A little background
Well, I doubt that anyone here knows the fantasy book series called "The seventh tower" (by Garth Nix), but all credit goes to the author for coming up with the game and rules. I figured that I might as well share it with you guys.The premise
Beastmaker is a boardgame played by at least two people, wherein you draw cards representing monsters and place them into seven slots on the board that each represent an attribute: intelligence, heart, temper, skin, speed, strength and Joker. The board then creates a beast based on those seven attributes. Finally, the beasts battle to the death, with the winner being the last one standing.
As a traditional boardgame this would probably necessitate various rules and such to determine a winner, but it makes for good writing material for people who want something a little more laid-back than traditional Omniverse fights.
The rules
First, the board: like any boardgame it's a fairly small, maybe 1x1 meters or so (or perhaps someone would like to make an enormous duel arena, Yugioh style?) shaped roughly like a roman colosseum: the center is formed by a circular arena surrounded by walls which hold a number of magic stones that project light to create a hologram of the beasts during the battle phase. For each player there are seven rectangular slots into which the players lay their cards.
The seven slots are the core part of the game's drawing and swapping phases: they govern the attributes of the beast that will be summoned during the battle phase, it is thus advisable for each player to pick their cards well, though some luck is also involved.
Note: What each slot does for your monster is pretty much up to your interpretation, so long as it's credible (a Goron placed in the Speed slot won't be lightning fast).
-Intelligence: How smart is the beast, but also how does it think? Predators for instance will be more aggressive, but a human-type race would formulate plans.
-Heart: What type of internal organs does the beast have? Swift creatures would need organs suited for bursts of speed, whereas endurant ones need durable organs.
-Temper: Fairly simple, this one determines the temper of the creature and complements Intelligence. Is it calm, aggressive or patient?
-Skin: Fairly simple too: what's the creature's skin like? Fur or scales, can it camouflage or is it sticky? It's also an important factor in the creature's defense.
-Speed: How fast is the creature, and what "type" of speed? Is it endurant for long stretches of time or can it move lightning-fast but tires quickly?
-Strength: Possibly the simplest - how great is the creature's raw physical strength? Some creatures may also complement their weak muscles with magic power though.
-Joker: The wild card among the attributes, Joker gives the beast a special property. For instance if a card of a flying creature is put here the beast may be winged, whereas placing a dwarf would give the beast an axe or hammer as a weapon.
Note: This one is the most open to interpretation by the writers. An "Eagle" card placed in this slot could give your creature feathered wings, or it could give it extremely sharp sight. It could also give it a sharp beak or talons. The key is to write something credible.
Speaking of cards: there's also a card deck. Each card has a picture of a creature of the Omniverse on it (monster, humanoid, anything goes), and a standard back so they're indistinguishable from each other when face down. There must be at least 14 cards to play but there's no upper limit. Each creature on each card has seven attributes but they aren't described on the card. The only way for a player to really know what a card does is to either have played Beastmaker before, or to have studied, read about or met the creature in the Omniverse themselves, giving seasoned and experienced Omniversians a great advantage.
The game is divided into three phases: the drawing phase, the swapping phase and the battle phase. These occur one after another in that order and each have their own separate rules.
The drawing phase: in turn, each player draws a card and decides which of the seven slots to place it in, face down. Each slot can only be occupied once. Once all seven cards are drawn and placed by both players they reveal their respective seven cards and the game progresses into the swapping phase.
(Note: Omniverse-specific rules exist to regulate this. Please read below)
The swapping phase: a short phase wherein the players may freely look at their opponent's seven slots and decide if they want to adapt their beast to their opponent's by doing up to two swaps - which, just as it sounds, means to swap two cards into each other's slots - and/or one discard - which means to discard a card from one of the seven slots and replacing it with a new one from the deck. Swapping and discarding are both not mandatory.
The battle phase: Once both players declare that they are ready the board projects a hologram of the beasts into the central arena, which then battle. The players may give orders or advice but the beasts are free to listen or act otherwise (if they can even understand the words). The battle goes on until only one beast remains standing.
OOC Rules:
Drawing Phase: The cards are given to the players by a neutral game-master. This person picks seven random cards for each player and PMs them. The players then respond, also in PMs, how they want to fill their slots, before writing their post. This is to prevent the players from cheating by picking optimal cards or waiting for their opponent's post to decide on the placement of their own.
A player's post must include them placing each card into a slot, and briefly describing what that will result in.
Swapping Phase: As for the drawing phase the players must first PM the game master about what swaps and discards they want to do, if any, to prevent reacting to an opponent's strategy.
A player's post must include them swapping or discarding cards, and describing the beast that is summoned as the Battle Phase is about to start.
Battle Phase: This follows the standard Omniverse combat gameplay. Beasts don't have any moves or powers unless they were given something by their Joker card. It is also possible for the players to agree to placing the beasts in a battlefield of some sort.
Word count and time limits are decided by the players. Number of rounds must be 3 at least (one for Drawing, Swapping and Battle phase respectively) but can be more.
The cards
Every Omniverse being can be depicted, as well as the number of cards in each suit if you want to roll random numbers to pick a card. Suggestions are welcome! (Suits are just to order the cards and don't have a gameplay element)1 - Coruscant Suit (6)
Stormtrooper
Jedi/Sith
Space Marine
Sewer Rat
Decommissioned Robot
Vorticon
2 - Camelot Suit (6)
Soldier
Dalaran Mage
Road Bandit
Deer
Eagle
Lake Trout
3 - Endless Dunes Suit (6)
Camel
Hyena
Spiny Mouse
Lizard
Vulture
Bobcat
4 - Tangled Green Suit (7)
Night Elf
Pokute
Triceratops
Orc
Ninja
Blighted Bear
Darkspawn
5 - Vasty Deep Suit (7)
Octopus
Shark
Whale
Seagull
Navy
Big Daddy
Little Sister
6 - Pale Moors Suit (6)
Vampire
Werewolf
Tormented Spirit
Drow
Fel Demon
Mage Apprentice
7 - Ashen Steppes Suit (5)
Koopa
Goron
Red Dragonspawn
Rattlesnake
Giant Worm
8 - Frozen Fields Suit (6)
Wampa
Blue Dragon
Troll
Dwarf
Ice Giant
Polar Bear
9 - Astral Verse Suit (3)
Nightmare Haunt
Faceless Walker
Dream Eater
10 - Dataverse Suit (2)
Virus (Digital computer virus)
Digimon-Egg
Online Employee
11 - Underverse Suit (5)
Corrupt Gargoyle
Acid Squid
Imp
Demon
Slavemaster
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undoge: Credit & Hugs to Ruby for the sign, and to Guu for the smileys! undoge:Hide your chicken nuggers, hide your heads, the Sundoge is coming and she'll hat everyone!
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