So the game that I chose to deconstruct is an old card game first created in 2004 and got Kickstarted in 2013 (which failed and did not get funded by the way) by Slugfest Games. The version that we printed out and played is the new version (a work in progress, so only core mechanics with no artwork) that is reworked to be played in a shorter time period.
Core Mechanics:
Each player has 20 Chi which is the indication for the players health points. The main objective is to simply defeat the other players and reduce their Chi down to zero. Players actions are dependent on their base cards which act as a value for their attack and defense. Players have to attack the others and the opponent has to either defend or attack. Each turn a player must play a base card and they have the option to play other cards including Enhancements and Stances to boost the base values. The players are allowed to use as many enhancement cards as they want if applicable but it excludes cards that have the same name. Finishing moves are also able to be used at the end of any action as an extra component. At the end of the turn Cleanup is also applied where the base weapon cards and enhancements are removed from play unless stated otherwise by the card as an attacker. Defenders then simply return their cards to their hands (unless stated) after Cleanup.
Space:
Like most card games this one does not have a board or field that the cards have to be placed on. Any surface with empty space would suffice as the playing area of the game. The only real requirement stated by the rules involves the placement of three cards that are placed in the middle referred to as Yellow Punch cards. An additional setup that could be used is a mat that is used to count the players Chi (or hit points) and tokens of some sort could be used to count down each hit taken (recommended to use pennies). The playing space is a discrete two dimensional area in the sense that your cards that are placed onto the playing field are grouped by the card types. Base, Enhancements, and Stances are different types that the cards played will be grouped in. There are no visual indications of the boundaries on the playing field but is implied that the playing space is separated by the different types of cards that could be played. Apart from the main playing field the other areas include the main deck and the discarded pile.
Objects, Attributes, and States:
Kung Fu Fighting is a card game that is essentially very simple to set up due to it only containing the cards used to play the game. As mentioned above there is physical paper or board to lay down to use as a playing field so only "space" is needed to be able to play. Since the game does not restrict how the player counts down their Chi it is possible to either use a physical token of some sort or just mark off the Chi counter from the player mat. The cards itself are separated into three different types as mentioned before. Base, Enhancements, and Stances. Base cards are essentially your main action cards that state your initial status (hence why there are three "Punch" base cards on the field in case your hand does not have a base card). Base cards are also broken into weapons and non-weapons. These are basically the different types of bases that could be used (explained later with the conditions)
All the cards will include at least one of the attributes from an attack value, defense value, stance type, or spirit icons. Some of these cards may also contain special effects on them which could be evoked (such as a finishing move card that gains Chi, falls under enhancements). In addition there are also conditions that could be applied if the cards that are used follow the same attribute condition. For example if the other player uses a hand base card to attack, it is possible that a defense card could have a condition where its base defense will go up if the incoming attack is a hand. What this essentially means is that the state of the cards are dynamic and change depending on what card it is being played against.
Enhancement cards are cards that will add additional values to your base card statuses. Essentially working as a upgrade card. These cards are usually include stance specific conditions which means that it could gain even more stats when the correct stance is applied. To add onto that stance cards could simply be thought of as an element that could be added to your base cards that allow a larger variety of enhancement cards to be played. All of these can contain conditions that will boost specific values as shown in the image below. As mentioned above these conditions then change the state of the card to dynamic to allow a more diverse play style.
and your stances are:
Other special icons include things such as Spirit which adds an extra value dependent on the action (attack or defense) and finishing moves which consists of special effects.
Actions:
The three main actions of this game is to either attack, defend, or counterattack. Another way to think about it is that attacking is something that all the players must do and leads to the reaction of the other players, to either defend or counterattack. An important thing to remember is that to be able to start any form of action the player must play a base card for an action to happen. It simply acts as a template with initial statuses that may be modified later with Enhancement cards and Stances.
Once a player attacks the options that the opponent has is to defend or counterattack (only if their card allows them to). Defending and counterattacking essentially works exactly the same as an attack in the sense that you are using a base and applying extra values or conditions to it by using Enhancement cards or Stances. The core mechanics behind attacking, defending, and counterattacking are basically all the same making it very simple to execute.
No artwork on the test version!
Rules:
The rules of this game is pretty simple as the mechanics of the card themselves are not too complex. The main operation rule of the game is for the player to defeat the others by depleting their Chi to 0. This is done by utilizing the cards drawn. The foundation rules are essentially what allows the Enhancement and Stance cards to be used. These then lead into the written rules of the game as it simply states that a base card must be played for any action to occur. In terms of the game mechanics, it all occurs after the base card is played.
The official rules then state the limitations of things such as the amount of cards in your hand and such. This goes along the lines of all players having 7 cards in their hands, they can draw at the start of the turn, they may also discard any amount of cards and redraw them back to 7 (with a special case that allows 8 total cards), and how any amount of enhancement cards could be used as long as it is not a duplicate. These are then the basic rules that then allow the game to be balanced and regulated by not having too many cards or things of that sort.
Skills:
This is a game that requires more tactical play than anything physical. How well a player plays is based off their composition of cards. The rule that allows the players to discard then redraw allows them to have a chance to strategize how they want to play (in the sense that they could lean towards a specific stance, base card type, etc...). The portion of the game that heavily focuses on skill is how a player chooses to use their cards. To either save it for defense or pool everything to attack. An example would be to use certain enhancements before getting a stance too boost the statuses even further.
Chance:
Luck is something that actually affects this game quite a bit just like most card games. The luck of the draw is essentially the main thing that it applies to. The main thing that allows a successful play is the right composition of cards, e.g. a base card boosted with a stance, and enhancement that uses the same stance. This is something unavoidable but definitely something that could be balanced as one issue that could easily be pointed out is that the more players there are the less chance you have to get the right Stance and Enhancement that works together in synergy. The biggest flaw in this game is with the Enhancement cards and Cleanup. From what we went through we are able to stack Enhancements and that creates a ridiculous boost in the base stats. It would have made sense if the trade off of that was the cards used get discarded but according to the Cleanup rules of the defender they will get their cards back (unless specified). An easy fix for this to reduce the chance factor of stacking Enhancement cards would then simply be to limit the amount of Enhancements that could be played or fix the Cleanup rules.
As a bonus here is the Old game vs. New game.
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