbarian in your pool


Princess Pauline: You are the daughter of a semi-famous Hollywood couple, and you are destined to be the spokeswoman for all oppressed peoples in all the universe. Mommy and Poppy keep you well funded and promote your causes as best they can. Afterall, they love you, “little pookie”, almost as much as the family Schnauzer. But life is all about control of the narrative and the media channel, so you don’t get along with World Wide Wankers, or Intellectual Idiots.
• Female - Hispanic
• Earn one spoon each turn from your trust fund
• Add one Victim Point for you great access to the media from Mommy and Poppy
• Lose one Victim Point for each World-Wide Wanker and Intellectual Idiot in your pool


Genderless Gil: Your friends call you Gil, Gilbert, or Gillian, depending on your mood. Most of your friends can’t tell what your mood is, so they don’t last long. Fortunately, you have the largest oppression stack on earth, and it carries you through life because everyone pities you. You hate the “main stream” so you hate Media Whores. You struggle to get a job or make ends meet.
• Genderless African
• Deduct one spoon each turn
• Add two Victim Points for your impressive oppression stack
• Lose one Victim Point for each Media Whore in your pool


Beta Bob: You are the son of a single mother who goes through boyfriends more often than a Muslim faces Mecca. She has instilled in you the idea that a worm will eventually get laid as long as they can prostrate themselves enough. Facts don’t matter, and neither does dignity. You don’t get along with Intellectual Idiots, but you have a gift for talking your way into groups.
• Male European
• Pay 2 less spoons for all Permanent Cards
• Lose one Victim Point for each Intellectual Idiot in you pool


Oppressed Olive: You were abandoned by your mother, father, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins so you have come up through the foster system. Not one to be ignored, you were always the one getting all the attention. At a very young age you discovered the internet and have managed to beg your followers to pay your way through college. It is hard for you to keep your followers however, because you really just hate everyone. You go from one day to the next trying to make ends meet and trying to find more friends to abuse. You hate competition so you don’t get along with World-Wide Wankers or Media Whores.
• Deduct one spoon each turn
• Each turn you may swap one follower with any other player. Take this action at the end of each turn prior to revealing the next Reality Card.
• Lose one Victim point for each Media Whore and World-Wide Wanker in your pool.

jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#148

Post by jet_lagg »

The module is ready. Anyone interested in playtesting let John know and he'll email you the file.

You'll need to download VASSAL here. It's free.

http://www.vassalengine.org/

Once you have it installed and open it's as easy as clicking file>open module>[select module]. Select the look for game online button, click next, and (I think) everyone running this particular module is sorted into their own room on Vassal's server. The controls are pretty intuitive and can be explained in message or voice chat.

Speaking of which, it will make sense to set up a discord so we can talk. Is anyone familiar with it? If not I'll figure it out tomorrow. Probably turning in early tonight as I'm not feeling well.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#149

Post by Lsuoma »

Downloaded and installed. Need module.

jet_lagg
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Posts: 2681
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#150

Post by jet_lagg »

It's pretty trivial setting up a room in discord apparently. I can do it and send the link to anyone who wants it. We just need to settle on a time. It's kinda late in Switzerland right now, isn't it?

John D
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Posts: 5966
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2012 4:23 am
Location: Detroit, MI. USA

Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#151

Post by John D »

Woot... boy... I have been super busy the last two weeks. Only a bit of progress on the game from my end. But, I will find time soon. One of my employees quit recently and left a big ass mess for me to clean up. I am glad she is out of my hair in the long term, but I have to dig out of the mess.

If anyone has time to play the game just keep sending me your notes.

jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#152

Post by jet_lagg »

Have you sent the module to Lsouma and Kirbmarc?

John D
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Posts: 5966
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2012 4:23 am
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#153

Post by John D »

FYI - I have written an updated version of our SJW game. There are several new features.

1) Each player will be playing as a "character" within the game and these characters are called slaktvisits.

2) I have greatly simplified the scoring.

3) I have added more complexity to the Reality Cards.

I like where it is going. I must still stress that none of the jokes are funny. My focus is on getting the game to work and then working on the humor.

Please message me if you would like the rules and pdfs of the cards. Feedback is needed and appreciated.

If you have already sent me your email I will send you all the new files.

John D
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Posts: 5966
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#154

Post by John D »

Here is a badly formatted copy of the rules.

Slacktivist – The Game of on-line Social Justice

Congratulations player, you have just completed your degree in Communications (with a minor in Sociology) from that prestigious Mid-West university Whatsamatta U, in Frostbite Falls Minnesota. Since you can’t find a real job you have come to the life decision to pursue social justice as a blogger. Afterall, someone needs to point out to the world how fucked up everyone else is! It’s a calling…. An epiphany!

Each of you will play as one of the five characters, or Slacktivists, represented in the game. Each Slacktivist has a unique history, and unique talents. The first player to collect 8 Victim Points gets noticed by the United Nations and helps draft the next stupid unenforceable UN edict…AND WINS THE GAME!

Techie Ted: You are the son of a wealthy industrialist and possess a great intellect. Rather than pursue a career in tech however, you are obsessed with doing things that make “the world a better place”. Your father constantly threatens to disown you, but your mother still sends you money every month. She wants you to follow your dream. You find violence to be “problematic” and so you have no patience for Brick Throwing Barbarians. Your social awkwardness means that few people have any pity on you, and you struggle with friendships.
• Male - Asian
• Earn one spoon each turn from your mommy’s allowance
• You have negative one Victim Points because of your awkwardness
• Lose one Victim Point for each Brick-Throwing Barbarian in your pool
• Add one victim point for every two Intellectual Idiots in your pool

Princess Pauline: You are the daughter of a semi-famous Hollywood couple, and you are destined to be the spokeswoman for all oppressed peoples in all the universe. Mommy and Poppy keep you well funded and promote your causes as best they can. Afterall, they love you, “little pookie”, almost as much as the family Schnauzer. But life is all about control of the narrative and the media channel, so you don’t get along with World Wide Wankers, or Intellectual Idiots.
• Female - Hispanic
• Earn one spoon each turn from your trust fund
• Add one Victim Point for your great access to the media from Mommy and Poppy
• Lose one Victim Point for each World-Wide Wanker and Intellectual Idiot in your pool
• Add one victim point for every two Media Whores in your pool

Genderless Gil: Your friends call you Gil, Gilbert, or Gillian, depending on your mood. Most of your friends can’t tell what your mood is, so they don’t last long. Fortunately, you have the largest oppression stack on earth, and it carries you through life because everyone pities you. You hate the “main stream” so you hate Media Whores. You struggle to get a job or make ends meet.
• Genderless African
• Deduct one spoon each turn
• Add two Victim Points for your impressive oppression stack
• Lose one Victim Point for each Media Whore in your pool
• Add one victim point for every two Brick-throwing Barbarians in your pool

Beta Bob: You are the son of a single mother who goes through boyfriends more often than a Muslim faces Mecca. She has instilled in you the idea that a worm will eventually get laid as long as they can prostrate themselves enough. Facts don’t matter, and neither does dignity. You don’t get along with Intellectual Idiots, but you have a gift for talking your way into groups.
• Male European
• Pay 2 less spoons for all Temporary and Reality Cards
• Lose one Victim Point for each Intellectual Idiot in you pool
• Add one victim point for every two Rapping Writers in your pool

Oppressed Olive: You were abandoned by your mother, father, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins so you have come up through the foster system. Not one to be ignored, you were always the one getting all the attention. At a very young age you discovered the internet and have managed to beg your followers to pay your way through college. It is hard for you to keep your followers however, because you really just hate everyone. You go from one day to the next trying to make ends meet and trying to find more friends to abuse. You hate competition so you don’t get along with World-Wide Wankers or Media Whores.
• Female Arab
• Deduct one spoon each turn
• Each turn you may swap one follower with any other player. Take this action at the end of each turn prior to revealing the next Reality Card.
• Lose one Victim point for each Media Whore and World-Wide Wanker in your pool.
• Add one victim point for every two World-wide Wankers in your pool

THE RULES

There are three types of cards in the deck.

1) 20 Reality cards which are played one at a time at the beginning of each turn. The reality cards make demands of the players each turn and will target followers of a specific faction. These cards describe real events that stand in the way of “social progress”
2) 105 Action cards which are made up of followers, permanent and instant cards:
a. 60 Follower cards which will be added to your pool of followers. These cards provide benefits like spoons and victim points. Each follower has a special property which describes how it conflicts with other follower cards. Each card will belong to one of five factions. Some factions cooperate well and some do not.
b. 25 Instant cards which can be played each round. These cards normally require the player to pay for the card with their spoons.
c. 20 Permanent cards which can be played on your turn. They will stay in your pool and can be attached to a follower at any time. Once attached to a follower the permanent card cannot be moved to another follower. If a follower is stolen or lost the permanent card stays in your pool and can be attached to another follower at any time.
3) 5 Slactivist cards. Each player will play the game as one of these slacktivists. They will be randomly handed out at the beginning of each game.

General Description. Action will be quick and ferocious. Each reality card affects play in a unique and dramatic way… such as forcing the discard of certain types of followers. Players will get action cards which can protect them from reality or screw other players. Cards, especially follower cards, will interact with each other causing the players follower pool to be unstable. Players will be able to target the leading player and set them back by using certain action and follower cards.

Setup:

• Shuffle the Reality Cards and place in a pile face down. Shuffle the Action Cards (Follower, Instant, and Permanent cards) together into an Action deck and place in a pile face down.

• Deal 5 Action cards to each player. Each player also starts with 1 spoon.

• Shuffle and deal one Slaktivist card to each player. Place this card face up in front of you. This is the character you will play this game.

Basic play sequence:

1) At the beginning of each hand draw a Reality Card and place it face up. This is the realty the players will deal with at the end of the turn.

2) Players receive spoons as directed by their Slaktivist card and from the cards in their pool. Cards that deduct spoons only reduce the number of spoons you collect each turn,; they do not remove spoons from your stash.

3) Players select a card from their hand and place it face down on the table.

4) Players turn over their cards at the same time. The card with the lowest series number is resolved first… followed by all the other cards in order. The series number is found in the top left corner of each Action Card. If two players have a card with the same series number they can be played simultaneously.
a. Players may use spoons from their stash to pay for the card they played. If they do not have enough spoons the card is discarded. A player may choose to discard their card even if they have enough sppons to play it.
b. Players may choose to not play their card and may simply discard it.
c. Players may play a follower card into their own pool or the pool of another player. Restrictions to play are written on the card and these must always be followed when trying to play a follower into any pool.

5) Resolve the requested action shown on the Reality Card. If players are required to discard a certain type of follower, but they do not have one in their pool, then nothing happens to that player. You are only required to pays spoons if you choose to, in order to save a follower. Paying the required spoons mean that none of the followers of that type will be discarded.

6) All players draw a replacement card to start the turn with 5 cards. Begin the next turn by drawing a Reality Card and repeating each step starting at 1 above.

7) Reshuffle the cards when the last one is played from either deck.

8) If, at any time during the turn, a player has 8 Victim Points shown they win the “Oppression Olympics” and appear before the UN as a global SJW celebrity.

Playing Each Card:

Playing a Follower card: It costs nothing to put a follower card into play. Some Followers cause immediate effects when put in play as described on the card. A player may not play duplicate followers into their pool. NOTE: A player may play a Follower card into another players pool.

A follower card can only be played into a pool if it meets the requirements written in the card description. This includes times when cards are passed from one player to the next.

Playing a Permanent Card: It cost nothing to put a permanent card into play. You may place a permanent card into your pool and leave it unattached to any follower. The card will remain in your pool but its affect will not begin until it is attached to a follower. Once attached to a follower a permanent card may not be moved to another follower (unless its attached follower is removed from the pool)

During play, if a follower with an attached permanent card is removed from the pool, then the permanent card stays in the pool unattached.

Players may attach an unattached permanent card to a follower in their pool at any time.

Playing an Instant card: To play an Instant Card you must pay the specified amount of spoons from your spoon stash. If you do not have enough spoons to pay the cost the card is placed in the discard pile. Players may choose to discard even if they have enough spoons.

After the instant card is played and its action resolved, place it in the discard pile.

Reality Cards: At the end of each turn the Reality Card must be resolved. All players are affected by the Reality Card and may react to it as they wish.

If players are required to discard a certain type of follower, but they do not have one in their pool, then nothing happens to that player. You are only required to pays spoons if you choose to, in order to save a follower. Paying the required spoons mean that none of the followers of that type will be discarded.

When required to pass a follower to your left, the follower you select must not be restricted by its description and must be a legal play into your neighbors pool. If there is no legal way to pass a follower then you pass nothing.

The WIN: The game ends as soon as any player has 8 Victim Points in their pool. This can happen during any phase of the game (not just at the end of the turn). You have won the “Oppression Olympics” and appear before the UN as a global SJW celebrity.

jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#155

Post by jet_lagg »

Ay! Glad to see you back. I'm booked pretty solid for the next two weeks though. After that I'll probably have time to make another Vassal module if Kirbmarc and Lsouma are still interested in doing an online playtest.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#156

Post by John D »

jet_lagg wrote: Ay! Glad to see you back. I'm booked pretty solid for the next two weeks though. After that I'll probably have time to make another Vassal module if Kirbmarc and Lsouma are still interested in doing an online playtest.
I have been pretty busy lately so I didn't get my big update done till just now. I hope I fixed a significant number of the problems with the first version.

jet_lagg
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#157

Post by jet_lagg »

Alright. I'm free again. With some luck I'll be able to work on the module this weekend. Part of what's been keeping me busy was putting together a loft bed and moving the computers to the space underneath. I already cleared them from their old spot, but I'm still waiting on parts to assemble the table that will be their new home. In the mean time the PC with all the necessary software on it is sitting in a box in the corner and unavailable for use.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#158

Post by John D »

jet_lagg wrote: Alright. I'm free again. With some luck I'll be able to work on the module this weekend. Part of what's been keeping me busy was putting together a loft bed and moving the computers to the space underneath. I already cleared them from their old spot, but I'm still waiting on parts to assemble the table that will be their new home. In the mean time the PC with all the necessary software on it is sitting in a box in the corner and unavailable for use.
Fantastic - thanks and good luck.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#159

Post by jet_lagg »

I finished the thing this weekend, but on going to test it out last night noticed that all the cards were jumbled. Turns out you can't just put the image files in different directories and expect Vassal to keep them separate. So, I need to rename all the image files and reattach them to the right cards. I expect to have it working by tonight.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#160

Post by jet_lagg »

I roped a friend in to be our third player this time. I'm posting the notes he took during the game below. Sentences inside brackets are clarifications I added.

· Move Flavor Text on Reality Cards to the top

· Reality cards should be re-labeled as “Harsh Reality” or “Reality Calls” “Reality Knocks”, “Reality Intrudes”

· Any way to track the victim points systematically? Computer senses values and evaluates by rules. [By this he meant inside Vassal. He found the bookkeeping for victim points to be unwieldy.]

· Should the first turn see us all with two spoons?

· Instructions don’t specify that only instants need to be paid for with spoons. [This isn’t true, but perhaps the rules can be rewritten to make it more clear. On Permanent and Follower cards the number means spoons gained. On Instant cards the number means the spoons you pay.]

· Followers should say “Follower” somewhere,

· “Permanent” doesn’t make sense for me for something that attaches to a follower. Maybe some other turn.

· Reality cards that have follower types: Should be made more clear that it only applies to that group.

· Should be some additional, non-card specific uses of spoons. I barely used mine. Maybe some always available options to spend some amount of cards to drop 10 points off your cards initiative. Spend spoons to delay playing your card until the other players turn theirs.

· Maybe raise the number of Victim points to make the last longer?

· Not clear on how the mechanics relate to the story narrative or metaphor. For example, why would acquiring followers raise you level of being a victim? It would raise your popularity.

· Spoons does not work for me as a “Mana” mechanic. Maybe victim points is your Mana? But again why would adding followers give you victim points? Unless its about giving the Movement more victims and a higher number of victim points?


In our post game conversation he said he had fun. He enjoyed the strategy of playing cards into one another’s pools and I agree that’s your strongest feature now. He also agreed with me that the reality mechanic is fundamentally broken and should be redesigned or excised. We talked for longer than we played, and went off on several tangents, but did eventually converge on back on this one thought.

It should be the epicenter of the round both narratively and mechanically. As of now it’s an afterthought. Reality cards should fall into two broad categories: cards that unify the players as they work together to defeat it lest they suffer a collective penalty (narratively, this would be things like popular NYT op eds that go against the social justice dogma), and cards that split the players and allow for rounds of backstabbing (mechanically it sounds a lot like the feeding frenzy idea and narratively it would be events like #MeToo where you start throwing other player’s followers under the bus).



Moving past that and on to minor things:

-I agree with him the game went a bit too quickly. This is an easy fix as you can adjust the victim points goal line (though that does add to the bookkeeping issue, which I also found to be a problem).

-I also agree with him that spoons aren’t very useful right now. In playtests with the first version we ended up with piles of the things by the end of the game, and that hasn’t changed.

-I missed the idea of amassing media and money, and he arrived at that thought independently without having known about the earlier version. This speaks to what I think Matt was getting at when we first started. It’s the wrong approach to go mechanics then work out the ethos later. Ethos should be driving our mechanics. Victimhood is definitely related to fame and money (you can leverage the former into the latter), but they are not the same thing. I think treating them interchangeably from a rules perspective points toward a deeper problem with our design philosophy that should be addressed. A good concrete first step would be to take his suggestion that we move the flavor text to the top of the card. If a player reads the flavor text, then the rule, then thinks “yeah that makes sense”, we

-Maybe spoons should be renamed/redesigned? I’m torn here, because I really like the joke. At the same time it’s incredibly obscure. My friend had even read the Spoon Theory essay back in the day and still thought so little of it he didn’t understand the reference. The redesign would take the form of victim points working like mana and interacting with fame and money as some new mechanic. I really like this idea, but our conversation about it was at such an abstract level, no real rule ideas, I’m only including it here in the minor comments.

John D
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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#161

Post by John D »

Really great comments jet.

One good thing about getting rid of spoons is that we will not have to include spoons when we sell the game. If the joke is not that good we might want to just kill the idea. (I love the joke too.... but unless most people get the joke we may be pushing it too hard). We can use a different mechanism to count for "mana"... then we can just sell the deck of cards. Simple is best.

I like the idea that reality cards have more power to set the tone of the hand. I actually like this idea a lot. This is a complex idea so I will need to think about how this will work. Yeah... wow.... this is a really good idea. Could reality cards be more like an event.... like a press conference... a news interview... a viral tweet... a terrorist attack.... etc.

I got rid of media and money (in version 2) because it was fussy and we had enough knobs to turn (so to speak). If we get rid of spoons we could use another feature like media and money. Should we kill the spoons idea and add back money and media? Can we decide this now?

Good suggestions about the card layout and names of things. I will track these ideas so we can pick the names we like most. Also, it is easy to make the game last longer by requiring more points etc. This kind of thing can easily be tweaked... but it is important that we keep records of these types of topics.

I agree that ethos should come first... and then rules. This is pretty hard... haha. We will keep working at it.

Maybe, instead of "victim points" the players work toward "fame" points. Again.... we get rid of a joke but make the game more cohesive.

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Re: Social Justice Warriors: The Collectible Card Game

#162

Post by jet_lagg »

This needs a lot more thought, but basically I envision splitting the Action Deck in 3 to bring the total up to four decks: a Crisis Deck which would consist of Reality Calls cards and Feeding Frenzy cards (leaning heavily toward the former), a Follower Deck which is as the name implies, an Oppression Deck which would consist of cards for modifying followers (like permanents), and an Action Deck which would consist of cards used in events created by the Crisis Deck (similar to instants).

A sample game opening might look like this.

Setup:

All players draw one follower to put in to play. These various attributes have stats that will later come into play during the oppression olympics.

Player 1
Race - Jew
Sex - Male
Pref - Gay
Fame/Money - 5

Player 2
Race - Black
Sex - Female
Pref - Hetero
Fame/Money - 1

All players draw Oppression cards and modify followers as desired. These cards increase the follower's standing on the progressive stack (again, important at the end) and are lost if the follower is lost.

Player 1
Race - Jew
Sex - Male
Pref - Gay
(disabled)

Player 2
Race - Black
Sex - Female
Pref - Hetero
(lesbian) [women can change sexuality]

Crisis:

A card from the crisis deck is drawn and played face up

Actual Debate
Feminist interviewer suffers humiliating defeat after making the mistake of letting her opponent speak
Challenge Rating - Gender 5
Pass - Most oppressed player gains a follower
Fail - All players must discard a follower

The challenge rating must be met or exceeded by the value of the action cards players put down next. Only gender actions work on gender challenge ratings, race actions on race challenge ratings. Universal works on both.

Player 1
claim harassment
3 vaguely offensive found tweets online, CNN reports breathlessly
(universal 4)

Player 2
puff piece
gender studies expert gets softball interview in Jezebel
(gender 2)

4 and 2 is 6 and beats the challenge rating of 5, so this crisis is defeated. We move on to deciding who gets the follower card as a reward.

ppression Olympics:

Players play additional action cards to alter the rules of the progressive stack

Player 1
Nazi Graffiti
Swastika found on synagogue wall says rabbi with oddly spray paint shaped bulge in his pocket
(jews plus 4 oppression)

Player 2
Cop Shooting
No mother should have to fear for her son's life every time he robs a liquor store
(blacks plus 2 oppression)

Tallying it up...

Player 1
Race - Jew [1]+4
Sex - Male [0]
Pref - Gay [1]
(disabled) [2]
total=8

Player 2
Race - Black [2]+2
Sex - Female [1]
Pref - Hetero [0]
(lesbian) [2]
total=7

So even though he started out less oppressed (more privileged?) Player 1's oppression card put him on top of the progressive stack in the end and he gets the reward of the follower card. The fame/money stat will be used for scoring, and I figure you give white followers more of it to balance for how weak they are progressive stack wise and do a piss take on how for all the SJW bitching about it the real leading figures even in their own cliques tend to be pretty pasty.

Obvious problems:
-Bookkeeping already unwieldy with just one follower in play
-Doesn't mesh well with what exists now (though with some more time to explain I can bring back in the element of playing cards into one another's pools)
-Still have to think about how a feeding frenzy mechanic would work with this

Locked