Legions of Kadmon Diary #1 – An Introduction

Legions of Kadmon is a table-top card game that I have developed for almost three years now. The game revolved around death as a mechanic and resource. It can be played with 2 or up to 6 players—though, I personally believed that the game is best played with 4 players. The game puts emphasis on tabletop politics, having players interact with each other to gain favor from one another and in overall win the entire game.

I have a tendency to work on board games and card games. Trading Card Games are arguably my favorite genre for games and I have been playing TCGs ever since I was in Primary School. For me, table-top games helped me to focus on improving the mechanics without much worry on technical executions (game engines, code structure, etc). So, I used Legions of Kadmon as an opportunity to improve as a Game Designer.

In this log, I would like to talk about more about the mechanics and a little bit on the theme and aesthetics of the game. I will then go through past patches and give a general comment, my thought processes and conclusions. In the future, I would like to post a Developer's Log for every major changes and give a better rundown on the game.

Inspirations

Bloodborne: The Card Game

I would always start with the inspirations for games I make. The game is mostly inspired by another tabletop game designed by Eric M. Lang based on the Bloodborne series. It is simply called Bloodborne: The Card Game. In this game, up to 5 players needed to go through a deck of enemies called the Dungeon Chalice, and collect points as well as trophies. The winner is determined by who gained the most points in the end (trophies award more points).

The design of Bloodborne: The Card Game inspired the idea of having multiple player to go through a series of gauntlet while at the same time competing against each other. It gives the illusion that every player is working together while at the same fights against one another. It provides an environment for which discussion and human interaction triumphed. The idea of convincing others for a cause and the idea of betrayal. And oh my... it was fun. Legions of Kadmon would use this concept of "politics" as the driving force of the game.

Magic the Gathering — Commander

When it comes to TCGs, I believe its king is Magic the Gathering. It is a game that had lasted for decades with a mechanic that was so deep-rooted in the genre, other games often derive from it. My favorite format in Magic is a game called Commander or Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) some may call it. Similar to the previous concept, "politics" is heavily involved in a game of Commander. That aspect—particularly cards that allow for that aspect—was observed in order to help me design abilities to allow for such playstyle.

If there is one thing I like from Magic that I really love (and sadly, lacking in other TCGs) are instants. Instants are cards that can be played at any time in the game, even if it's not your turn. These cards can be played as long as you have the resource to play it. With that the game becomes a resource management game. Not progressing during your turn does not mean that you have done nothing to progress in the game. Another thing I love from instants, are the fact that you can actually do something when someone affects your board in any way. It does not make you feel helpless.

Unstable Unicorns

Unstable Unicorns is a game that packaged a Commander game into a deck that can be played with many people. This game inspired me when it comes to layout and how I foresee Legions of Kadmon to be played. At the end of the day, I want it to be a party game with a learning curve that makes someone become better when they play more of it. Similar to Unstable Unicorn whereby knowing the card synergy and the card database can help you structure your board better.

Mechanics

A Game That Revolves Around Death

The first question every time someone create a game (or rather pursue any creative endeavor) is 'what is the hook'. What makes your creation unique to any other games.

In my time playing board games and tabletop games in general, I became intrigued in the idea of using the graveyard as a mean of resource. This is actually not uncommon. Games like Magic, and especially Yu-Gi-Oh uses the graveyard as a resource. A lot of players even called it a second 'hand'. But I asked myself, "what happened if the graveyard, is the deck?"

The main highlight of the game becomes the player's inability to draw cards. In order for a player to obtain cards, the player has to kill. The players are essentially... necromancers. When they kill a unit in the battlefield, that unit becomes part of their army. The game awards players who destroys another units, by giving them card advantage.

The cards in the game have a variety of effects that revolves around the idea of: killing i.e. Removals and maintaining of board i.e. Sustain. There are other abilities that revolves around the concept of death such as resurrection, and digging of graves.

For an example, the ability Resurrect allows the player to immediately put a unit from the graveyard to their side of the battlefield.

Also... did I fail to mention that the graveyard is shared?

Throughout the game, the players will share the same set of units. All players will be able to access the same set of spells and units.

Spells and Combat

The game uses two main system to achieve the interaction of killing and obtaining cards. That would be spells and combats.

Spells and combats can be achieved through the same card. Each card effectively can act as a unit or a spell depending on how the players use them. Using the card as a spell forces the player to discard the card. It becomes a consumable—its effect used only used once. Using the card as a unit adds a permanent power to the player's board. It builds momentum for the player and is the primary method to win the game.

As I have mentioned above, I took Magic as one of my primary inspirations. I based off the spell mechanic from Magic's stack system. I think it is fairly established and easy to understand. Although for casual players, the stack can become complicated. This is actually a choice that I had to make during the game design process. Due to the stack system, I inherently increased the complexity of the game and that will affect the entry point of the game. At the same time on the opposite side of the spectrum, having no stack system makes the game very one-dimensional and reduces the availability of strategies the players can employ. It may affect the repeatability of the game. Given the two choice, I opted for repeatability.

Themes

Gothic Horror and the Jewish Myth

When first designing the world of Legions of Kadmon, I thought of 3 different races of creatures that can be played in the game. These races brought me to Gothic Horror.

When I was in 10, I was obsessed with the movie Van Helsing (2004). During that time, I indulged in a lot of vampire and werewolves lore. I love the creatures of the night. They were monsters that were usually derived from humanity and I like that concept a lot. Only later I found out that the entire genre is called Gothic Horror. Developing this game, I came back to that obsession, wanting to make something out of it.

Gothic Horror is often associated with Christianity. Vampires for example are killed by the crucifix. With Christianity it came back to the bible, which brought me to the Jewish Mythology.

The Jewish Mythology is a realm that is not often portrayed in the modern media compared to the Greek myths (and nowadays, the Norse myths). I believe it is because it can get a little sensitive. But I love the Jewish myths. There is something about it that made it feel more epic. I often found angels and demons much more otherworldly and mystical compared to the Greek gods.

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