LCG Exposé
Part Two: Design Notes
by Nate French
Last week, Line Coordinator Morgan Stana kicked off a series of articles we're calling the "LCG Exposé" with a fantastic "beginner's overview" to the Core Set. Before she does likewise with other aspects of the LCG, I'd like to take a step back for a moment and give you a bit of my own perspective on what the overall design of the LCG is all about.
As I write, the Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game is literally coming to life before my eyes. This week, I am working with Graphic Designer Andrew Navaro and Editor Mark O'Connor as we make our final passes over the files for both the Core Set and six (that's right, six!) follow up Asylum Packs, giving them that last coat of polish and love before we send them all off for international translation. In my spare time (yeah right!) I'm working with Line Coordinator Morgan Stana on some sweet tournament and organized play initiatives. We also just got back from a trip to Games Plus in Chicago for one of the U.S. Regional events, where we were able to spend the afternoon with a wonderful group of players. (I need to get out and meet more of you guys!) With all that going on this week, I felt that the stars were right for me to tap into the perspective that so much immediacy can provide, and try to share some of my thoughts with you.
A New Beginning
One key point that cannot be emphasized enough when talking about the LCG model is that it is, in every way possible, a new beginning for the Call of Cthulhu card game. But even that statement does not do the concept enough justice. The LCG model is a new beginning in its own right: it is the birth of an entirely new category of gaming. What we're dealing with here is a new monster, a new type of game that combines the metagame, strategic depth, and customization of the CCG with the immersion potential, accessibility, convenience, and pocket-book assurance of the board game. On top of that ambitious combo, we've mixed in the regular shot in the arm of new monthly content that serial comic fans are used to, and presto: the LCG is born.
When working on the design of both the CoC LCG Core Set and its follow up Asylum Packs, keeping this perspective in the center of my thinking was critical. I seized upon the idea that the CoC CCG was merely the prequel to the Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game, and that, with the pending release of the Core Set, we're finally about to experience "Chapter 1," where Call of Cthulhu and its cousin, A Game of Thrones, take their first, intrepid, trail-blazing steps into a new gaming frontier.
Loyalty
Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about keywords.
Instead, a few words of appreciation need to be said for our loyal Call of Cthulhu fans. Without you, this game never could have weathered the storm of the conversion to the fixed Asylum Pack format, and without your willingness to embrace that format and keep playing the game, we may never have noticed the nucleus of the LCG model that was waiting there, all along. Because you kept playing, we at FFG realized that we had a great game in the Call of Cthulhu card game, we realized that we needed to find a way to keep this game alive, and we realized that we needed to expose a larger audience to this game that had found such a loyal playing community. By eliminating the blind purchase model that has created such a market stigma against collectible games, we feel that we have seized upon a format that can re-energize this game and bring in new players for years to come.
The Core Set
Many new players are going to have their first experience with the game through the Core Set. Without rehashing too much of what Morgan said last week, this set is simply a gold mine in terms of catching a potential new player's attention, and then keeping it. Between the stunning game board and the beautifully sculpted Cthulhu playing pieces (large domain markers and smaller success tokens), the immersion factor for this game is at an all-time high, and it's going to turn more heads at shows than any other card game on the market. It's the kind of game that "game night" hosts and game store owners are going to want to pull out and show off, and these components will be a demoer's dream come true at conventions. It’s well nigh impossible to walk by a game of Call of Cthulhu being played with the Core Set components and not stop to see what’s going on.
Once new players are drawn in, they've got to be hooked by the depth and re-playability of the game itself. The design challenge here was figuring out how to convey this depth within the confines of the Core Set. Morgan mentioned that there are 21 different deck combinations in the Core Set alone; what this means is that all 7 factions are equally represented, and that a "deck" can be built right out of the box by combining any two of these factions with a small (7 card) set of neutrals. So one game might be Cthulhu/Syndicate against Agency/Hastur, and the next might be Yog/Agency against Miskatonic/Shub, and the next might be Syndicate/Miskatonic against Yog/Shub and… I'm sure you get the picture. The possibilities are practically endless, and this is before you've even cracked your first Asylum Pack or looked at a 3-color deck.
The Cards
It's called a Living Card Game for a reason, and as cool as the board and the pieces and the features of the Core Set are, the heart of the CoC LCG remains the cards. By now, you may have noticed a couple things that are different about the LCG cards (yes, one of our online friends beat us to the punch this week), and I wanted to examine some of these changes, and share a little perspective on that front.
The biggest change, and one that we thought long and hard about before pulling the trigger and making it happen, was the card back. As you can see, the old card back wore its status as a collectible card game on its sleeve. Unfortunately, this statement is at odds with our goal of re-inventing Call of Cthulhu as a trailblazer in an entirely new category of games. How could we possibly market the game as a “Living Card Game” if the cardbacks all said "Collectible Card Game?" Of course, we couldn't, and we knew that if we were going to do this right, the card backs had to change.
All that being said, this was not an easy decision for us to make. As a card game player, I prefer to "keep it real" and not use card sleeves. I move through decks faster than I move through cereal, and I eat a lot of cereal. For tournament play, the need to constantly re-sleeve cards frustrates me to no end. At the same time, I understand the reason (card shaving) for why cards should be sleeved at tournaments, and I do appreciate the protection they offer in casual play. (You know, that one friend who makes you cringe every time he touches one of your cards? That's right. Him.) So while the change is admittedly frustrating to those of us who don't like sleeves, it was a necessary bridge that needed to be crossed to move the CoC LCG into a better future. I also want to assure you that Fantasy Flight Games has no intention of abandoning the classic CoC CCG card pool, and that CoC LCG cards will always be compatible with their predecessors. Loyalty cuts both ways, and we are committed to remaining loyal to our past, even as we move towards a new, exciting future.
The other significant changes to the cards are the white borders on the card front, which makes wear & tear "scuffing" along the edges less noticeable, and a small change on the card type (Character/Support/Event) bubble, that makes the game easier to produce internationally. (It has to do with printing translated versions of the cards.) These changes were made primarily to make the game more attractive and more producible.
To Commit or Not to Commit?
After making the decision to change the look of the cards, the next big question was "when?" We could either wait until the Core Set came out next fall, or we could do it immediately, with Asylum Packs 5 & 6, this summer. After looking at the pros and cons of both options, we decided that, in the long run, it would be better for Asylum Packs 5 and 6 to be fully realized parts of the LCG. So we'll have our first taste of the future this summer, with the release of Asylum Pack 5, The Mountains of Madness. And while we're on the subject of committing or not committing, take a look at these Polar events, and consider their effect on the story phase. Until then… Cthulhu awaits!
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