One aspect of Road Pirates that seems to draw direct inspiration from Magic: The Gathering is how the cards are played. Although I have never played the game, I know many people who have played the game and I generally understand how the game is played. The one big thing that Road Pirates has in common with Magic: The Gathering is the fact that turns are completed through plays of card combinations. This is generally how I imagine turns in Road Pirates will also be played; that is to say, players will take turns performing actions by playing a combination of cards. So, for instance, if the player wanted a particular crew of pirates to board from vehicle A to a nearby vehicle B, then they would play the crew card from vehicle A, the boarding action card from their action deck, and a plank item card from their item deck. In this case, the plank would ensure the player a safer passage, thwarting potential counter actions that the opponent may play. As a counter measure, the opponent could then play the swivel action card in combination with the pirate card driving vehicle B. However, the opponent would not not know the exact attributes of the plank item card until he makes the move. In the next turn, he discovers that this particular plank counters the swivel action and the opponent is forced to let the player from vehicle A to board vehicle B. Of course, these examples are just ideas and there is no guarantee that they will manifest in the final release.
Another thing that appears in Magic: The Gathering that will also very likely appear in Road Pirates are the concept of booster packs. Booster packs are essentially a deck of cards that come in a sealed package which you can add to your collection but you generally don’t know what cards are in the deck. In the same sense, Road Pirates will very likely feature a booster pack deck which the player can purchase with in-game currency to add to their collection of cards. This will help the player in battle when they are attacking enemy convoys, or defending themselves from enemy convoys. This concept is useful in aiding newer players to fight larger, more-powerful convoys then they would have normally been able to take on. So there’s a good chance that booster packs will also be used in Road Pirates.
Although the concepts of cards is a good idea, it’s not a critical part of the game and there’s no promises that cards will be used in the final game. It could be simplified, but eventually we’d like to make a physical card game based on the video game.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss Arkham Horror as a source of inspiration for Road Pirates, particularly in terms of how the cards will be designed.