I'm trying to come up with multiplayer ideas and mechanics that is meant for a team play format and makes it feel collaborative or interactive and engaging. One simple way to do this is simply through cards that refer to and effect "you and your teammates". But I'd like to try to explore beyond that. Here's one shot at a collaborative team-based mechanic:
Ritualize (Your teammates may spend mana in addition to you to pay for this spell's casting cost.)
I'm not sure if this is the best wording or version and such an idea may open rules ambiguity in how it would work, but it simply states the intention. Maybe a different route would be something like:
Collaborate [Cost] (Your teammates may pay [Cost] when you cast this spell,)
If this spell's collaborate cost was payed, [Effect].
This idea works more like a kicker that your teammates can pay rather than as them contributing to casting the spell in general.
Maybe an approach for a creature mechanic would be something like:
Teamup (This creature may attack during each of your teammate's attack steps.)
Maybe this is a little OP or confusing?
Just brainstorming here and looking for input and inspiration.
Team Play Mechanics
-
Krishnath
Mechanical Dragon - Posts: 3565
- Joined: 4 years ago
- Pronoun: he / him
- Location: A cave somewhere in Scandinavia
Of those, Collaborate seems like the most fun and least confusing. It basically rewards players for helping their team mates (much like assist), but works differently. I could imagine something like:
Ayula's Beckoning
Sorcery
Collaborate (Your teammates may pay when you cast this spell.)
Create two 2/2 green Bear creature tokens.
If the Collaborate cost was paid, each of your teammates creates a 2/2 green Bear creature token.
Collaborate makes the card very playable in all "team" formats, such as Two-Headed Giant, and Emperor, but without it feeling over powered. Basically, if one (or more) of your teammates decide to power up the spell, your teammates also get a benefit from the spell. If the cost is generic mana, it should simply do something the card already does, but to a lesser degree, if the cost is off color (such as for example "Collaborate " on a green card), the effect could be something off color.
Of course, you should define in the rules (not in the reminder text), if the cost can be paid only once, or more than once, and if your team mates can split the cost.
Ayula's Beckoning
Sorcery
Collaborate (Your teammates may pay when you cast this spell.)
Create two 2/2 green Bear creature tokens.
If the Collaborate cost was paid, each of your teammates creates a 2/2 green Bear creature token.
Collaborate makes the card very playable in all "team" formats, such as Two-Headed Giant, and Emperor, but without it feeling over powered. Basically, if one (or more) of your teammates decide to power up the spell, your teammates also get a benefit from the spell. If the cost is generic mana, it should simply do something the card already does, but to a lesser degree, if the cost is off color (such as for example "Collaborate " on a green card), the effect could be something off color.
Of course, you should define in the rules (not in the reminder text), if the cost can be paid only once, or more than once, and if your team mates can split the cost.
Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
The Commander Legacy Project, Come say hello and give your thoughts.
Like to read? Love books and want to recommend one to your fellow forum users? Go here.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
The Commander Legacy Project, Come say hello and give your thoughts.
Like to read? Love books and want to recommend one to your fellow forum users? Go here.
-
SecretInfiltrator
- Posts: 5797
- Joined: 4 years ago
- Pronoun: they / them
- Location: The Shattered Realm
Compare and contrast Assist from Battlebond and sidekick from Kolbahan.
Considering assist vs. ritualize, I like that assist requires you to pay for your own colored mana - it keeps you honest both by keeping you from risking off-color cards and making tapping out not irrelevant for that spell. Assist also works in non-team multiplayer with a little politics. Ritualize's defining upside is that it allows your whole team to pitch in rather than just one player. That's an upside to the player, but a mixed bag for card design/development since the number of players on a team now can determine how quickly a spell can be ramped out by their combined mana.
Considering sidekick vs. collaborate you again choose "teammates" over "another player" which makes this only relevant in team formats. The reminder text is not entirely unambiguous on whether each teammate is allowed to pay the collaborate cost, or whether they can work together - similarly to ritualize. I think the off-color sidekick/collaborate is definitely the most interesting idea since you can have sidekick in a color you don't even have in your deck.
I have played with sidekick-like ideas as well and often like some equivalent of "If a player collaborates with you, you and that player each create a 2/2 green Bear creature token." (or "for each" if you want to allow that). That escalates a little less severely than "each teammate".
A cooperative format without opponents OTOH already breaks Minds Aglow, so what is the worst that could happen? :D
---
Re: Teamup - that mechanic only really makes sense if your collaborative format doesn't already use the shared turn option. Emperor doesn't, but has a restricted attack range, so that could be awkward.
---
My mechanic proposal:
Emulation <cost>(When you cast this spell from your hand, each teammate may cast a copy of it for the emulation cost.)
---
Battlebond had some great structure in making enemy-color partner pairs, but making it easier to build ally-colored decks, so you would draft the partners together, but split them between your decks. Some twist like that can really inform your choices, e. g. making it so that players cannot share colors between decks or have incentive to each play monocolor, but also cover all colors among them etc.
Considering assist vs. ritualize, I like that assist requires you to pay for your own colored mana - it keeps you honest both by keeping you from risking off-color cards and making tapping out not irrelevant for that spell. Assist also works in non-team multiplayer with a little politics. Ritualize's defining upside is that it allows your whole team to pitch in rather than just one player. That's an upside to the player, but a mixed bag for card design/development since the number of players on a team now can determine how quickly a spell can be ramped out by their combined mana.
Considering sidekick vs. collaborate you again choose "teammates" over "another player" which makes this only relevant in team formats. The reminder text is not entirely unambiguous on whether each teammate is allowed to pay the collaborate cost, or whether they can work together - similarly to ritualize. I think the off-color sidekick/collaborate is definitely the most interesting idea since you can have sidekick in a color you don't even have in your deck.
I have played with sidekick-like ideas as well and often like some equivalent of "If a player collaborates with you, you and that player each create a 2/2 green Bear creature token." (or "for each" if you want to allow that). That escalates a little less severely than "each teammate".
A cooperative format without opponents OTOH already breaks Minds Aglow, so what is the worst that could happen? :D
---
Re: Teamup - that mechanic only really makes sense if your collaborative format doesn't already use the shared turn option. Emperor doesn't, but has a restricted attack range, so that could be awkward.
---
My mechanic proposal:
Emulation <cost>(When you cast this spell from your hand, each teammate may cast a copy of it for the emulation cost.)
---
Battlebond had some great structure in making enemy-color partner pairs, but making it easier to build ally-colored decks, so you would draft the partners together, but split them between your decks. Some twist like that can really inform your choices, e. g. making it so that players cannot share colors between decks or have incentive to each play monocolor, but also cover all colors among them etc.
-
JessWill
Bad %$#% gamer - Posts: 165
- Joined: 3 years ago
- Pronoun: she / her
- Location: Rocky River, Ohio
- Contact:
I'm out of the loop on some newer sets and cards and didn't know about Assist, which is similar to my intention with Ritualize but limited to both one player and the colorless or X portion of a card's cost. Maybe one way to limit Ritualize would be to tie it to colorless or X as well. In either case, I can see how letting the whole team pitch in increases the power curve and makes things more complicated,
With Collaborate or Sidekick I kind of figured the ambiguity of the details can be cleared up in rules text/errata simply. Maybe the best rules text clarification would be to simply make it work with one teammate at a time, but the option for multiple teammates definitely expands it a little more than what sidekick does and makes it a little easier to pull off.
With both Collaborate vs Sidekick and Ritualize vs Assist, the tradeoff is that the former does allow for multiple teammates to contribute, but it doesn't apply to non-team formats, while the latter applies to non-team formats but only allows one player at a time to contribute. So the question comes down to if the former is practical or if I should just default to the latter mechanics. The latter mechanics certainly are a bit simpler and practical, and the question comes down to "is collaboration from multiple teammates worth it?".
Emulate seems like a cool and potentially powerful ability, though at first I'm not sure it would 100% work as a mechanic for all colors so much as for /. Perhaps if it's colored coded to allied off-colors that cohere with the card's effect, it could be used with mixed colors. For example:
Natural Remedy
Instant
You gain 3 life.
Emulate (When you cast this spell from your hand, each teammate may cast a copy of it for its emulate cost.)
Another mechanic I've played with in the past, which isn't in itself or obviously a multiplayer or team play thing, is:
Unbound (This permanent untaps during each player's untap step.)
It occurs to me that this and similar effects (such as lands untapping during each player's untap step) would be convenient to a team play based set, especially with other mechanics involving spending mana during your teammate's turn. Without available mana on another's turn, things like Sidekick and Assist don't fully function. So it doesn't hurt to have something like this kind of effect prominent in the set as well.
With Collaborate or Sidekick I kind of figured the ambiguity of the details can be cleared up in rules text/errata simply. Maybe the best rules text clarification would be to simply make it work with one teammate at a time, but the option for multiple teammates definitely expands it a little more than what sidekick does and makes it a little easier to pull off.
With both Collaborate vs Sidekick and Ritualize vs Assist, the tradeoff is that the former does allow for multiple teammates to contribute, but it doesn't apply to non-team formats, while the latter applies to non-team formats but only allows one player at a time to contribute. So the question comes down to if the former is practical or if I should just default to the latter mechanics. The latter mechanics certainly are a bit simpler and practical, and the question comes down to "is collaboration from multiple teammates worth it?".
Emulate seems like a cool and potentially powerful ability, though at first I'm not sure it would 100% work as a mechanic for all colors so much as for /. Perhaps if it's colored coded to allied off-colors that cohere with the card's effect, it could be used with mixed colors. For example:
Natural Remedy
Instant
You gain 3 life.
Emulate (When you cast this spell from your hand, each teammate may cast a copy of it for its emulate cost.)
Another mechanic I've played with in the past, which isn't in itself or obviously a multiplayer or team play thing, is:
Unbound (This permanent untaps during each player's untap step.)
It occurs to me that this and similar effects (such as lands untapping during each player's untap step) would be convenient to a team play based set, especially with other mechanics involving spending mana during your teammate's turn. Without available mana on another's turn, things like Sidekick and Assist don't fully function. So it doesn't hurt to have something like this kind of effect prominent in the set as well.
