Now combine elements! New Features + New PnP! news - Grimslingers

Howdy fellow Duelists!

I've added some significant features to High Moon!

Anyone who has downloaded High Moon prior to this post, please re-download the print-and-play version! It now includes an 8x10 printable file for you to create a box for the cards, and a totally revamped rulebook and now supports up to 4 players!

THE CHANGES

1. Before the start of each round, BEFORE player turn order has been established, you may play an element defense.

2. You may now combine up to 2 elements offensively or defensively.

3. Damage has been increased from 1 (2 if amplified) to 2 (4 if amplified).

4. Standard/Recommend HP's have been decreased.

5. Much needed clarification has been added to the rulebook, it should be MUCH clearer now to understand the sequence of events, and how everything works.

WHY YOU CHANGE!?!?

In my last article I discussed my "Good, Better, Best" design philsophy whilst stating that I thought I had reached the "best" game mechanics for High Moon.

The changes I had outlined in that article are still in effect. However there were a few lingering issues I needed to fix.

1. Duels took too long. (duels are meant to be quick!)

2. I wanted to be able have players combine elements (I'm a big Magicka fan!) and had toyed with the mechanic but never perfected it, it always over complicated the game.

3. There were some situations that, no matter how you played your cards, you were screwed. I wanted players to be able to turn the tables using strategy at almost any time.

4. Going first was far better than going second. I had often said that going first or second was equally as good, just different but that just wasn't the case.

Alright so, I want to go into greater details about these issues and how the newly added features remedy them.

1. In order to make duels go quicker, I increased the amount of damage being done and lowered HP's. The game now feels much more "life and death" when every turn, though if you make a mistake it's not necessarily the end of you, there is room for error.

The standard HP for a 2 player duel is now 8. Essentially, if given the opportunity you can kill another player in 2 moves by combining elements to do super attacks, or 4 moves with regular attacks. Before, it would take 3-4 ROUNDS to get your opponent down to 1 HP from 10. About 45 minutes was a typical length for duels. Now it's down to 10-15 minutes (of pure fun!!).

2. Combining Elements. I had played with this idea for awhile but could never figure out how to make it work with my game mechanics. It ended up being a "kill 2 birds with one stone" as the mechanics I developed helped solve balance issues with going first or second, as well as making duels quicker.

In previous versions of High Moon, there was no shield that could block everything which was fine unless you had 1 HP left and it was your turn to go first in a round. Your best option was to play an Earth Defense but it didn't really matter, as your opponent would just play Air Offense (bypasses Earth shields) and kill you. Therefore no matter what you played, you WOULD die. At times you could heal yourself only to inevitably die a few turns later (there was absolutely no way to gain an upper hand even if you went first or played your cards perfectly). Power cards remedied this a little but those are very dependent on the character. I needed a solution that worked for everyone.

By allowing players to combine elements you can create defenses that block everything. These defenses still have their vices and can be destroyed (or bypasses with Powers) but the result is it gives players the lee-way to go from near death to decent health. Or the opportunity to be offensive and kill their foe in turn.

Combining offensive elements allowed for players to do more damage and FEEL more powerful. Combining elements in general added a very fun game mechanic and gave more depth to the overall strategic gameplay of High Moon.

So just how does it work? I'll paste an excerpt from the new rulebook here:

3. On your turn, you may do one of the following:

a) Pass. You cannot pass if it is the first turn of the round. If one player passes the opposing player(s) cannot pass until it is the player’s turn that passed again. You cannot pass twice in a row. Passing can be a very strategic move if done in the right situation.

b) Attack. Play up to two Elements offensively.

1 Element Offense: If you are playing a single Offense card, apply the effects of the offense after following the order of events as outlined in list item “4”.

2 Element Offenses: You may combine any Element Offense with it’s weakness to do double damage.

Example: Aqua Offense + Electricity Offense = 4 damage.

When combining elements, the Element effects of only one card can be applied. You may choose which to apply. You cannot combine Element Offenses that are not each others’ weaknesses (therefore the combinations are water+lightning, water+ice, air+fire). Apply the chosen effects of the offense after following the order of events as outlined in list item “4”.

c) Defend. Play up to two Elements defensively.

1 Element Defense: If you are playing a single Defense card, apply the defense effects of the card immediately.

2 Element Defenses: You may combine two elements to create a stronger Defense. When combining defensive Elements, if one of the defenses is blocking the weakness(es) of another, it removes the weakness from the one.

Example: Vapor Defense + Terra Defense would result in the Vapor Defense no longer being weak to Heat offenses.

When you combine two Elements, you may only apply the Element effects of one card. You may choose which one to apply immediately after the cards are played.

A Defense stays in play until the owner replaces it with a new Defense, or the Defense blocks/amplifies an opponent's Offense card.

It wasn't included in this excerpt but, you cannot amplify elements twice, meaning you can't combine two offenses to do 4 damage, and then amplify those against a foe's shield and do 8.

3 and 4. Combining elements only partially fixed these situations. The rest of the fix was allowing players to secretly choose up to 2 cards to play as a defense at the start of EACH round, BEFORE turn order was established. Once turn order is established you show your hidden defense cards.

How did this fix it you ask? Well now if you only have 1 HP left at the start of a new round, you can create a healing shield that blocks every element. This gives players time to strategize and attempt to overcome their foe even when their chips are down.

Now when you play your starting defenses, you'll have no idea who is going to have the first turn. So you can risk playing no defense in hopes that you go first and can go on the full offensive, or play it safe and put up a shield.

You may play a shield in hopes that you WILL go second, for example an Earth shield, forcing your opponent to either have to play an air attack (if they didn't use it as a shield already) to do damage or attack your shield directly, or cast their own shield. Going second in essences forces your opponent to react instead of act.

I've play tested these fixes for several hours and found no issues. Games were quick, fluid, strategic, risky and most of all, fun. I will not be providing any new PnP versions, so you should feel confident in printing this new version.

Download! Download! Download!

Again I highly recommend anyone who HAS downloaded/printed a copy of any previous version of High Moon to re-download/print it with the new version being offered. If you haven't taken the opportunity to check out High Moon and experience it for yourself...what are you waiting for!?