DC Poll: which expansion is next?
Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 11:39 am
After release of ME: The Necromancer and its enthusiastic reception, many people ask: what will be the next set?!
In the poll you can indicate which set you would like to see finished first.
For all dreamcards and the sets they are grouped in, see cardnum: http://www.cardnum.net/cards.
I did not list all current expansions (see below), but you can choose 'other' and indicate in a post specifically which one.
For a list of all expansions and their content, see here
Now for some editorial comments about creating dreamcard expansions: it is a lot of work! (and we hope we're getting better at it).
1) We do not want to just create new cards, we want them to work in various ways.
Of course the new characters, items, hazards must be cool, and they freshen up the game by virtue of being new.
But we also want them to add new dimensions, create new plays and strategies, or strengthen existing ones, and help cards that are currently underplayed.
This requires analysis of the game, to search for imbalance and shortcomings, things that don't work smoothly, or are simply fun-killers.
And analysis comes through playtesting, building many types of decks and pitting them against each other.
2) The game is already complex, without adding more cards and rules. We notice that even for many old-time players increasing the cardpool takes time to handle. In the (g)olden days, 400 new cards per year was no trouble. Now even 1 set per 4 years is tough to digest. We all have busier lives and brains...
It is easy to invent a whole world of new cards, but difficult to keep it limited to the cool and essential stuff. We don't want to end up like Magic: the Gathering, drowning players in new cards.
3) Many indicate they rather see new cards operating within the standard map, so as to keep it familiar. We've been slowly introducing a few new regions, for this reason and another, that territorial expansions might create issues with the amount of interaction in the game. CvCC, influencing, spying, that's all tricky on the larger map. Territorial expansions must somehow be fit into the DC game, perhaps restricting them to scenario play.
4) To thoroughly enjoy a dream-card expansion, it needs thematic coherence. We endeavour to group cards that are thematically connected. This often requires reshuffling between sets of loose ideas to see what works best. Sometimes a cool, useful, or even badly needed card might not fit in the 'next' expansion, and sometimes we must invent extra cards to fill up holes in the set.
All in all, there's a lot of work to complete before releasing a new set (not even mentioning the search for artwork and contacting artists).
More importantly, even if we could finish a set within a year, that's not a smart thing to do. The new cards need to 'land', be accepted and accommodated into the game. A new metagame can arrise, with powerful decks and unforeseen tricks, which makes meccg again a live game like it used to be.
Everybody can help out here, by playing games and giving us feedback!
In the poll you can indicate which set you would like to see finished first.
For all dreamcards and the sets they are grouped in, see cardnum: http://www.cardnum.net/cards.
I did not list all current expansions (see below), but you can choose 'other' and indicate in a post specifically which one.
For a list of all expansions and their content, see here
Now for some editorial comments about creating dreamcard expansions: it is a lot of work! (and we hope we're getting better at it).
1) We do not want to just create new cards, we want them to work in various ways.
Of course the new characters, items, hazards must be cool, and they freshen up the game by virtue of being new.
But we also want them to add new dimensions, create new plays and strategies, or strengthen existing ones, and help cards that are currently underplayed.
This requires analysis of the game, to search for imbalance and shortcomings, things that don't work smoothly, or are simply fun-killers.
And analysis comes through playtesting, building many types of decks and pitting them against each other.
2) The game is already complex, without adding more cards and rules. We notice that even for many old-time players increasing the cardpool takes time to handle. In the (g)olden days, 400 new cards per year was no trouble. Now even 1 set per 4 years is tough to digest. We all have busier lives and brains...
It is easy to invent a whole world of new cards, but difficult to keep it limited to the cool and essential stuff. We don't want to end up like Magic: the Gathering, drowning players in new cards.
3) Many indicate they rather see new cards operating within the standard map, so as to keep it familiar. We've been slowly introducing a few new regions, for this reason and another, that territorial expansions might create issues with the amount of interaction in the game. CvCC, influencing, spying, that's all tricky on the larger map. Territorial expansions must somehow be fit into the DC game, perhaps restricting them to scenario play.
4) To thoroughly enjoy a dream-card expansion, it needs thematic coherence. We endeavour to group cards that are thematically connected. This often requires reshuffling between sets of loose ideas to see what works best. Sometimes a cool, useful, or even badly needed card might not fit in the 'next' expansion, and sometimes we must invent extra cards to fill up holes in the set.
All in all, there's a lot of work to complete before releasing a new set (not even mentioning the search for artwork and contacting artists).
More importantly, even if we could finish a set within a year, that's not a smart thing to do. The new cards need to 'land', be accepted and accommodated into the game. A new metagame can arrise, with powerful decks and unforeseen tricks, which makes meccg again a live game like it used to be.
Everybody can help out here, by playing games and giving us feedback!