Well, I've been wanting to make some cards with a western theme for a while and when I was on these boards looking at fleshing out an old community set setting for the process, it was pointed out that the M: EM already had a much more fleshed out and better written plane which covered the same themes called Jakkard. I've only managed to find the narrative intro and basic facts page from the tumblr, but it looks ripe for some cards to be made from it. So, a few questions:

1) Firstly, as a formality, is it ok for me to use Jakkard for card/set design?
2) If this were to be made into a set, how would you like the process to be handled?
3) Where is there more information about the plane?
4) What do you see as the main mechanical identity behind Jakkard?
5) What places and characters definitely need representation?

While I was reading the tumblr entry I also came up with a railroad mechanic. What do you think?

I think the mechanical identity needs to be built on the plane's inherent "mana rarity", though in a way that doesn't restrict action much.

Incidently, do coastlines even exist in Jakkard?

I agree that before we make any actual cards we should decide on the design process. I figure top-down is the way to go since the set is based on flavour. Mechanics, subthemes and feel of the set decided before card design begins.
Should we go for a standoffish feel? Like alternating stalemates with big plays or something?
Also, are there railroads in Jakkard?

Yes. They go along the leylines for power.

People are working on a styleguide, but it takes a little longer than usual, because they're going for an illustrated styleguide.

I like the idea, but railroad should be a subtype and then they should all just have text that says "~ may use the activated abilities of any railroad". I don't know whetehr the mechanic is worth key/ability wording.
Also:

1) Anything you want to expand on, we'd be more than happy with, especially since a lot of our Archives aren't inter-connected yet (mostly just the planes/characters/stories that are created by the same person)

2) I would suggest you put it in the M:EM board, with [WIP] or [Work in Progress] in the title, but this is fine, too. Just post the ideas you have and we can give you feedback. Though the ymtc guys might know more about keeping the cards mechanically balanced.

3) Let me get back to you on that; I don't think the style guide has actually been compiled yet and it still needs to be put on these forums. I'll post here when I get around to it, but you can keep an eye out on the M:EM Archives subforum There has been a story or two set in Jakkard, though; I'll give them priority as well.

4) & 5) I'll let someone who's actually been involved in Jakkard answer those questions.


Honestly, I dig it, but I'm a little leery of stackable effects. Your concepts there look really solid, but most abilities like that need to be kept consistently weak individually.

I do not appear to have the Jakkard Style Guide - which confirms my suspicions that it has not yet been compiled. However, there is now a story in the archives set in Jakkard. Not about Jakkard, mind you, but it might help you a bit.

You can find the story here.

Ha ha ha ha the Jakkard style guide yeah ha ha about that ha ha it's not done.

I'll try to get back to that soon T_T

I know you guys wanted it to be all official and everything like with the Alara Anthology, but if you need any help with the compiling and formatting aside from the illustrations, then I'd be happy to lend a hand.

The problem I ran into was that we nailed down a lot of general principles, but not a lot of details, so it's less an act of compilation and more an act of writing new material from whole cloth. I have an idea of what I want to do, but uh... wow, I feel really stupid actually saying this out loud now... I wanted to release each thing along with its illustrations, so as the illustrations kept not being quite as satisfying as I wanted them to be, the writing process continually got pushed back.

So, probably the solution is for me to just... start writing and say hang the pictures (ahaha) for now. I'll just sort of post them when I can, I guess.

Bleh, now I feel bad for not being involved with Jakkard. Why couldn't I see its brilliance from the start?

I mean, there's still a lot to be done so I'm sure there'll be gaps that need filling in my account... I keep looking at the kind of multi-century narrative worldbuilding projects that Szat puts together and feeling very inadequate!

Morgothra, one suggestion I have is that Jakkard might work well for a Summer Product kinda thing rather than a set, since then you could interject some weirder one-off mechanics that change the play style, and you could maybe rely a bit more on reprints rather than designing a bunch of new cards. Just a thought I've had bouncing around in my head for a while now.


The major identity of Jakkard involves two conflicts: The Wild vs Civilization (g vs u) and Law vs Freedom (w vs r), with black sort of occupying this neutral place of universal antagonism and basic villainy. A lot of the race conflicts on the plane stem from these fundamental conflicts, and sometimes more than one at once (for example, the Viashino see the wastes as their natural home and as freedom from the constraints of the city of Verkell, where they are little better than serfs and have very minimal chance of rising beyond their low status as workers. This makes them highly antagonistic towards the Foxfolk, who seek to bring civilization to the wastes--i.e., they seek to import the same social stratification they oversaw in Verkell. GR vs UW).

The other major thing is the sudden drive Wasteward, which is caused by the return to life to this previously desolate and literally soul-destroying manaless stretch of land (really the majority of the world outside of Verkell). The Waste represents freedom for some, but for others it represents profit in the form of crystalized mana veins buried in the ground near leylines and nexus points. This means that leylines are contested territory between people hoping to strike it rich with mana crystals, people hoping to use the leylines to power trains to and from the waste, races that see the leylines as sacred ground (and not without reason--some dragons and snakefolk were able to survive the manaless wastes by hibernating on leylines), and mages seeking to use the leylines for their raw power.

Add to that the return of Planeswalkers, including legendary figures that the people of Jakkard thought (hoped) (prayed) were gone for good, and you have a civilization essentially sitting on a powder keg.

That's The Jakkard as it stands today.

Hey keeper if you need help filling out let me know. A lot changed in my absence, but I can try to fill holes. I want to see this done.

"Prayer won't do you any good. Angels choke on the smoke like everyone else." -June, Centaur Bartender

@Keeper: If you're stuck at a specific part of the world, why not throw it up in the EM and get some feedback?

Like I said, it's more a problem with my idiotic workflow decisions and tendency to not want to release anything until I'm absolutely satisfied with everything.

I might get something up in the next week or so depending on how complicated and awful my schoolwork is.

I would love that to end up in a Planeswalker's Guide to Jakkard, placing it in the section describing local tales and Ol' Smokey.

Which begs the question... Was this that we're talking about, now that we've effectively hijacked the thread, a Style Guide for Jakkard, or a Planeswalker's Guide for Jakkard? If it's a style guide, then I can definitely help; a planeswalker's guide is a bit more complicated, and I think we may need more than one person working on it to end up well.

Other than that, Keeper, why don't you just put up small sections of whatever you've got in the M:EM so you/we can see how it looks? Worst case scenario: you get some constructive criticisms and help with lines.

(Firstly, some mood music:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6eSksEp27U )
For the record, the angels tend to be the kind of harsh justicars that wander through dispensing justice. They'll answer your prayers, but there's nothing soft about them. They'd be as likely to shoot you for whatever you've done as save you. Very black and white the angels, so only a very very desperate man would pray to them. They tend to just appear when they're needed and blow out on the wind afterwards.

They keep a lower profile otherwise.

One of the major things that we'd already decided in the establishing thread was the use of grandeur, because it just fit with the heroic legends, but with the new legend rule, I think we'd have to push for an even more impressive grandeur, something that would last the entire game.

Trying to remember what else we had tucked away...
And of course... we shall have to card the Oso del Diablo.

This is what I have noted down as basic mechanics that we were tossing around:

BASIC MECHANICS:
Clash
Leylines
"If this is in your opening hand" stuff
Retrace?
Grandeur (luck and tall tales)

Lots of sort of luck of the draw stuff in other words. I think Retrace was being tossed around as a possible way of mediating the luck factor, as was Grandeur. Actually, I really like this spread of abilities honestly. I have no idea how they would work mechanically but flavorfully they're very on point.

I love grandeur. It's honestly my favorite of the time spiral abilities.

I think you want at least one kind of combat ability in there, too. Maybe, to play up duels, a sort of "This creature can only be blocked by one creature" type of effect? I don't know. But you certainly want at least one combat ability.