The Kaiju Cards RPG — Part 1
Hello, welcome to Kaiju Cards. Or well not actually Kaiju Cards but a Medium post about Kaiju Cards. We are still making Kaiju Cards.
Welcome to a Medium post about Kaiju Cards.
Kaiju Cards takes place on Good Earth. Good Earth is like Earth, but unlike Earth (bad), Good Earth is good and shaped very similar to the state of Florida. Some famous Good Earth attractions you might have heard of include The Trash Hole and Lich Island.
If you come to Good Earth you will be a tourist (for now). Tourists can have their status updated to resident after completing the Good Earth visa application process. There are many factions and different types of creatures on Good Earth and they are all desperate for your attention and approval.
On Good Earth Kaiju can become your friends. If you befriend a Kaiju you can do stuff together like:
- Hangout in dungeons
- Visit The Trash Hole
- Die in The Trash Hole
- Compete in arbitrary games of power with your friends
- Leave your friends for dead in The Trash Hole
- Never talk to your dad again
- Craft items
- Gather and grind for raw material to make such items (we are trying to make this fun we promise)
Dungeons and Battling
We haven’t talked much about actual game mechanics yet but I think it’s time we can finally do that a little. There are four different dungeons in Kaiju Cards, each scaled to a different level of difficulty. Depending on how strong your cards are and how many cards you have, you will probably want to choose one dungeon over another. The dungeons are:
Hooligan’s Bluff (for babies)
The Matcha Caves (for babies if they knew how to fight really good)
Fort Skeleton (scary)
The Ninth Trash Hole of Hell (extremely scary)
There is a cap for how many cards you can bring to each dungeon. The amount of loot you can get from each dungeon is scaled to how difficult it is to make it through that dungeon. Likewise, the further you manage to progress through the dungeon, the amount of treasure each new room you venture into scales with how deep into the dungeon you are. Looters are very common in Good Earth dungeons so the deepest, least accessible dungeons have the best treasure. If you die in a dungeon however, you will lose a large percentage of the treasure you have gained from that dungeon run. This produces a risk/reward system of calculating exactly how far you think you and your party will want to venture before deciding it’s time to go home. Your travel options inside of a dungeon are generative, and you will need to improvise with any kinds of run-specific surprises, encounters, and bonuses you’ll come across along the way.
When you enter a dungeon your party can have multiple party members, although this is not required and it is very possible to make it far into dungeons with just a single common. There are tactical benefits and cons to every single card in the game. If your favorite character in the game happens to be a common, there is nothing stopping you from taking 6 of them and doing the same dungeons a Lich Lord or Hatefly would. That doesn’t mean having 6 commons is the exact same as having a Legendary, but there are ways to play the game with almost any combination of cards you have and unlike a lot of games no card is useless or so bad it is unplayable. We want everyone who owns a single card to have a fun time playing and not feel like they’re unable to actually play the game.
The battle system is turn based, with you and the monsters who live in the dungeon taking turns activating party characters. Fans of JRPG combat systems will be very familiar with a lot of the mechanics.
Kaiju have three different stances they can choose from at the beginning of each round of combat. The three stances are aggressive, neutral and defensive. Kaiju in a defensive stance take less damage but deal less damage. Kaiju in an aggressive stance deal more damage but also take more damage, and are target prioritized by the AI. Kaiju in a neutral stance receive no buff or de-buff. Tactically switching stances depending on the health and damage output of the monsters you are fighting in the current dungeon turn by turn will be a big part of player skill in the game (along with target priority).
Each character has unique abilities and moves, and no two characters are exactly the same (at level one at least, before players decide how they want to level their Kaiju, how to build their skill tree, and what attributes to min/max).
Here are some teaser stats of level 1 Kaijus:
Matcha Gelatin Cube:
Base Health 78, Base Attack 7. Point Value: 15. Base Moves: Itchy Ooze (Damage Over Time 1), Surprise Allergy (Random Damage 2).
Penguin Knight:
Base Health 66, Base Attack 9. Point Value: 15. Base Moves: Valiant Jab (Basic Attack), Sword Slash (Slash Damage).
Mushroom Farmer:
Base Health 112, Base Attack 8. Point Value: 20. Base Moves: Whomp (Random Damage 1), Cloud of Spores (Damage Over Time 1, Random Damage 3), Bash (Basic Attack).
Notorious B.E.A.N:
Base Health 75, Base Attack 14. Point Value: 20. Base Moves: Rapid Fire Bolts (Slash Damage), Hunted By The B.E.A.N (Damage Over Time 2), B.E.A.N Never Misses (Stable Damage).
Jerry:
Base Health 86, Base Attack 19. Point Value: 25. Base Moves: Telepathic Secrets (Basic Attack), Extended Eye Contact (Damage Over Time 2, Random Damage 1), Jerry Knows The Names of All (Splash Damage).
Kaiju also have a “point value”, which is essentially their power rating. Dungeons have a max point limit, so players will have to be careful selecting which party members they want to bring to each dungeon. While some characters may have lower stats, they also cost less “point value” and thus allow you to increase your party size. It’s important to understand that base stats are just one component of team composition and tactics, and that even characters with lower point values may prove to be even more valuable to your strategy. Since dungeons are based off of point limits and not a set number of character slots, it allows more flexibility when choosing your party. If you really want to take 6 Gnome Hooligans to The 9th Trash Hole of Hell please be our guest. They are extremely random glass cannons and it is honestly pretty fun.
Kaiju gain experience points after each dungeon run and level up over time. After hitting the maximum level cap, players can continue to upgrade their Kaiju with different rare items and equipment, just like an MMO. This gives you even further customization of exactly what you want to be able to do with your Kaiju during combat.
We are also implementing a leaderboard and ranking system. There will be leaderboards for various categories with rewards and prizes. This will add a competitive element to PvE play which we think will be very exciting. People familiar with RPG ladder seasons or rogue-like competitive seeds will understand.
A brief note on skins: We like the idea of skins having in-game effects, but don’t want to create unforseen balance or mechanical issues. It’ll take more playtesting before this is developed more intricately.
Player-Owned Distribution
At the most basic level, you will be able to make new cards with your cards. This puts the responsibility of distributing access to new players in the hands of cardholders. And yes, you will own these cards that you create. You can play with them, or sell them, or do whatever you want with them. The only exception to new cards being user-generated will be very occasional pack drops of new characters.
More on this at a later date, but what we can say now is — there will be limits and rules to this process, and it will not inflate supply of the original Presale and Alpha Series cards in any way. All user-generated cards will be challenging to create. This process will result in a new generation of Kaiju Cards.
We are building an in-game economy where players can exchange items and cards with each other, subject to inflation and deflation and all the other normal and not so normal things economies are subject to. We keep a close eye on how other blockchain games address these topics, and having a robust economy is a big priority of ours.
This is just the beginning, and we have lots more development, features, and modules we can’t wait to share with you. Thank you to everyone who’s supported Kaiju Cards so far and we look forward to growing with you!
As a disclaimer, the game is still in development and these things are all subject to change. We hope you like this game. Thanks again.
Come join the Kaiju Cards Discord https://discord.gg/kaijucards
