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TransWar:
A Transformation-based CCG
by Quentin Long & Michael Bard
©2006 Long & Bard -- all rights reserved

TransWar is Long's and Bard's attempt to create a CCG (Collectable Card Game) for transformation aficianadoes and furries. We present it here in hopes that people will play the game and let us know what they think; which bits work, which bits don't, what rules you changes or even replaced, and so on.

Introduction

In TransWar, the players are dueling sorcerors. To cast spells upon your opponents directly is forbidden by untold millennia of arcane tradition; to cast spells upon yourself is simply an indication of sorcerous skill. Accordingly, this duel revolves around transforming into creatures that are well-suited for physical combat.

Object of the Game

Take out all your opponents to be the 'last man standing'.

The Deck

There are a total of 59 different TransWar cards, of four distinct types. Low-resolution versions of all 59, plus the card-back (hi-rez or lo-rez), can be seen in the gallery of thumbnail images. We recommend that a TransWar deck include the following mix of cards:

Form (21 kinds)

Attack (21 kinds)

 Defense (5 kinds)

Bat

 1 + 1x Base Attack 3 Scream (+3 Def) 5
Buck 1 + 2x Base Attack 2 Roar (+5 Def) 4
Cheetah 1 + 3x Base Attack 1 Duck (+10 Def) 3
Cougar 1 + 1x Swat 3 Feint (+15 Def) 2
Coyote 1 + 2x Swat 2 Dodge (+20 Def) 1
Dragon 1 + 3x Swat 1 Defense card total: 15
Eagle 1 + 1x Bite 3 Special (12 kinds)
Falcon 1 + 2x Bite 2 Evade 4
Elephant 1 + 3x Bite 1 Leap 3
Goat 1 + 1x Claw 3 Battle Rage 2
Gryphon 1 + 2x Claw 2 Berserkergang 1
Horse 1 + 3x Claw 1 Perfect Shot 1
Lion 1 + 1x Trample 3 Hide 1
Moose 1 + 2x Trample 2 Coordinate 2
Rabbit 1 + 3x Trample 1 Feign Injury 2
Raccoon 1 + 1x Gore 3 Blinding Slash 1
Rat 1 + 2x Gore 2 Broken Limb 1
Sheep 1 + 3x Gore 1 Stroke of Luck 1
Skunk 1 + 1x Kick 3 Heavy Bleeding 1
Tiger 1 + 2x Kick 2 Special card total: 20

Wolf

 1 + 3x Kick 1
Form card total: 21 Attack card total: 42 Complete deck: 78

Feel free to experiment with different card-mixes, and let us know how it comes out!

To download all 60 card-images (the 59 card-faces, plus the card back) in a 10-megabyte ZIP archive: Click here.

To download any specific card-image to your hard drive:
PC users right-click on the card's name and select "save file to disc" from the menu that pops up.
Mac users click-and-hold, or control-click, on the card's name and select "save file to disc" from the menu that pops up.

Setup

Each player needs some way to keep track of how damaged they are. We recommend pen(cil) and paper, but if you feel better with physical tokens of some kind (perhaps liberated from a Risk set?), or whatever other alternative, go for it.

One player is the dealer, who shuffles the deck and deals out cards as needed. To determine who the dealer is, deal out one Form card to each player; the player who got the highest-HP Form is the dealer.

At the start of a game, the dealer shuffles the deck and deals out five cards to each player. Whenever the deck is exhausted, the dealer shuffles the discard pile and makes it the new deck.

TransWar is played in turns. The player to the left of the dealer has the first turn, after which play passes clockwise to all players in the game.

The First Turn

Each player must Transform themself on their first turn.

To Transform, play a valid Form card from your hand, and discard from your hand that Form's specified cost in cards.

If you Form card requires you to discard more cards than you actually have, it is not valid.

If you have more than one valid Form card: Play whichever one you like.

If you have no valid Form cards: Get cards from the dealer, one card at a time, until your hand contains at least one valid Form card. At that point, decide which of your valid Form cards you want to play, and play the thing.

All Subsequent Turns

Phase one: Bookkeeping

There are some Special cards that require you to discard a certain number of cards before you can do certain things. Likewise, there are some Forms with special abilities that are 'fueled' by discarding cards from your hand. Bookkeeping Phase is when you discard cards for these purposes.

Phase two: Action

In TransWar, there are four possible actions: Transform, Attack, Discard, or Build. You must Transform on your first turn; on all subsequent turns, you can choose freely.

a. Transform: To Transform, (a) play a Form card on yourself, and (b) discard however-many other cards from your hand, as specified on the Form card you played. If you don't have that many cards in your hand, you can't Transform to that Form.

When you Transform, you lose all the damage, and all other effects, your previous Form may have had.
b.
  • Attack: If you choose to Attack, pick one of the other players to be your opponent for this turn. Certain Forms are capable of flying; how this affects an attack is described in Airborne Opponents. Here's the sequence of events for an Attack:
    • 1.
  • Solicit Offensive Allies: The attacker has a chance to ask for assistance. The attacker can choose to ask, or not ask, for assistance from any individual player; if he chooses not to ask at all, that's fine. Each player who was asked, can choose to assist or not, as they see fit.
    • 2. Solicit Defensive Allies: The defender has a chance to ask for assistance. The defender can choose to ask for assistance from any player except those who are assisting the attacker. Again, the defender need not ask for assistance at all, if he doesn't care to. Likewise, the asked players can choose to assist the defender or not, as they see fit.
    3.
  • Assault: The attacker decides what attack mode he wants to employ (i.e., Bite, Kick, etc). If he has any Attack Cards that will enhance his Form's base Attack rating, or the attack mode he selected, he can play any/all of them he wants to. If the attacker's Form allows a Combined Attack -- such as Claw and Bite, or Trample and Gore -- the attacker can play Attack Cards to enhance each and every one of his Combined attack modes.
    • 4.
  • Defend: The defender plays whatever Defense Cards he wishes.
    • 5.
  • Offensive Allies Help: If the attacker has any allies, they can now play whatever cards they like on the attacker.
    • 6.
  • Defensive Allies Help: If the defender has any allies, they can now play whatever cards they like on the defender.
    • 7.
  • Determine Victor: Each side adds up the total numerical strength of all cards that have been played in this turn. For the attacker, this means the sum of his Form's Base Attack value, plus the value of his chosen attack mode, plus any applicable cards that were played on him; if the attacker is doing a Combined Attack, his Base Attack value is added to each and every attack mode in the Combined Attack. For the defender, this means the sum of his Base Defense value plus any applicable cards that were played on him. After the two sides' totals are determined, all cards played on the opponents are discarded.
  • If the attacker's total was greater than the defender's total: The attacker won this round. The defender's Form takes (attack total - defense total) pips of damage; if this brings the defender down to zero or fewer hit points, see Going Out. Each player who assisted the attacker may, at their discretion, draw as many as two cards from the deck, for each card they played on the attacker. This is a "use it or lose it" schtick -- if you don't take all the cards you're entitled to, you are presumed to not want all of those cards, and there's no use crying about it later.
  • If the defender's total was equal to or greater than the attacker's total: The defender won this round. The defender may, if he chooses, take up to two cards from the attacker's hand; each of the defender's allies may, if they choose, draw as many as two cards from the deck, for every card they played on the defender. Again, this is a "use it or lose it" schtick.
    • c. Discard: Discard two cards from your hand. If you're left with fewer than five cards, draw from the deck until you have five cards.
    d. Build: Draw two cards from the deck.

    After you've completed your chosen action, play passes to the next player.

    Airborne Opponents

    Certain Forms are capable of Flying. Flight is an energy-intensive mode of travel; therefore, all Flight-capable Forms must discard a certain number of cards from their hand in any turn they want to do some Flying. For Bat, Falcon, and Eagle Forms, that number is 0 (zero); that is, Bats, Falcons, and Eagles can Fly without actually discarding any cards. Griffins being larger, a Griffin who wants to Fly must discard 1 card per turn he spends Flying; Dragons being largest, a Dragon who wants to Fly must discard two cards per turn of Flight.

    A Flying attacker must 'fuel' their Flight by discarding during the Bookkeeping phase; a Flying defender must choose whether or not to 'fuel' their Flight before they ask other players to assist them.

    While a Form is in flight, it cannot be hit by any ground-based hand-to-hand attack. The Leap Special Card allows a ground-based form to attack in the air, hence Leap allows ground-based forms to attack flying forms normally. None of the special abilities Skunk Spray, Breath Weapon, or Roar are hand-to-hand attacks, therefore they can affect flying forms normally.

    How attacks are affected by flying: If both Forms are airborne, the attack plays out normally. If the attacking Form is airborne, and the defending Form employs some sort of attack mode that can affect a flying opponent, play out the attack normally. If the defending Form is airborne, and the attacking Form does not employ any kind of attack mode that can affect a flying opponent, play out the attack with an attack total of zero for the ground-based Form.

    Special Abilities

    Certain Forms have special abilities that others lack. These abilities only apply when the Form that has them is an attacker or a defender; they cannot be used when the Form is 'merely' an ally.

    Evade A Form with the Evade special ability has a higher Defense value than it would otherwise; this is reflected in the stats on its card. In addition, Evade-capable Forms get better use out of the Special card Evade.
    Fly
  • A Form with the Fly special ability can fly, with the game-effects listed in the Airborne Opponents section of the rules. The Dragon, Gryphon, Falcon, Eagle, and Bat Forms are all flight-capable. However, the Dragon Form must 'fuel' its flight by discarding two cards on any turn it wishes to Fly, and the Gryphon Form, one card per turn. The Falcon, Eagle, and Bat Forms can Fly without discarding any cards.
    • Skunk Spray As you might expect, only the Skunk Form has this ability. To use this ability, a player in Skunk Form discards as many cards as he likes from his hand; however-many cards he discards, his opponent is affected for that many turns.

    A player who is affected by Skunk Spray loses his next [number of cards the Skunk Form player discarded] turns. Until he gets another turn, he cannot play Attack or Defense cards, but can play Special cards and Form cards.

    Skunk Spray can hit flying opponents as if they were on the ground.
    Breath Weapon Only the Dragon Form has this ability. To use this ability, a player in Dragon Form discards one card from his hand. The Breath Weapon is considered to be a Combined Attack; the Dragon Form player decides which attack mode to Combine the Breath Weapon with when he discards that card.

    Breath Weapon can hit flying opponents as if they were on the ground.
    Roar Only the Lion Form has this ability. To use this ability, a player in Lion Form discards two cards from his hand. All other players are affected by the Roar for the duration of this attack.

    A player who is affected by the Roar cannot play Attack or Defense cards, but can play Special cards and Form cards.

    Going Out

    When a player's Form has been reduced to zero or fewer hit points, that Form is dying, and its player has one opportunity to stay in the game: If he has a Form card in his hand, he can play that Form card on himself. He must then discard as many cards as this new Form card specifies, and he must also discard one card for each hit point his current Form was below zero. If the player's hand is not large enough to accomodate all that discarding, the player may ask other players to make up the difference. For this purpose, as long as a sufficient total number of cards is discarded, it doesn't matter who discarded them.

    If the player managed to assume a new Form, he loses all the damage (and other effects) associated with his previous Form, and he can continue playing normally.

    If the player did not manage to assume a new Form, he's out of the game; all his cards go to the discard pile.

    Winning the Game

    Whenever only one of the starting players is still in the game, that player is the winner.

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