Harry Potter and the Designing of Games

J.K. Rowling created a magical universe teeming with wizards, spells, goblins, and most importantly candy. The Harry Potter books are great despite all their flaws and proph-outs (when a fantasy series resorts to prophecies). But this is a game-design blog, so by Merlin’s beard we’re going to talk about the Dumbledore of games: Quidditch. From a writing perspective I would have preferred it to involve spells - you know, that thing that makes Wizards unique and interesting - but let’s talk about the mechanics as they are. At first glance the game is zany and creative, but digging deeper I become more and more glad that Rowling stuck to books rather than game design. Quidditch does a great job of showing HARRY POTTER single-handedly winning the day, but it’s not a sport anyone would ever play in reality (and not just because Americans would be too fat to fly).

Once you have seen, you cannot Un-see

Let's Fix: Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper

VLADIMIR

The Crimson Reaper

[This is the first of what I hope will become many Let’s Fix articles. Some elements of games which I play are fine in theory but lose something in execution. I’m going to examine how those mechanics play, compare them to how they should play, then suggest fixes to improve them (note that an improvement makes the game better, not the mechanic. Sometimes a mechanic is best improved by weakening it). I will not attempt to “balance” anything since that comes from rigorous playtesting and tweaking. Also, numbers are boring. This is an article about the core concepts, not the balancing points. Maybe some other day day I’ll talk about how some things can’t be balanced by changing only the numbers.]

Today, the League of Legends champion Vlad is on my chopping block. His defining attribute is his sangromancy, by which he fuels his magic with his own blood. We can see this both in flavor, as he’s dressed like Dracula, and in gameplay, since he uses his own health rather than high-falutin’ mana to cast. This concept really speaks to how Riot makes an effort to have every champion push some boundary.

I like Vlad, helped along by his constant puns. So why does he see such little play? I contend that his biggest issue is what I call the “K-Mart syndrome”. K-Mart couldn’t offer the quality of Target, nor the prices of Wal-Mart. Caught in this middle ground, it was unable to court audiences of either. This is a constant problem when hybrid mechanics are just worse than either extreme. Vlad doesn’t really have a definite role to play, so he poorly fills several roles. In other words, he has aspects of Tank, Mage, and Support, but isn’t great at any of them. I find him best played as a mage with some support elements, so I’ll modify his gameplay to encourage that style more.

Proposed Changes to EDH, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Commander

EDH (you can change names all you want, you're always EDH to me) is a format that has exploded in recent years. Developed by the folks over at what is now mtgcommander.net, it was adopted by Wizards and showcased in the annoying-set-to-search-on-gatherer product Magic the Gathering: Commander.

It had some basic rules and a suggested banlist, both of which were adopted whole when it was adopted. The bandits has both before and since only been tweaked sparingly, with suggestions that people create House lists rather than relying on an official one. While great in theory, in practice I want to be able to go play against people in a card shop without needing to argue about which cards are allowed each time. A unified bandits makes for a more welcoming EDH community.

EDH had always been a multiplayer format, usually a 3-5 player FFA. For me the biggest appeal was that this allowed a chance to showcase cards that would otherwise be marginalized for prohibitive mana cost or marginal gain. But a year or two ago, some Spikes got ahold of it and made the French Banlist to ensure balance in 1v1 games. This is all well and good for that, but it wasn't created with multiplayer in mind.

It is my belief that the official Wizards Banlist is not pulling its weight. I don't expect the same level of maintenance that Standard or Legacy get, but even a little would be nice. So much of the current list is based on the findings of such a small original play group, and times have changed.

As such, I have a few proposed changes to the current EDH rules and banlist. These changes are what I think will contribute most to making each individual EDH game fun and in some way unique.