This Week in Ruin

No, my week this week actually went quite nicely, and though I did do poorly on last week's Math quiz, this week's test seemed to be a small improvement (though practically anything can beat my atypical 20% score last week). Now that i have caught you up (sort of) to what the general format of Ruin is, let me give you some statistics about Ruin as it is so far. (green for good, red for bad)
3- # of games of Ruin that have been played to completion
3- # of people on the Ruin design team
40- the average # of minutes a game of ruin takes
53- # of assistants that are available to play with right now
12- # of explorers available right now
1786524- possible combination of 3 assistants and an Explorer (3 spots with 53 possibilities each and 1 with 12, so 53*53*53*12=1786524)

Wow. It was just like a little numerical Christmas.

This week in Ruin, a major development was made by Gavin. Gavin created a new mechanic that looks to be a focus of a large number of units inside the game. Gavin originally conceived of a unit he dubbed "The Clinger", a spider-like beast that attached onto its prey and slowly drained them of their life until its victim died or it was dislodged. However, under the current rules that we had, this kind of thing was incredibly hard to pull off, and would have never fit onto a single card. So we opened up an entire new space for design of units by creating the rules for attachment. We plan to have between 10-15 units that have the ability to attach onto other units. Some will be parasitic, some symbiotic, and others will just be piggybacking for a short while.

That generally sums up what happened this week in our development, as the attach mechanic was the most played around with thing in our designs this week. This weekend, I'll talk about our new kind of creature type (I'll give you hint it's not in Lord of the Rings, but is very heavy in H.P. Lovecraft) and what they bring to the table. If you are really interested in attaching rules, look below.



The rules for attaching are as follows.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTREMELY TECHNICAL RULES DOCUMENT. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR THE WEAK OF HEART. IF YOU HAVE A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION OR ARE A MEMBER OF THE GREEN PARTY, READ AHEAD AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Attaching

In Ruin, there are several cards that can Attach to, or “cling onto” other units. These units embody the idea of a small unit hanging onto a larger one. A unit can be attached to another unit, or attached by a unit. When the small unit is attached to the big one, the big one is not attached to the small one, it is considered attached by it. Though that may sound confusing, think of how a spider crawling on a car looks. The spider moves wherever the car moves, not the other way around.

Attached Dos and Don’ts: When a unit is attached to another unit, it may not move during the move phase, attack, cast spell or use abilities that do not expressly say, “You may play this ability (cast this spell) when attached to another unit” or “Play this ability (cast this spell) only when attached to another unit”. A unit attached to another unit may not be the target of attacks, spells, or abilities by the unit it is attached to. When you attack an enemy unit that you have an allied unit attached to, if you miss, but roll high enough to hit the DEF of the unit you have attached, deal the DMG to your unit.

Movement and Attached Units: A unit that is attached to another unit does not cause the unit attached by it to become engaged. A unit that is attached to another unit may not move on it’s own. However, when the unit attached by it moves, the attached unit moves as well. Any effect that would cause the attached unit or the unit attached by it to move causes them both to move. Ex: Gavin’s Clinger is attached to John’s Tyralith, Magiloth Ancient. John uses Tyralith’s Psychic Tunneling spell to move it to a dirt hex. The Clinger moves to that dirt hex as well, still attached.