Castle Black Game of Thrones Art Lcg

"The Others." Sam licked his lips. "They are mentioned in the annals, though not as often as I would have thought. The annals I've found and looked at, that is. There's more I haven't found, I know."
–George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows

Every year, hundreds of players gather at the Fantasy Flight Games World Championships, testing their decks and their skills in our Organized Play games, including A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. For the World Champions, an utterly unique prize awaits—the chance to design a card for their game and become a part of that game's legacy.

Many Champion-designed cards have entered the game over the years, and in the upcoming Chapter Pack, Guarding the Realm, you'll find another one. Today, Alex H. takes the time to dive into his design process for creating a truly unique plot card!

Alex H. on Designing a Champion Card

You'd be forgiven for thinking, from the title of the article, that this is another article crunching numbers on faction representation in the metagame, featuring the community-run event history database, The Annals of Castle Black. But read on!

When I was fortunate enough, by a hair, to win the Overall World Championship in 2014, I was immediately aware that I'd get a chance to design a card. It's exhilarating, daunting, and definitely merits the moniker: "The Greatest Prize in Gaming.™" Needless to say, I have no experience designing cards… so how would I to go about it?

The Vision

First, in the words of the lead designer of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game at the time, design is not development. I didn't want to approach my card from the minutiae; I had to start with a vision for what I hoped the card would be, one that could weather the overhaul it might be subjected to in testing. I set out to focus on the key aspects that I was dead set on, and prioritize them:

1. A plot. Plots are, to me, the defining element of the game. The simultaneous decision/bluffing/prediction of the plot phase is my favorite part of the game, and one of the areas where player skill can truly shine.

2. A symmetrical effect that affected both players. Plots like Ghosts of Harrenhal (Ghosts of Harrenhal, 100) or Valar Morghulis (There Is My Claim, 80), where you need to play to maximize your own benefits, not only create interesting play experiences for you, but also for your opponent, allowing for…

3. Possible counter-play. Your opponent should be able to predict the plot, and play in a way that minimizes its benefits. In addition, since I have a soft spot for Forgotten Plans (True Steel, 119), my design should be vulnerable to it.

4. Create a turn with a unique dynamic. Heavily inspired by The First Snow of Winter (No Middle Ground, 79), a previous champion card, I knew that I wanted my plot to shape the entire round in which it was played.

5. A name, theme, and mechanic that meshed and paid homage to some part of the A Game of Thrones: The Card Game community.

The First Draft

I was still a long way from a testable card. The final point listed above leaves a lot of wiggle room! What to honor? Capture the spirit of the 2014 World Championships and its other champions? Pay homage to my A Game of Thrones: The Card Game mentor, Darknoj? The fantastic people who lured me to my first World Championships in 2012?  The player whom I credit with sealing the Overall title for me?

I realized that I already had a project that recorded and tried to preserve some of those great moments in A Game of Thrones: The Card Game: The Annals of Castle Black. As a record of past events, it honors the great decks, great players, and, in some small way, some of the game's great moments. I'm not above a little vanity there—this is, after all, my champion card—and there's something appealing about the plot carrying the banner of my largest pet project!

From there, things fell into place surprisingly quickly. The Annals of Castle Black, as I said, records past events—the effect, as it turns out, practically wrote itself. I threw on some stats, cooked up a wording I was happy with, and pitched it to the designers. I also got a chance to describe what I envisioned for the art… but I'll withhold comment there, as I'll be seeing the result for the first time with the rest of you. In writing this, I really can't wait to see how it turned out! So here it is, in card form: The Annals of Castle Black (Guarding the Realm, 40).

For me, it ticks every box mentioned above; a symmetrical plot with counter-play, creating a unique dynamic: how do you play differently when you know exactly what events can be played against you?

The Development

As I alluded to earlier, design and development are very different beasts. If designers make the game "fun," developers make the game "fair." My only involvement in the refinement process was to voice my greatest concern about how my plot might not be "fun:" I worried that it might create a stagnant turn, where players refrain from challenges for fear of a known event, Dracarys! (Core Set, 176) or Vengeance for Elia (Calm Over Westeros, 96), for instance. There was also a risk of decision paralysis; with five to six events in each player's discard pile, the number of different ways a turn could unfold can create a staggering number of knowable (but tricky) possibilities.

The card came out of testing relatively unscathed, suggesting that my fears were unfounded. It did, however, pick up some additional text that now removes events from the game even if they weren't played (just discarded). In hindsight, I think I can imagine the fiendish combo that required the tweak!

The Excitement

One of the best parts of this process is the anticipation, now that the card is almost released, of seeing what people will do with it once it's "out in the wild." Will it be used to reuse big, impactful events? Or, with the cost of events and the relatively low gold value on the plot, will it favor cheaper events like "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" (Core Set, 197), that, by virtue of being played "freely" a second time, gain tremendous value? Is it going to play out as a control tool? Will you find ways to seed your own discard pile?

And, of course, most importantly, who will be the first to win a tournament, entered into The Annals of Castle Black, running the plot card version of The Annals of Castle Black?

Founder and curator of The Annals of Castle Black, Alex H. (istaril) can't seem to cut down his involvement inA Game of Thrones-related projects. He's also co-host of the Beyond the Wall  podcast, curator of the rules forum on CardGameDB , proofreader for FFG, honorary member of the Quill & Tankard Regulars… and probably a few other things he either doesn't remember or isn't allowed to talk about.

Castle Black Game of Thrones Art Lcg

Source: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/4/11/the-annals-of-castle-black/

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