My Initial Thoughts on the My Little Pony Collectable Card Game · 10:05pm Apr 5th, 2014
The ancient philosopher Pythagoras held that: that which is real is defined by that which can be enumerated. Perhaps it is for that reason that trading cards didn't have any meaning for me until they were turned into a game, then they became an obsession.
I desire to make the people, places, things, and events in the cards more real. The purposeful numbers and fact that one could not possess all the cards instantaneously, greatly increased this sense of realism, but the big eye opener for me came with the Weatherlight expansion to Magic the Gathering. In that box was a booklet explaining the story of that expansion, and every card within was a snapshot of that story. This turned every game into a story building event where every play through had a different ending.
Card games hit a new orgasmic high when Neopets came out with a card game. Neopets has always been heavy on stories and art, so not only were there new stories and characters, but also new art to open a greater window into the world of Neopia.
With that in mind, my primary focus on the MLP CCG was the art. However, after opening this booster box, the artwork for the game appears to have been taken exclusively from the show itself. This turns me off for the same reason that non-game trading cards do – there is nothing new. There are a few pictures I don't recognize, but it is hard to tell whether they are new, or from a scene I forgot.
Now, about the MLP CCG specifically:
The game has some fun mechanics. For starters, the players are taking on the role of one of the characters from the show, and face problems cards instead of each other. This makes me happy because it encourages working toward something instead of against someone, but on the same note, I have seen many cards that interfere with the opponent's attempts to solve a problem. I can't help but feel that this negates the non-confrontational mechanic, on the other hoof, however, if I'm playing a mane character, someone has to play the “bad guy”... So each player has to play the other player's “bad guy”. I just wish this would have been explicitly stated in the rule book, because even at my age, it is not hard to get into the mindset of being a wonderful friendly pony, and then losing the friend across the table because of taking their actions personally.
The game currently has six power types, one for each of the elements of harmony. Each power type has a different style of play, for example: Yellow (kindness) cards (generally) accumulate more power to solve a problem the more of them there are at that problem where as White (generosity) cards focus on adding more victory points when a problem is solved.
I ordered a sealed booster box from the factory, and recently had time to look through them. Out of the whole 432 cards, I did not acquire any “mane character” cards. Since a “mane character” is required to play at all, this means a player must buy a starter deck. This does not make me happy. In terms of game design, this aspect is very limiting, and forces players to buy another starter deck if they want to attempt playing another element as their main element. Also, the mane character is supposed to be the character whom the player is role playing. It's not that I have any other character that I would particularly like to play, but I have met some adamant fans of other characters who probably feel that this action is forcing their favorites to take another step into the background.
Each pack has exactly one rare and three uncommons, and may also contain a foil card or an ultra rare card. Foil cards are copies of other cards in the game, some of which are rare and others common. The ultra rare cards are appropriately named, because there were only three in the whole box.
Based on a whole box, one can safely assume that the ratios per pack are as follows:
Commons – 6-7:1
Uncommons – 3:1
Rares – 1:1
Foils – 1:4
Ultra Rares – 1:12
In my personal opinion (and for game designers reading this), the game suffers the unnecessary complication of having three devisions (decks) of cards. The problem deck is a good thing, and the main deck is obviously necessary, but since the mane character is also separate from both of these, even though a player can only have one per game, it counts as its own deck. Expert organizers, and long term gamers will most likely put each stack in different colored deck protectors, but since this game has a starting age of ten, many players probably won't have the money or experience to do that, thus, set up for the game may become obnoxious for those players. Additionally, since the problem deck is separate from the main deck, I really don't understand why the backing for these cards weren't made slightly different. If they were, it would be easier to separate them by the backing if they were accidentally shuffled (dropped on the floor).
Anyway, I like the game, and I hope that everypony reading this will help keep this game in production. Obviously, doing this means buying cards, but it also means teaching others how to play and playing at your local gaming stores and pony meets, even if you have to ask a friend to go there with you just to show others that this game does have people who play it and is not just something that hangs in that bizarrely deserted part of Target.
That was an amazingly thorough analysis of the MLP card game. It sounds a great deal akin to the Pioneer animation adventure card game, which also had the issue of antagonism through being each other's 'Big Bad'.
Back then, I came up with a widely used variant of the rules that was eventually praised by Pioneer. Damned if I can remember it very well, it was a long time ago. But one thing I can recall about my variant rules was a means to make the game less confrontational.
If the backs of the cards are the same, then one possibility is to forgo the usual deck building 'Magic The Gathering' structure, and shuffle the Problem and Enemy (or Hindrance, or whatever the antagonist cards are called) into a common deck which all players draw from equally. Indeed, consider the possibility of each player starting with a Mane character, or characters, and having only One Big Draw Pile with everything in it! The game then would become like a Euro game in some ways: the goal is to 'collect' a certain number of solved problems first, making the game a race.
Or, the players could work cooperatively to solve N problems before X 'Big Bads' show up through normal card drawing. Sort of the 'Pandemic' game mechanic, there.
These notions might even work if the card backs are different. House Rules, original rules, can entirely change the flavor of a game, and sometimes can be better than the original game.
Ah! I found the rules I invented for Ani-Mayhem - the Pioneer card game! Gosh that was a looooong time ago.
Anyway, great review and I enjoyed learning about the MLP card game!
1986144 Thank you for the compliment. I was afraid my post was too ramble-y.
I never thought about playing the game with a different structure. I'm pretty sure this is a leftover from childhood – the people around me were very unwilling to do something differently after they had learned their first way.
I'm not sure how many Euro games I have played, but Settlers of Catan is a popular one in my group. We play with the house rule of getting all the resources from the rolled number instead of picking one. It makes for a shorter and easier game, but I don't think I've played any Euro card games. ^^;;
I blame this stagnant city for my never knowing about Ani-Mayhem before, but reading over your rules, the first thing that comes to mind are some of the mechanics of Munchkin crossed with a board game. It makes me wonder if Steve Jackson didn't borrow some of the Munchkin rules from you. Either way, it sounds like a fun game geared for internal role playing.
Whenever you have the time, I would love to talk game design with you. I cannot say that I have ever actually created a game (worth playing), but I love thinking about the way the different parts of a game work together.