RPG/TCG Card Game Research

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/MakeACollectibleCardGame

https://praliedutzel.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/creating-a-card-game-from-start-to-finish/



Collectibility / Customizability / Competitive Balance / Variable Player Goals. One of the big appeals of this genre is that you can design a deck to pursue a particular victory strategy. What that means is that there needs to be more than one way to win. Most Magic duels revolve around getting the opponent from 20 Hit Points to 0, true, but each of the five colors has different philosophies and tries to get there in different ways; and there's always milling or the various Golden Snitch cards like Barren Glory or Coalition Victory. In LotR above, you could win by tossing the Ring into the fire orby knocking out every other player's Fellowship. And let's not even talk about L5R and its four different ways of winning.

Choices Vs. Options. First, we acknowledge that we are ripping off MaRo, so read the article in his words if you'd prefer. But there is a difference between "Options"—"You can have both A and B"—and Choices—"You can only have A or B, pick one." You want Choices instead of Options. Not only should this shape the design of individual cards, but the entire deck-building aspect of card games is about Choices: there are so many cards available that you simply cannot create a deck that makes all of them available


Variable Player Goals 
Sometimes, not all the players are going for the same thing. There are essentially two forms of this.

In the milder form, each player is going for the same sort of thing, but what precisely they require varies. For instance, each player may be trying to get two treasures, but which two treasures is different for each player, or each player has certain bonuses or restrictions that make getting certain treasures easier or harder (respectively).

In the more extreme form, each player is going for something different entirely. One player is trying to accumulate as much money as possible, while another is trying to eliminate the player to his left. These are often accompanied with the player having varying special abilities that help to accomplish these specific goals.

In either case, these are typically assigned randomly at the beginning of the game. Sometimes, each player's objective is secret, though this is hard to pull off if they are supposed to be matched up with the player's specific abilities. There is also often a generic win condition that any player can accomplish.

A common twist on the more extreme form is that one player has no special win condition; instead, his generic win condition is made easier. A less common twist is that one player wins automatically if the game would go to final scoring or the game's equivalent.


Comeback Mechanics 
There are two ways a game can go about comeback mechanics: The first is to give an advantage to a losing player. That is, it allocates privileges among players at any given moment, with more given to those whom the game feels is more likely to lose. The second is to give an advantage to a player about to get eliminated. All players can use this mechanic, whether they're winning or losing, but they either favor players close to the losing condition in a game (such as having low remaining health) or can only be used by such players.

Comeback Mechanics are most commonly seen in genres where matches end quickly. Fighting games and racing games are prime examples of these, with matches rarely exceeding a few minutes. Games with time limits for multiplayer will also often have Comeback Mechanics regardless of genre. This is because there is little to no harm in extending the matches a bit longer. Comeback Mechanics are less common in genres that traditionally don't have a time limit and tend to take a long time to complete a match, such as shooters, puzzle games, and turn-based strategies.