Game Design ?: Card Drafting

1. I love me some MTG drafting and it's the only way I would still play the game because it's SO nuanced. But Not Sure is right: there's no way you'd introduce anyone to a game like that. I had trouble even the first couple times I played Dominon because I was playing with 2 or 3 really experienced players that would grab or discard cards without even stopping and I didn't know what the cards said or why they were doing that (i.e. I had no feel for strategy at all) and I finally decided I didn't like the game as a consequence.

2. I really enjoyed Rune Age's approach, in that there are both cards that can be drafted that are exclusively yours and there are cards in a central pool that anyone can get. In order to draft them, you need to generate currency which is one kind of action you can take, but you can also attack players or NPCs (depending on which scenario of the game you're playing) in the same turns, so there's always something to do.

3. Given your description, I'd tend to favor drafting bases over random. The first couple plays will essentially be random, anyway, as people figure out which cards go together, but after that there will be a skill component present in recognizing those combos.

Try it all the ways, and see what's fun.

I'll go on record with "deal random for the first few games or with new players, then check out DRAFTING RULES in Appendix A!"

Jack got exactly what I meant. If the number of draft picks you do is minimal, that's probably fine, unless they're super critical to the game. But every draft is a strong chance for a n00b to make their deck (and thus their game) worse, so have fun teaching that game. Until you have a base level of competence, drafting just tilts the table farther away from a new player.

That’s kind of why I wanted to avoid it.

Maybe I’ll include “base game” and “advanced game” rules, despite me hating that, personally.