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We once wanted a quick timekilling card game for three players that had some symmetry, but didn't knock one player out to sit around bored while the other two d
by brownbat 8y ago
We once wanted a quick timekilling card game for three players that had some symmetry, but didn't knock one player out to sit around bored while the other two dug in for some long war of attrition.
Enter "Lifeboat" Magic. Three players, player with the highest life total when the first player is eliminated wins. Attack any direction so seat order doesn't matter.
Strategic targets and alliances would shift basically every round. You'd try to keep your opponents roughly balanced until you could suddenly knock out the tougher one in one blow.
I know there are fancier CCGs, but MtG was simple and fast, so it worked as a timekiller. The emergent strategies were honestly more interesting than the cards themselves, probably could have worked with other games just as well.
- Sniffnoy 8y agoThis particular victory condition -- highest life/score when one player is eliminated -- seems to have been reinvented a few times. Nexus Ops used it as one possible way to win (although not the main way). Then David Sirlin used it as the victory condition in [the multiplayer variants of] a few of his games, apparently unaware of its earlier use in Nexus Ops. And now here's another reinvention (quite possibly earlier than the two I mentioned :P ). Interesting.
- brownbat 8y agoHuh, neat. Pretty sure it was independent, but not sure about timing... I think we used this when Ravnica first hit. When was that... oof, Google says 2005? Seriously? Wow. David Sirlin independently endorsing a method I also thought up is one of the best compliments I can imagine. Thanks.