EVE General Discussion

I invented this simple card game for Fanfest and wound up playing it with a few people, who all said they enjoyed it. It's called "Shield Tank.

Objective

In Shield Tank, your objective is to be the last player standing. Every player starts with 30 hit points, and your objective is to use attacking cards to reduce all the other players to 0 hp, while using your shield to protect your own HP total.

Setup

The dealer first needs to remove the Jokers from the deck. Games of six players or more need a second deck. The dealer then deals three cards face-down to each player. This is their hand. The dealer then deals four cards face-up to each player – this is their Shield. Each player needs to record their hit point totally (which usually starts at 30) in some way – pen and paper, your phone, a calculator or five six-sided dice are all ideal. All cards that have not been dealt are placed in a “draw pile in the middle of the table. Next to this is the “scrap pile” which begins play empty. Play then commences with the player to the dealer's left, and goes clockwise around the table.

Players are encouraged to “call primary”, form temporary alliances of convenience, lie and cheat. Just don't get caught.

Turn

At the beginning of each player's turn, if their shield contains less than four cards, then it “recharges”: the player draws cards directly from the draw pile into their shield until it contains 4 cards.

Once the player's shield contains four cards, they may take one single action. The available actions are:

Swap: The player may exchange a card in their shield for one from their hand, with the shield card being put in their hand.

Scrap: The player may discard a card from their hand by placing it on the scrap pile, and replace it with a card from the draw pile. Cards may not be discarded from the shield.

Attack: The player may attack another player by playing a card from their hand (NOT their shield). If the card is of a suit not present in the target player's shield, then it does its full face value in damage, which reduces the target player's hitpoint total. Aces are worth one point, Jacks, Queens and Kings are worth 11, 12 and 13 respectively.

If the attacking card is of a suit that is present in the target player's shield, then the damage done by the attack is reduced by the face value of the highest shield card of that suit. (So for instance, if player A attacked with the 10 of clubs, and the defending player's shield contained the 5 and 7 of clubs, then the attack would do 3 damage).

The attack card and any shield card that was used to block it then go on the scrap pile. If the shield card is of a higher face value than the attacking card, then the attack glances off, doing no real damage, and the attacking player counts as having chosen to Scrap their card instead – the defender does not lose their shield card. In the event of a tie (only possible when using two combined decks), then the shield card is scrapped, but the target player takes no damage.

If an Ace is used to attack a King of the same suit, then the King is reduced to an effective value of 0 – it is scrapped, and the target player takes 1 damage. If a King is used to attack an Ace, however, it does 13 damage less the Ace's value of 1, for a total of 12 damage.

At the end of their turn, if their hand contains less than 3 cards, then the player “reloads” their hand to 3 cards.

If an attack reduces a player to 0 hitpoints, then their shield and hand are all placed on the scrap pile.

If the draw pile is emptied, simply shuffle the scrap pile and use it as a replacement draw pile. This menial task should be given to a defeated player to give them something to do.

Optional rules
These optional rules variants can be combined however you like.

Loot the wreck: When a player is reduced to 0 hitpoints and defeated, the player who scored the final blow may “loot the wreck” - if they wish, they may take one single card from the defeated player's hand and use it to replace any card in their own hand or shield. The replaced card is then scrapped.

Scam: This optional rule requires the Jokers to be left in the deck. Jokers can have one of three effects: A Joker in the shield reduces damage taken from any card by 5, but has no suit. It is scrapped if the controlling player loses any HP. A joker in the hand may either be played to “repair” another player and increase their remaining HP by 5 (this may not take them beyond the starting total of 30), or it can be played alongside an attack card to cause the attack to be “suitless” - it does its full face value damage, but does not cause any of the target's shield cards to be scrapped.

Smartbomb: In this variant, whenever an attack is played, it hits all players, including the attacker. Resolve the attack normally against every player at the table.

Nosferatu: In this variant, players begin play with only 20 HP. Whenever a player does damage to another player's HP, they “steal” those HP and add them to their own total.

Slowboat: In this variant, rather than reducing hit points, simply tally up how much damage has been taken by each player and play the game for a predetermined number of rounds. The player who has taken the least damage when the game ends is the winner

Shield Boost: With this variant, a player may “permanently” play a card to regain HP equal to its value. This reduces the maximum size of their hand by 1 card. A player can only boost twice in one game. The card used to boost is not scrapped but instead is removed from the game entirely. A player may never have more than their starting HP.

Nano: Players may take two actions per turn, rather than only one.

Real Men Hull Tank: Players that are reduced to 0 HP are not destroyed until the end of their next turn.

I'll stick to pokeman card.

I expected to be trolling you right about now, but I like your game.

I'm not sure about the variations, but nice work!

definitely the slasher

I propose standard eve drinking game rules:

1. Drink
2. Log in
3. Drink more
4. Choose character
5. Drink more
6. turn yourself into hilariously bad KM
7. drink more

Actually turned out to be quite fun to play, and had a good taste of eve to it (back stabbing, treachery and some blobbing tactics involved)

that sounds mint. will be trying to play that soon as

wont tell the family its based on eve tho

After victory in what I believe was the inaugural game of shield tank I must say, I enjoyed it (and not purely because I won) It's a good tactical game that makes you have to think, plot and possibly even collaborate and backstab.


Thanks for designing it Stitch!

Curses, though I suggest you edit history. Having it on the third floor in the corner of some Icelandic Pizza place out in the suburbs makes a much cooler story.