Hello!

What is this?

Coagulation and I have been making a card game for almost the past 3 years. We recently got our website up (and functioning properly) so you can see the FAQ at http://www.manaspirits.com/faq

Mailing List & Beta Testers

We had a great response from people interested in beta testing - Thank you! We are working very hard to get a full beta testing package out by May 1st.

If you are interested, please sign up here.

Instructions for Review

A big thank you to Trozz for all his help with editing these instructions. He's been a massive help thus far on this project. Thanks dude!

I'm still pretty nervous to put this out publicly. I have been living inside these instructions for the past couple months, and am finally ready to share them.

Mana Spirits Beta Instructions

Overall, I am really happy with the instructions so far, but once you've worked on something for so long you start to lose vision it. That's why I'm asking for feedback

. Please, don't hold back with any feedback. I've been on the internet for decades and can take some criticism.

Some thoughts:

- The text either needs a border or background, tieing everything together.
- Titles need a background or some stylizing.
- We will redo all the images. They are all placeholders for now.
- Empty space will be filled with Coagulation's art. Seriously, he has probably 1000 "hey I made this maybe you can use it" pieces of artwork.
- Pages 11 - 14 are seriously heavy. I need to find some space to get some pictures in there.

Creative Writers

I haven't written a story since grade 4... so I guess 21 years ago? The lore I've written is bad, but at least I know it's bad. If anyone with a passion for creative writing would be able to take a look at it and give me some major feedback, I'd really appreciate it. I'm not ready to share the lore publicly, so I'll send you a private link via PM.

Calgarians?

This is a long shot.... Are there any people from Calgary willing to give playing this a shot? Up until now, I've only ever played with people where I've explained the rules. Now that we have a solid set of instructions, I'd like to just give it to a group and say "go" and see how it goes.

If you are of legal drinking age, I'll provide all drinks for the testing and food.

On Design

I've never made a game before, and I guess since this is still just in progress, I've technically never even made a game! So I can't provide any huge statements about design. But I will say it's very satisfying finding a solution to a year-long problem.

This game has always had a problem with comebacks. Players that level up quickly, get more Mana, allowing more actions, allowing them level up more quickly, etc. You can snowball pretty quickly. This is somewhat tempered by luck - opponents can always draw a lucky card to change the game. But I don't like games being so luck dependent, so there are't too many game changing cards. It's also tempered by collusion - opponents can see who is most powerful and simply gang up on them. I like this solution, and it works, but it doesn't work well in a 2 or 3 player game.

That's why I'm pretty satisfied with this rule. It's something I've been searching for about a year.

I like this because even if you are in last place, you still have meaningful impact on the game. And it can be countered if the winning player simply does not level up. But now they have strategically chosen not to snowball and simply to hold their lead, which was the original goal. I like that it has been accomplished by a player's conscious decision and not a strict comeback rule. It also opens up the opportunity for someone to purposefully fall into last place so they can stack the deck when they level up. I'm not sure if that's even practical... needs testing!

These Events have been the bane of designing this game for about six months, so I'm really happy where they are now.

Art

Coagulation has been sweeping through all the cards, "finalizing" the artwork. I use quotations because he never stops working on something, he just keeps going through and making it better and better even if I say it's good enough lol.

I asked him for his favourite pieces and he linked one -_-... so here are my favourite recent updates!

The new Pirate (Swine) - a Hero

The new Berserker (Drengaar) - a Hero

And his accompanying Ultimate. Hero cards are two-sided, so you flip them over to the more powerful side when you level up enough.

Undead Citadel - a Battlefield

Thunder Flats - a Battlefield

Iron Summit - a Battlefield

Restrain - an Order, and probably the most brutal card art in the game

We believe this will become the lore book cover

Heyoka

Katowice25012 Posts

April 18 2015 21:05 GMT

This art is shaping up really nicely, Coag is doing an awesome job with that. Glad to hear the game is coming along, it looks pretty sweet.

Sn0_Man

Tebellong44238 Posts

April 19 2015 03:53 GMT

I can offer one consenting Calgarian above the legal drinking age (me) if you are interested.

Unfortunately thats about all I can offer but if you are interested, let me know.

PanN

United States2828 Posts

April 19 2015 04:30 GMT

this is so awesome man! like heyoka said, the arts awesome, i gotta sign up for this to try it.

Also i think i met you in league, we should play again soon!

DannyJ

United States5110 Posts

April 19 2015 07:03 GMT

Nice art!

Chill

Calgary25980 Posts

April 19 2015 07:27 GMT

On April 19 2015 13:30 PanN wrote:
this is so awesome man! like heyoka said, the arts awesome, i gotta sign up for this to try it.

Also i think i met you in league, we should play again soon!

Sure, any time

I usually get a game or two in a night.

Falling

Canada11349 Posts

April 19 2015 08:22 GMT

This is probably nitpicky, but the last three sentences of the Disclaimer feel repetitious and I think it's because you ended all three sentences with 'drinking.'

prplhz

Denmark8045 Posts

April 19 2015 11:40 GMT

this coag guy is seriously talented

Nyovne

Netherlands19135 Posts

April 19 2015 13:50 GMT

Really curious after the rulebook, going to have a look in a bit

Chill

Calgary25980 Posts

April 19 2015 14:19 GMT

#10

On April 19 2015 17:22 Falling wrote:
This is probably nitpicky, but the last three sentences of the Disclaimer feel repetitious and I think it's because you ended all three sentences with 'drinking.'

I don't think that's nitpicky. I think it's valid and I actually agree and never noticed before.

Thanks!

Reptilia

Chile913 Posts

April 19 2015 14:39 GMT

#11

its funny how coagulation apprently doesnt like drawing feet! hehe

Coagulation

United States9633 Posts

April 19 2015 16:45 GMT

#12

ankles too man

Tephus

Cascadia1753 Posts

April 19 2015 18:08 GMT

#13

I'm from Calgary, and visit it pretty often (every few months). Maybe next time I will PM you?

Chill

Calgary25980 Posts

April 19 2015 19:50 GMT

#14

On April 19 2015 12:53 Sn0_Man wrote:
I can offer one consenting Calgarian above the legal drinking age (me) if you are interested.

Unfortunately thats about all I can offer but if you are interested, let me know.

On April 20 2015 03:08 Tephus wrote:
I'm from Calgary, and visit it pretty often (every few months). Maybe next time I will PM you?

Definitely interested! I think 4 players would be the ideal test. I can play too.

Tephus maybe let us know when you'll be in town next and we can set something up. I have a few friends that haven't played that I can call on too.

Thanks guys

Odoakar

Croatia1836 Posts

April 19 2015 20:23 GMT

#15

This looks super cool.

Agree on the part with the repeating "drinking", you also have it on page 4, under Drinks.

RaGe

Belgium9947 Posts

April 20 2015 16:05 GMT

#16

Holy shit Coagulation. The art gets better with every blog u make. Really impressed.

emperorchampion

Canada9496 Posts

April 20 2015 16:29 GMT

#17

The rules look pretty good, I find they are quite clear! Some of my thoughts:

- Under the events on pg. 12, the last place player third bullet: "... the player that is furthest away, clockwise". Does this mean the person to your right, or the person "across the table"? The wording is a little unclear to me.

- I think that the heros should be introduced earlier, possibly right after the game set up is shown, especially with all of these references to Sera. Maybe then you could put the hero abilities right after you have abilities and spells section. Hero descriptions could be a bit longer.

- I think the rules as a whole should be more well defined, something like: Introduction, Setup, Cards, and Gameplay. As you mentioned, the inclusion of sections/headers will make this much more clear. I found that there was nothing to separate the cards and gameplay aspects in the rules, which was somewhat confusing.

The game looks fun, looking forward to release!! Wish I was still in Cowtown :/