No idea if this belongs more in the mtg section or here but..

I know I'm not the first to suggest having an mtg rpg, but I think my version could be unique enough. Anyways, it's more closer to actual D&D than the actual mtg game.

Character creation:
To create a character, you make a proxy mtg card with whatever abilties, colors you want. Remember to excercise balance on this, and the inital character must be at minimum CMC 4 and must be approved by the play group before it can be used. The character must also have the Legendary Creature type. You also make a planewalker card version of your character. Both are used much like in EDH, with a form of command zone. Main difference is that only one or the other can be summoned once each battle, unless something says otherwise.


I'll update this more when I can.

Why not make a Planeswalker card?

~SE++

I never got to it last time(though I added it in now) but you do also make a walker card too.

I think it would be relatively easy to port some magic cards over into being 4th Edition D&D Monsters. But that of course would just be reflavoring 4E not actually making a MTG RPG.

I've seen several people bring up the idea but not a lot of actual groundlaying for rules, so lets start very broad and work your way narrow. What type of gameplay are you looking to get out of this game? Is it a d20 system? d100? Does it use dice at all?

Well, the encounters are basically real magic games except in each one, there is a main creature and sub creatures. Unless specified otherwise by the GM, the main creature takes the role of the actual opponent(Meaning when you attack in your combat step, unblocked damage goes to it/them. Larger battles can have more than one main creature. Sub creatures must always block an attacker if it will deal lethal damage to one or more main creatures.

Deck wise, your max size is 15 but increases by 1 for each level you go up by. Until lv 10, you can only use commons and basic land.

Now for dice, yes, 3 kinds will be used, d3, d6, and d20. Most common use for dice is for random battle events and for things like certain explore actions and the like.

This enough for a start?

And what cards are allowed? Because with such a small deck and only commons and uncommons allowed, I'd image it's still pretty damn easy to pull of idiotic combos. I'd try to limit the card pool, and perhaps remove the need for mana altogether. Perhaps something like, you can only use spells that have the same CMC or lower as your level. Probably keep it to basic spells:



Just an idea. Stuff like that and limit it to 1 spell per turn? I dunno, just ideas.

~SE++

I'm still tying to grasp what you're going for in regards to 'combat' here.

Are you fighting the bad guys like a D20 encounter? Are you playing spells like you would via a MtG board? Or are you doing some sort of reverse Pokemon set up, where instead of one creature up front and a bench of 5, you have a buffer of creatures up front with the baddie in the back to wittle down?

For combat, yeah, kind of a reverse pokemon with players casting spells like in mtg.

As for the card pool, for testing purposes, it'll be kept standard legal.

You should draw us up an image of the game board to help in visualizing things.

Intriguing concepts for sure though.

The cards I'd like to play:

Akroan Crusader
Blistercoil Weird
Coordinated Assault
Dynacharge
Electrickery
Foundry Street Denizen
4x Mountain
Nyxborn Rollicker
Scouring Sands
Weapon Surge
Young Pyromancer

Are you limited on numbers per deck?

~SE++

For card limits, it's the same as normal games so max of 4 except for basic land.

You also get to only have up to 3 common creatures at the start. The way to get more is through the mercenary and beastiary system(more on that later) or the capture system. You start out with the capture skill, how to capture is like so:

Whenever a creature dies to lethal damage equal to less than 2x thier toughness +1, you may roll a d20 to see if you capture it. Formula is for roll needed is 1 + (power of creature / 2) + CMC of creature * rarity(C = 1x, UC =1.5x, R = 2x, M = 3x). If the amount needed is greater than 20, then the creature can't be captured. There will be general skills that can lower the roll needed(to a minimum of 1).

Oops, gtg. I'll explain more later.

4x Electrickery
5x Mountain
3x Scouring Sands
3x Young Pyromancer

Oh wait, that's uncommon.... hmm....

~SE++

Oh, I almost completely forgot, main creatures count as players for all intents and purposes(meaning you can't simply doom blade them)

P.S. I'll get to the board drawing when I can.

Color Passive skills now. Each color of mana gets it's own set of passive skills you can choose from. Just be careful because you can only have a max of 5 at one time, and for each color you are, you must select at least 1 skill from that color. Each skill also has 3 levels. The levels don't count against your skill count limit but you can only have the highest level of that skill.



These are just the current examples.
Now to level up a skill, just simply fight in battles. Do note that to get the exp point for a skill, it must be used at least once. For triggered skills, it must be triggered at least once during that fight.

No, I haven't abandoned this, just was busy with some other stuff is all.

Well, I got the battlefield view, though it's not pretty.

Anyways, at the start, it basically looks like this, with the main creature(s) and the sub creatures in play already, though they do start with summoning sickness unless the have haste. Now, creatures will do one of 3 things, they'll either attack, use abilities, or do nothing. Now note that if it has an activated ability or something similar, unless it involves destroying another permanent of thier own, they'll never do nothing.

To dertermine what sub creatures do, the GM will choose half of them, rounded up, then rolls a d3(which is basically 1-2 = 1, 3-4 = 2, and 5-6 = 3). Typically, 1 is attack, 2 is ability, and 3 is do nothing. There are exceptions to this though. If the creature can't attack and no other abilties, they can't be chosen for rolls and therefore will always do nothing. If a creature can't attack but has an activated or mana abiltiy, it'll either use that abilty or do nothing(which will also happen if it's unable to use said abilty). All of the results are done during the enemy's start combat step.

Main creature's actions are chosen by the GM themself. The options for them are:

Rally: Each Sub creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Bulwark: Each Sub creature gets +0/+1 until the next enemy turn.
Hide: Until end of turn, whenever the main creature using this is dealt non-combat damage, it's reduced by one.
Attack: The main creature using this attacks as normal just like a sub creature during the combat phase.
Spell: Use a spell(if they have any)

Main creatures at rare and mythic can sometimes have spells with them. The GM rolls a d6 for each main creature at rare or higher. A 1 or 2 means they don't get spells while any other result gives them that many spells. Rares can use common and uncommons only while mythics can use any rarity. Neither can use creature spells. Spells are randomly chosen from a pre-built pile the GM makes. When a spell action is used, the GM takes the spell cards they have and any player can chose one at random. If the card is an instant, the GM may hold it until the start of the next enemy turn, though it if it isn't used by then, it counts as exiled and returned to the pre-built spell pile. Otherwise, it must be played immeditely. In either case, they can be responded to as normal.

Rally and Bulwark can only be used once per battle, even if there is more than one main creature.

If a player attacks with creatures, it's always to be directed at a main creature. Sub creature must always block when possible, though assignments are determined by the GM.



If you have any other questions, just ask.