Project: Cardcaptor Libertatia (Possible Card Game?)

Miscellaneous General
1

Alrighty, I didn’t know what else to call this thread, so I opted for a slightly cheesy co-opt off of some vauge japanese animation no one here has probably seen.

I think the idea for a card game (as LS mentioned, something that has somewhat been done before w/ Alex Jone’s Bilderberg trading cards) where players duke it out with cards based on political figures / ideaologies / etc. is something that could get more interested in alternative political theory beyond the confines of Statism.

To some extent, this will be protected due to it being parody (a blacker than black coffee parody, but parody nonetheless), methinks.

It could also have the potential to grow a community around such, and would be easily playable regardless of player’s political beliefs, as there would be various decks based on such ideaologies / sides / collectives etc.

Discuss?

(If I or anyone else can write a better introductory post, I will replace the rather hastily prepared one in the above with it, lol…)

Individuals who have harmed the cause of liberty.
2

Manna: Should Manna (or whatever we will call it) be ideology based? Location based Book based? Various Government buildings could serve as manna. The Pentagon for the military, the IRS office for tax collectors etc. What do you think?

Edit: Has anyone heard of these people?: http://www.tmcards.com/

3

I’d imagine we could call Manna “Fiat” lol…

I’m actually largley unsure; I’m not very experienced in the concepts of card games.

As for government buildings, could those serve as Location cards?

(I also don’t know what Location or Book based means either :\ )

4

If you want this to be a Fiat Magic the Gathering (I am very open to other ideas) than you need something to serve as manna. Manna is a location that your color is comfortable in. You need a certain amount of manna to play a character card if I recall. Someone correct me if I am wrong about this.

5

Yea, I think I should try & think about what the card game could look like other than basing it off of MTG. I’ve played Triple Triad, console RPG’s, and the online web-based RPG Lost Power City, so I should be able to draw upon that to come up with an idea.

Anoyyingly, I won’t be able to do much of that until I get off of work later today.

Did you have any other ideas in mind? I think I might print out some wikipedia pages while I work today so that I’m not totally in the dark concerning MTG.

6

How much do you know about majong? The beautiful thing about majong is that you REMOVE tiles from the game. Perhaps we could use ideas from that but instead of same tiles being the reason for removal opposing tiles, causing gridlock, cause them to be removed. Actually, I think GRIDLOCK would be a great name for the game. Gridlock = liberty because gridlock is act up government seizing up due to its own internal contradictions!

7

I’ve played quite a bit of MTG in the past and I think this would be a really entertaining twist on the genre. :slight_smile:

The way I see it though, buildings like the Pentagon, IRS office, White House, etc. should probably be analogous to artifacts (colorless) since any of the groups would be able to take advantage of them (socialists, greens, libertarians, etc.).

As for Mana, it seems to me that it could be analogous to something like the amount of supporters you have, or voters. Building up support, would allow you to “play” other types of cards, such as Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Alan Greenspan, Greenpeace, etc., each of which would be associated with a specific color identified by its associated group. Then “artifacts” would consist of the buildings as mentioned above.

Other types of cards, such as “instants” or “sorcery” would be other kinds of effects. For example, the card “Counterspell” in MTG nullifies another players attempted play – in this case, it could be replaced with something similar to “presidential veto” or something. Other types of spells in MTG would need to be replaced by relevant “events” in this game, for example, cards like “Declaration of War” or “Stock Market Crash”. You could effectively “remove” other cards from play by using a “Corruption Scandal” card or a “Recall” card.

“Enchantments”, in MTG, introduce long-lasting effects that essentially inject additional rules onto all players. In this situation, they could be replaced by “Laws” that are passed by various players, enabling or restricting certain areas of play. “Enchantments” in MTG can be disenchanted and, likewise, “Laws” in this game could be “Repealed”. Perhaps a “Filibuster” card could be used to counter an attempted “Law” card.

However, I still wonder what the endgame will be. In MTG, the idea is to inflict 20 points of damage on your opponent. What would the situation be here? Elect a majority to congress? Establish your ideology over the country? (Play until the electoral gridlock destroyed the country? :P)

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Rocky, I think you have some intersting ideas. I like the idea of a fillibuster card - but they should have a time limit - or only have an effect for a certain number of turns.

9

You forgot about the other way to win. My favorite way.

Discard.

X, T: Put the top card of target opponent’s library into his or her graveyard. Continue doing this until you have put X cards or a creature card into that graveyard, whichever occurs first. If the last card put into the graveyard is a creature card, bury Helm of Obedience and put that creature into play under your control as though it were just cast. X cannot be equal to 0.

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The Real Question: should this be copyrighted

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I imagine Wizards of the Coast is already preparing to file an injunction against us…

Which reminds me, that should also be a card in the game!

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The Proprietary Intellectual Property Card!

your card is illegal creativity, I win!

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I’d say no on the copyright as a matter of principle (I dislike IP).

Anyway, here are a few ideas:

  • All forms of statism (as opposed to anarchism) would have an automatic deduction of -20% (just using a random number here) to their economic efficiency, and from then on, depending on just how totalitarian your regime is, will depend how inefficient an economy you have. So under all out fascism or communism you could have horrendous negatives of -90% efficiency and really low living standards.
  • Every few turns, dice could be thrown to determine whether you are entering a boom, recession, or no change. Stability should have inherent advantages and bonuses over a crazy business cycle. This could be played something like this: Under fascism, 1,2,3 is a boom, 4,5,6 is a recession, no real stability at all. Under a republic (such as the USA when founded) it could be 1 = boom, 2,3,4,5 = stable, and 6 = recession. Only under anarchy and private banking with no fiat would you have all 6 as stable.
  • Reducing (or eliminating) gun control and allowing citizen militias to form up would increase your defense stat. This could also be increased by drafts for example, but these are expensive (cost mana?) since they are not forms of spontaneous order but rather of coercion.

I’ll add more ideas when I think of them, but this game would be infinitely better if it had economic truisms from the Austrian school included in it. It would serve not only as a political satire, but also a way to educate yourself and introduce other people to the Austrian school. We could, for example, include Mises’ or Rothbards’ treatise on economics together with the game manual, or at least include brief explanations of the reasoning behind the rules.

Also, do keep in mind i’ve never seriously played a pen&paper or card game in my life, so I have no idea if my ideas will even work…

14

Should we create a Mises Group to work on this idea more? It would be a shame to let this great idea go to waste.

15

That would be a good idea; I apologize for letting my own thread kind of die latley, as I’ve either been too busy working or too busy being sick this past weekend, to be able to sit down & try out some vauge rules & see where this card game could go towards.

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Sorry to hear you were sick. I hope you are feeling better. I also understand the need to work. I am lucky in that regard because I work in a library which sometimes gives me the opportunity to post while at work. I know not everyone has that option. :slight_smile: