Designing A First
The first.We've all had them. That first day of high school. First girlfriend. First drive by yourself. That first alcoholic beverage. The first time you let your sister paint your fingernails (it made her happy, okay!) Some firsts are more memorable than others. For instance my first kiss was with a girl nam.... who liv....?(I was seven.) Meanwhile, I still think about my first girlfriend, sometimes without even wanting to!
The first one is also almost always the best. Compare the first Star Wars trilogy to the second one (and eventually the third.) The general public says it sucks. That you shouldn't even watch it. I'm usually the devils advocate for these things, and ask what would've happened if they were reversed? Logically, everyone would have loved it!(I realize that last sentence is a fallacy, but I can't argue about Star Wars for the whole article.)
As I type this with my black and pink fingernails, I'm wondering what I want my first set to be about. What are my design goals? What is the feeling I'm trying to evoke? How will this block be different, yet not game changing? What are the mechanics, and how do they help make the set feel? What will the block be remembered for? Does my Ex still play Magic?
Excluding the latter, these are all questions a designer wants to be asking themselves when starting a new project. Especially design goals. Starting off with out any design goals for your set will create a whole lot of un-cohesiveness and disparity. So that's were we'll start.
1. To create a feeling of enslavement and loss of control. On this plane Humans aren't just the most populated race, their also in complete control. They've nearly wiped out the other races and enslaved those who remained alive. Basically, humans are racist.
So just like how Innastrad invoked a sense of fear and dread into the players who played, I want players to feel like they don't have complete control. To feel enthralled, oppressed, restrained, tyrannized, and subjugated. I'm not sure how well this will transmute unto paper, and even if done successfully players might not appreciate this feeling. I will experiment with this material and keep you all enlightened.
2. To give players a mission, an adventure, a classic D&D feel. This whole setting started off as a campaign idea for D&D. It was going to be an epic year (or two) long quest to free the realm from an oppressive government, which in turn was controlled by an elite power hungry group. For a D&D group though, you kinda need people. Which I didn't have. So this is my attempt to transmute that story/idea to Magic.
Zendikar was supposed to be the "D&D" set, but it didn't seem generic enough. It wasn't the "classic" RPG setting. To be honest, it doesn't seem reasonable to try and put D&D into Magic. They're two different types of medium, with vastly different styles. So this goal will be a little more looser than the others and not quite as strict. I do have one mechanic that plays off of this idea, though, so there's a new hope.
3. Bring back the Dwarfs. Dwarf style. This one's a little more selfish. Dwarf's are my all time favorite tribe ever. When I was a child and dreamt that I would spend all my money on Warhammer (a fantasy war miniature game) it was the dwarven army that I was drawn to. They were just so stoic and revenge seeking and ale chugging and grudge holding and beard producing and non grammar caring and to the point kind of guys you could appreciate. (If I was a dwarf, would my Ex still be alive?)
I know I'm not the only designer to feel this way, as I've seen plenty of custom sets with dwarves. Dwarves have been gone for a long time, though, and deserve more than just an arbitrary appearance in a set. THEY ARE DWARFS!! They've been shoved in the closet for to long, and are breaking out with vengeance and several tomes full of grudges. People want to make a dwarven deck, with so many of the avenging vindictive guys it'll make the player No-Shave November all year long. The block should have the sign post:
!!!!!!!!!!!!DWARVES ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Dwarven King by mictones |
With these design goals, we'll be able to keep our designs narrow and focused. We can always ask "Does this fit in one of my goals?" If it doesn't, then it really shouldn't be in our set. I will expand more on this in future articles, such as next time when I will be going over some possible mechanics for my custom set, henceforth code named: The Dwarven Menace.
Excuse me, as I need to go to the alchemy table and make some nail polish remover
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