Design Shelf: Chess TCG

I’m currently supposed to be on a three day “break” over the weekend, courtesy of a friend giving me “permission”, so I can “rest and relax”. Unfortunately, I find it just as hard to relax as it is to find motivation. So, rather than thinking about my current projects, an older idea from the shelf has popped into my mind.

A significant number of my ideas are either TCGs, or related to physical cards in some way. While I have released a pretty fantastic card game, it’s more of a small tabletop game you pull out for game night - it’s a one-and-done product. Trading Card Games are different, both in design philosophy, and release structure.

Let’s take a look at the design of Chess TCG.

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First and foremost, this game is heavily inspired by Chess, with each card being one of six categories: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook or Pawn (I can almost imagine this category being emblazoned on the final product). Each player’s deck is restricted to a single copy of a King, with that King dictating the deck size, starting life points, usable factions, etc. Kings could also come with inherent abilities, depending on their intended designs.

While the King dictates the deckbuilding rules, the remaining cards are also defined by a “faction” - that is, in the game’s narrative/setting/storyline, the players are playing out a battle between two nations or kingdoms - and the factions of the cards indicate which kings can use them. While the first round of kinds will likely be mono-faction, later sets can add multi-faction Kings to shake things up, and give a wider pool of cards for each player.

The next piece is the Queen - only one Queen can be on the board at a time, but they carry massive advantages. They may also have abilities that trigger when you discard another Queen card, so you’re not stuck with a hand of useless cards. Bishops, Knights and Rooks will tend towards supportive, offensive or defensive roles respectfully, but this isn’t set in stone. While each piece might be restricted to a maximum of 4 copies in a deck (based on the name), Pawns my instead have a limit of 8. This is just an idea, of course - I like the idea of pawns having a strength-in-numbers effect.

Finally, resources - at the beginning of your turn, you may place a “space” card from your hand, or the unlimited collection available outside the game. If you have 10 or more spaces, you may replace an existing space instead. Each space is faction-coded, much like MtG’s basic lands, and also “tap” to pay for cards. This allows you to choose the faction you want to build towards, and makes multi-faction Kings an interesting trade-off - you can’t have a 10-drop from multiple factions without needing to spend multiple turns changing your mind. Replacing an existing space will also allow a late-game non-basic space from the player’s hand to be played.

The battle system might have the active player select the targets during the attack - so you can allocate where each point of damage goes, before the damage is then allocated. Various Rooks and Knights (and others) would have a “shield” effect, where they need to be destroyed before the opponent can be damaged. So, as long as you have at least one shield, you’re safe - unless you get overwhelmed. Damage goes both ways, so the attacking units could be destroyed as well, so the active player needs to weigh up the options.

While the battle system will need iteration and playtesting, I do know the active player’s turn ends after the attack - there’s no follow-up tricks allowed. Likewise, There are no instant-speed cards - you can’t act during your opponent’s turn. I might have “gambits”, which are action cards, but that’s about all the card types I can say I’d make for sure.

Ideally, I’d like one game to take about 20 minutes, so life points and deck sizes would need to be fine-tuned for this. I’d start out with 4 factions, with more added down the line, and a few “unaligned” cards that can be used in any deck.

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It’s rough, it’s cribbing from many sources, but it’s a neat idea. This is something I want to explore more one day, when I’m not already neck-deep in other projects. For now, writing this down has helped with my anxiety and boredom, and I can refer back to it down the road.

Right now though, I need to start thinking about dinner - takeaway, or not takeaway, that is the question…

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When I’m not failing to relax, I can usually be found on Bluesky or Discord.