[Suggestion] Triple Triad Advanced Rules additions and revisions. (15 new rules)

[PangTong]

I really love TT and while the recent updates have been great, I would like to see some updates to advanced rules to help make the game more interesting. In addition to new rules I've also drafted a proposal for a change to the card type system which allows for even more new rules.

Obviously everything in this post is just a suggestion and needn't be adapted as-is, nor do I expect any of this to actually be seriously considered. I kinda just wanted to share my ideas.

New Advanced Rules:


Speed: Instead of the normal time limit, players have only 7 seconds per turn to place a card, before one is placed for them.

Barrier: For the first two turns, cards cannot be played in the corner squares.

Revenge: If a player controls 3 or fewer cards (including cards in their hand), all cards they control gain +1 to all their values. If the affected player regains control of more than 3 cards, the bonus is lost. If the opponent takes an affected card, that card loses the bonus.

Minefield: Before starting the match, both players choose one square to place a mine that is invisible to their opponent. Any card placed on an opponent's mine square is automatically captured, and does not capture other cards. Placing a card on your own mine has no effect. Both players may choose the same square.

Shift: At the beginning of the match, a random direction (up, down, left, or right) is selected and shown to the players. After each turn resolves, all cards on the board move 1 square in that direction, if they are able. No capture checks are performed after the cards move.

Memory: Cards flip face-down 5 seconds after being placed, preventing both players from seeing the card and its numbers. The card still changes colour to indicate which player controls it. If a card is challenged by having an opponent's card placed next to it, it briefly flips face-up again so that both players can see if the challenge succeeds. Afterwards, the card flips face-down again. After the final card is placed and all captures are resolved, all cards on the board flip face up to reveal the final board layout.

Wrap Around: Cards placed in edge squares can affect and be affected by cards on the opposite side. e.g. cards in the top row can claim, and be claimed by, cards in the bottom row, using the numbers facing the edges. Same applies to cards in the left and right columns. The corner squares affect both the opposite row and column.

Replacement of the Card Type system with the Card Element system

Currently, a small handful of cards are allocated a special type, either Beastman, Primal, Scion or Garlean. All remaining cards are typeless. The only rules which affect card types are Ascension and Descension, and these don't really lead to creative play or deck construction. If Ascension is in effect, use a deck of all the same type. If it's Descension, use only neutral cards.

My proposal is to remove these card type assignments and instead assign ALL cards an elemental alignment. Every card in the game would be designated as one of either Fire, Ice, Wind, Water, Earth or Lightning. A card's element is indicated by an icon or coloured circle in the corner of the card frame.

This makes the Descension rule more interesting. Because every card has an element, players must now strive to create a balanced deck rather than simply picking typeless cards. In addition to this, the Ascension rule is removed, as it makes it too easy to create an overpowered deck just by using cards of the same type/element.

The purpose of Ascension (themed decks) is instead covered by additional new rules:

Fire Surge: All non-Fire element cards have their values reduced by 1.
Ice Surge: All non-Ice element cards have their values reduced by 1.
Water Surge: All non-Water element cards have their values reduced by 1.
Wind Surge: All non-Wind element cards have their values reduced by 1.
Lightning Surge: All non-Lightning element cards have their values reduced by 1.
Earth Surge: All non-Earth element cards have their values reduced by 1.

(All Surge rules are mutually exclusive, only one can be present at a time.)

Why decrease the power of all other elements instead of increasing the power of the "chosen" element? Two reasons: First, most players use 3-5 star cards which usually have 8s or better on their strong sides. Increasing the power of these cards by 1 puts them at or really close to the highest possible rank of Ace, which makes it really easy to place those cards in such a way as to make them untakeable unless Plus or Same is in effect. Essentially, it would encourage unexciting defensive tactics where neither player can take their opponent's cards because the values are too high. The other reason is that cards with Aces are already at max power, so it's irrelevant whether they get a boost or not, meaning for cards with Aces you wouldn't really have to consider the element. By reducing the power of off-element cards, Aces are weakened, giving advantage to 5-star cards of the correct element.

The element system also allows for some additional interesting advanced rules:

Elemental Board: With this rule, each square on the board is randomly assigned one of the six elements. Placing a card onto a square of a matching element increases all that card's values by 1.

Elemental Power: In this rule, cards can take or resist being taken by other cards based on elemental strengths and weaknesses. This uses the same elemental cycle as Eureka, being Fire > Ice > Wind > Fire for one set, and Lightning > Water > Earth > Lightning for the other. All other elemental relationships are neutral. With the Elemental Power rule, cards can ALWAYS take a card of the element they are strong against, and can NEVER take a card of the element they are weak to, regardless of number values. For example, a Fire card can always take an Ice card, however an Ice card can never take a Fire card. If the elemental relationship is neutral, number values apply as normal. Plus and Same also apply as normal even when a card wins based on its element. When this rule is in effect, a graphic is shown on the Triple Triad UI to show the elemental cycles.

These rules encourage constructing special element-themed decks and the use of cards that normally are not chosen. It goes without saying that card elements are not chosen at random, each card is assigned the element that best suits the character on the card e.g. Ifrit is obviously a Fire card.

With all these new rules, it would also be great to revise the system of Triple Triad Tournaments, adding a tournament for each element featuring the relevant Surge rule, and potentially increasing their frequency from biweekly to weekly.

Right now each tournament rewards a specific Ex card (the ones with the final fantasy protagonists on them), but with additional tournaments this could also be changed to make getting these cards slightly less impossible. For example, placing in the top 3 could award a token which can be exchanged for a tournament card of your choice. Or you could even have a system where a certain number of unopened Platinum Triad Packs could be exchanged for a specific tournament card.