Today's Challenge is brainstorming 10 magical items for Codename:Marionette. There will be several of these, so each will have a theme.
Today's theme is Unsummon. Unpacking this theme is a subject for another day. To help frame my idea, though, here is the outline:
Unsummon is a Magic: The Gathering card from the very first set. It is also the inspiration for my design(s). On the surface, it is a card with a clear (to the casual) observer use. Return a creature to their owner's hand. It is not terribly efficient though, as most of the time the creature can just be recast the next turn. couple with Dispel, hand removal, etc... it can get rid of an unwanted creature for good, but this takes two cards. Not good.
The utter sublime and elegant beauty of Unsummon becomes apparent only after some time playing Magic. It is, in my mind's eye, what I see when I think of Elegance. Why?
Because it requires soooooo much unpacking. Yes, Unsummon can be used to briefly remove a creature, perhaps clearing an attack route. But past its immediate utility, to a more nuance player another use emerges. It can rescue a vital creature from an impending doom blade, fireball, path to nowhere. So, now, used a little creatively, it does two very different things, and it utility imcreases immensely.
But wait, it does more! It can trigger "leaves play" effects. It can let you trigger again "enter plays" effects. It has many other uses that I, an infrequent Magic player, cannot even think of. In other words it packs a lot of versatility into such a little package.
Which is where it's Elegance begins, but not where it ends. What Unsommon ultimately means to me is the depth of design in M:tG itself. The more interesting, varied, and inventive the game is, the more uses can be found for this card.
Therefore my first Today's Test is a list of 10 magic items for submission to the RPG Superstar 2010 competition all that try to achieve a minimal dual utility.
- An item that turns a specific damage type into Healing.
- An item that turns an arcane spell cast upon the wielder into Healing.
- An item that teleports an unconscious or dead body adjacent to the wielder.
- An item that stores a spell cast at the wielder, that can be cast latter.
- An item that allows the wielder to "phase" out of time a creature (gone for 3 rounds while 1 round passes for it, 2 rounds for both real time and the creature, or gone for 1 round while 3 rounds pass for it)
- An item that allows the user to "step outside" the magic currently cast upon him, leaving it as disembodied aura until another creature enters that space
- An item that "commands" an unconscious or dead body
- Redirect an attack (missile, melee, or magic) to another target
- An item at allows an area within an area of effect spell to be excluded
- An item that heals (wielder excluded) in a burst whenever the wielder takes damage
I realize as I did this that many of these items require some amount of teamwork to exploit (4E's design influence I presume). Which sparked the next Today's Challenge: 10 Teamwork items...
Posts
