Ahh, September. National’s was a month ago and the forums are quieting down. Normally we have a new set to look at and start testing, but we received the 2013 set early, and have already had the biggest tournament of the year to settle the 2013-2014 metagame. We just saw all our friends at Nationals, and we have to wait an entire year to see some of them again. This begins what I (and the Pokémon community) like to call Post-National’s Depression. It’s times like these when I honestly don’t even feel like playing Redemption, and it’s why there’s been very little activity on RMG recently. However, there are ways to combat PND if you get creative.
1. Invent new ways to play the game. Although Gameplay Variations is among the least popular forums, there have been a lot of types (such as Type Ban or Type 3) that have gotten enough attention as to be played online. I would like to suggest you be a bit more creative than just changing how decks are built, but actually change the gameplay. Make players discard two cards in order to play a dominant, or perhaps players draw a card every time an evil character gets a block. There are tons of things you can do to experiment with gameplay that will results in hours of fun. Sometimes a change of pace is all you need.
2. Create new cards. This is really just another way to reinvent the game. The main issue with this is most of the community is online, but Gabe recently showed me that RTS actually has a Card Expansion Creator built by GamerX. Additionally, with Lambo’s card creator, it’s easier than ever to think of new and exciting ideas that you can print out and test on your own. It was amazing the crowd that gathered to see Reanimation (a zombie version of Redemption, where the evil characters attack to eat brains) get played at nats. If you really want to make the game new and exciting, you’ll really have to be creative and shake up the way we think about the game.
3. Start a Redemption project. This can be as simple as my 32 person Hamachi network, or it can be more complex, like Lambo’s card creator. This often brings excitement, and improves Redemption as a whole, potentially for the rest of its existence. You can combine this with #1 and host an online gameplay-variation tournament. Chris had a great way to draw people to his tournament by offering monetary incentives. March Madness and April Fools and how it kept people involved in Redemption for 2 months, and I hope for its return in 2014. However, the best Redemption project you can start is a playgroup. This expands the player-base, lets you meet new people, and ultimately increases the chance that we’ll get an expansion every year. It’s even possible to make money, albeit difficult.
4. Build rogue decks. This is currently what I’ve been experimenting with. Redemption has a very large card pool, and there are a lot of untapped potential for decks. Many people wrote off hand-control as being a thing of the past, but it just won Nationals. The metagame has shifted and really opened up the possibilities to fun new decks.
5. Post controversial threads about improving the game. Yes, this is a joke, but only partially. The Top Cut thread was very interesting and had me thinking about the possibilities. Last year I posted a thread about changing the structure of the Elder system, and it brought about a lot of good discussion. Unfortunately, a lot of these threads end up being just that—discussion. However, I was thrilled with Top Cut being implemented this year, and it’s great to see that Rob is willing to listen to the player-base. RMG has a few ideas of its own that we will propose throughout the year.
1. Invent new ways to play the game. Although Gameplay Variations is among the least popular forums, there have been a lot of types (such as Type Ban or Type 3) that have gotten enough attention as to be played online. I would like to suggest you be a bit more creative than just changing how decks are built, but actually change the gameplay. Make players discard two cards in order to play a dominant, or perhaps players draw a card every time an evil character gets a block. There are tons of things you can do to experiment with gameplay that will results in hours of fun. Sometimes a change of pace is all you need.
2. Create new cards. This is really just another way to reinvent the game. The main issue with this is most of the community is online, but Gabe recently showed me that RTS actually has a Card Expansion Creator built by GamerX. Additionally, with Lambo’s card creator, it’s easier than ever to think of new and exciting ideas that you can print out and test on your own. It was amazing the crowd that gathered to see Reanimation (a zombie version of Redemption, where the evil characters attack to eat brains) get played at nats. If you really want to make the game new and exciting, you’ll really have to be creative and shake up the way we think about the game.
3. Start a Redemption project. This can be as simple as my 32 person Hamachi network, or it can be more complex, like Lambo’s card creator. This often brings excitement, and improves Redemption as a whole, potentially for the rest of its existence. You can combine this with #1 and host an online gameplay-variation tournament. Chris had a great way to draw people to his tournament by offering monetary incentives. March Madness and April Fools and how it kept people involved in Redemption for 2 months, and I hope for its return in 2014. However, the best Redemption project you can start is a playgroup. This expands the player-base, lets you meet new people, and ultimately increases the chance that we’ll get an expansion every year. It’s even possible to make money, albeit difficult.
4. Build rogue decks. This is currently what I’ve been experimenting with. Redemption has a very large card pool, and there are a lot of untapped potential for decks. Many people wrote off hand-control as being a thing of the past, but it just won Nationals. The metagame has shifted and really opened up the possibilities to fun new decks.
5. Post controversial threads about improving the game. Yes, this is a joke, but only partially. The Top Cut thread was very interesting and had me thinking about the possibilities. Last year I posted a thread about changing the structure of the Elder system, and it brought about a lot of good discussion. Unfortunately, a lot of these threads end up being just that—discussion. However, I was thrilled with Top Cut being implemented this year, and it’s great to see that Rob is willing to listen to the player-base. RMG has a few ideas of its own that we will propose throughout the year.
There are also things that Cactus could do to help beat PND; as previously mentioned, in past this has been combated by releasing a new set, but this only delays the issue. While it’s fun to test the new cards, it really isn’t that hard to catch up on things towards the summer, and we saw that this year (though there was a bit of a time crunch with the 2013 Set only being legal a month before nationals).
1. Have large tournaments throughout the year. The simplest solution I can see would be Fall/Spring States, Winter Regionals, and Summer Nationals. This means that you have to playtest throughout the year, and it brings excitement while spreading your card game costs throughout the year. As far as I know, there is no date restriction on tournaments, and yet we only see the big tournaments in the summer. Yes, I’m proposing having State Tournaments twice a year, but this is chiefly due to needing something each season. It could be that each State gets 2 tournaments, or each state may choose only one. I understand that school will be in session during this time, but Bill Voigt’s T2 Only Tournament is hosted in March, and has been very successful. The main issue would be a set metagame after Regionals, but that’s where #2 comes in.
2. Release sets throughout the year. This is what many other TCGs do, and it works fairly well. I know what you’re thinking, “But Cactus doesn’t have the money for that, Westy!” Yes, that’s true, we can’t release 4 full size boosters per year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t divide the sets. The 2013 set, for example, could have released the starter deck and then the tin after nationals (or even January 2014), and FooF could have released 5 tins at a time. This allows Cactus to release a subset and then generate revenue for the next subset, while still allowing for the same size card-pool at nationals. It also gives the Elders the opportunity to let the metagame settle just enough to shake it up with cards like Scattered and Foreign Wives. However, this ultimately succumbs to the same delaying issue that any new set has without #1.
1. Have large tournaments throughout the year. The simplest solution I can see would be Fall/Spring States, Winter Regionals, and Summer Nationals. This means that you have to playtest throughout the year, and it brings excitement while spreading your card game costs throughout the year. As far as I know, there is no date restriction on tournaments, and yet we only see the big tournaments in the summer. Yes, I’m proposing having State Tournaments twice a year, but this is chiefly due to needing something each season. It could be that each State gets 2 tournaments, or each state may choose only one. I understand that school will be in session during this time, but Bill Voigt’s T2 Only Tournament is hosted in March, and has been very successful. The main issue would be a set metagame after Regionals, but that’s where #2 comes in.
2. Release sets throughout the year. This is what many other TCGs do, and it works fairly well. I know what you’re thinking, “But Cactus doesn’t have the money for that, Westy!” Yes, that’s true, we can’t release 4 full size boosters per year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t divide the sets. The 2013 set, for example, could have released the starter deck and then the tin after nationals (or even January 2014), and FooF could have released 5 tins at a time. This allows Cactus to release a subset and then generate revenue for the next subset, while still allowing for the same size card-pool at nationals. It also gives the Elders the opportunity to let the metagame settle just enough to shake it up with cards like Scattered and Foreign Wives. However, this ultimately succumbs to the same delaying issue that any new set has without #1.
Post Nationals Depression is probably one of the greatest enemies of Redemption. It’s very easy to end the summer off on a high note at Nationals, and then shelf your cards while you adjust back to a fall school/work schedule—and then never pull those cards back off the shelf. I love Redemption, and I honestly don’t ever see myself quitting the game while it still lives, but I hate to see people leave from a natural lull in the game. Redemption needs to grow, but it also needs to keep the current players interested throughout the entire year. With a bit of creativity and some help from Cactus, we can beat PND.
-Westy
-Westy
