rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad

Novice queries

5 messages from 5 participants · 29 November 1994 – 01 December 1994
original thread on Google Groups

Cynical

Hi, I just picked up two starter decks and a booster pack to try this game out. I've played quite a few RPGs before and I've gotten sick of the massive amount of $$ you needed to spend on expansion and time for setup. I've looked at magic but a fellow I know told me that Magic is essentially a powermonger type of game where the guy who has the most powerful card usually wins. He suggested Jyhad would be a better bet because there's more interaction and subtle strategy in the play. So, here I am reading everyone's posts and saving them to print up. :) Seriously: 1) How much time do you spend on a game (and how many people are in the game)? 2) I find that with the exception of trading, it might be tough to get all the cards in the set. Is there a list, however, of all the cards in the set? 3) Is there an FAQ for this group? (Maybe it has the card list?) 4) I skimmed through the Eternal Struggles book. It seems more a background source similar to those in RPGs and contains mostly qualitative gaming information. Is this of any gaming-rules necessity? Or is it enough that I have the booklet in the starter set and read this group? 5) What kind of expansion set are planned for this? I can see great possibili- ties for a Medaevel or Dark Ages setting. 6) Are there plans to expand the *type* of cards? Considering the amount of strategy involved, wouldn't it be interesting to have an Agenda card or something (political, personal, financial, etc)? Anyways, thanks for any responses. I hope to get my friends hooked on this too. Regards, Victor -- vic...@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca STATION z e b r a victo...@lambada.oit.unc.edu g r a f k DESIGN "...those skilled at the unorthodox are infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustable as the great rivers." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Jon Michael Coats

Cynical (vic...@gpu2.srv.ualberta.ca) wrote: I'll try to answer some of these briefly...i agree with you , you can play jyhad well without a lot of investment, a 2-300 dollar magic deck like some of the ones i and friends play will usually (not always, but usually, yes) just ultraslay a cheap deck. Power magic decks are made to win fast, regardless of what color you play, regardless of what you do. so, anyway...with a crypt of 12 minimum in jyhad, there is a much bigger lack of control for a power deck; you can draw your worst vamps for the cards you draw and bang, you're screwed already...and also, with the hand sizes set at 7, you can not get totally removed from the game like you can in magic if someone sees to it that you have no hand, no library, and no turn .. so, let me give my opinions to your questions, and feel free to reply with more specific q's. thumper : 1) How much time do you spend on a game (and how many people are in the game)? duels can be over in 5 min if one person gets screwed up draw or other gets 'oh god, you are toast' draw...info highway etc will just cheese someone right out the door in about 4 turns sometimes...but that's if you are playing 'fast' decks as we call them..small vamps, no tableau to set up. i'd say average duel is more like 20 to 30 min though, although a good one can sometimes go an hour, if you both have lots of defenses. multiplayer can stretch out forever***...a 3 player game can take only a half hour, again, if someone gets bumrushed to hell with a bad draw, he's dead in about 5 turns, the whole thing is over minutes later usually, but for 3 player and up, i'd say 1 hour for the first 3 people and add 1/2 hour per person after that...2 hours is about right for a good 5 player game, but you never know..depends on the types of decks...heavy bleed or political decks tend to speed things up a lot. : 2) I find that with the exception of trading, it might be tough to get all the : cards in the set. Is there a list, however, of all the cards in the set? There is a list usually available on here all the time, look for a post titled checklist. same for Faq. : 3) Is there an FAQ for this group? : 4) I skimmed through the Eternal Struggles book. It seems more a background : source similar to those in RPGs and contains mostly qualitative gaming : information. Is this of any gaming-rules necessity? Or is it enough that I : have the booklet in the starter set and read this group? You know as much as any of us if you have a starter book, the rest that is arguable is discussed here...it's best to just start playing and refer to the book when something you don't understand happens (contesting titles for instance, most newbies don't worry about that for a while) then eventually you will have read the whole book at different times. : 5) What kind of expansion set are planned for this? I can see great possibili- : ties for a Medaevel or Dark Ages setting. I hear there is a Sabbat expansion coming, but i don't play Masquerade, so don't know much about it except general stuff.. 'the evil nasty vampires...' etc... possibly same expansions as Masquerade , we think too: Mage, Garou, etc. : 6) Are there plans to expand the *type* of cards? Considering the amount of : strategy involved, wouldn't it be interesting to have an Agenda card or : something (political, personal, financial, etc)? At least from what has happened to Magic in about the last 14 months, i'd say the types of cards will not change at all, there is limitless room for expansion in the format laid out..the stuff in the newest Magic Expansion, which is what? --number 5, i think--- puts new spins on all kinds of stuff. trust me, they can change a lot without new types of cards, but you never know..i myself would like some kind of NPC characters who are not allies or retainers who affect things or what not..but that could fall under master easily enough..see : smiling jack. : Anyways, thanks for any responses. I hope to get my friends hooked on this too. heh heh..you have a funny way of treating your friends..jyhad is like magic in many ways, and getting someone into magic is like giving 'em free crack. respectfully, Thumper ---=o:

Don Sowell

>I'll try to answer some of these briefly...i agree with you , you can >play jyhad well without a lot of investment, a 2-300 dollar magic deck >like some of the ones i and friends play will usually (not always, but >usually, yes) just ultraslay a cheap deck. Power magic decks are made to >win fast, regardless of what color you play, regardless of what you do. Amen. >: 1) How much time do you spend on a game (and how many people are in the game)? >duels can be over in 5 min if one person gets screwed up draw or other >gets 'oh god, you are toast' draw...info highway etc will just cheese >someone right out the door in about 4 turns sometimes...but that's if you >are playing 'fast' decks as we call them..small vamps, no tableau to set >up. i'd say average duel is more like 20 to 30 min though, although a >good one can sometimes go an hour, if you both have lots of defenses. >multiplayer can stretch out forever***...a 3 player game can take only a >half hour, again, if someone gets bumrushed to hell with a bad draw, he's >dead in about 5 turns, the whole thing is over minutes later usually, but >for 3 player and up, i'd say 1 hour for the first 3 people and add 1/2 >hour per person after that...2 hours is about right for a good 5 player game, >but you never know..depends on the types of decks...heavy bleed or >political decks tend to speed things up a lot. Whoa! You obviously play more two player games than I do. My experience is the small games can go quickly, but when you get four or more, the real fun of the game begins and it can go quite awhile. I had an eight player game go nine hours once, for example. Don Sowell

Tom Wylie

Cynical <vic...@gpu2.srv.ualberta.ca> wrote: >1) How much time do you spend on a game (and how many people are in the game)? This can vary tremendously. Groups who know what they're doing and have efficient decks can generally finish a 4-6 player game in under 2 hours. >2) I find that with the exception of trading, it might be tough to get all the > cards in the set. Is there a list, however, of all the cards in the set? >3) Is there an FAQ for this group? (Maybe it has the card list?) There is no FAQ for this group. A card list can be found in Duelist #3, or on the ftp site at marvin.macc.wisc.edu. >4) I skimmed through the Eternal Struggles book. It seems more a background > source similar to those in RPGs and contains mostly qualitative gaming > information. Is this of any gaming-rules necessity? Or is it enough that I > have the booklet in the starter set and read this group? The Eternal Struggles book was mostly meant to introduce Jyhad players to the World of Darkness (i.e. the RPGs). WotC will eventually publish something more along the lines of a Pocket Players Guide for Jyhad. >5) What kind of expansion set are planned for this? I can see great possibili- > ties for a Medaevel or Dark Ages setting. There will be expansions, but nothing has been said about what might be in them. >6) Are there plans to expand the *type* of cards? Considering the amount of > strategy involved, wouldn't it be interesting to have an Agenda card or > something (political, personal, financial, etc)? As someone else pointed out, there have never been any *types* of cards added to Magic, so it's unlikely such would be added to Jyhad as well. We're much more likely to just use the current type base, and keep making cards that do things no card did before. Tom Wylie rec.games.trading-cards.* Network Representative for aa...@hal.com Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Jef Lepine

jmc...@artsci.wustl.edu (Jon Michael Coats) Wrote: : 1) How much time do you spend on a game (and how many people are in the game)? duels can be over in 5 min if one person gets screwed up draw or other gets 'oh god, you are toast' draw...info highway etc will just cheese someone right out the door in about 4 turns sometimes...but that's if you are playing 'fast' decks as we call them..small vamps, no tableau to set up. i'd say average duel is more like 20 to 30 min though, although a good one can sometimes go an hour, if you both have lots of defenses. multiplayer can stretch out forever***...a 3 player game can take only a half hour, again, if someone gets bumrushed to hell with a bad draw, he's dead in about 5 turns, the whole thing is over minutes later usually, but for 3 player and up, i'd say 1 hour for the first 3 people and add 1/2 hour per person after that...2 hours is about right for a good 5 player game, but you never know..depends on the types of decks...heavy bleed or political decks tend to speed things up a lot. My friends and I have been playing Jyhad for a few weeks now. We don't have many cards so we don't really argue on how many in a deck you can use. Our games last from anywhere from 30min. to 2 hours. We usually either play a duel or 3 player games. Around here Jyhad hasn't picked up yet. We've been trying to push the game a bit and give it some exposure to the people around us. A few of the group plays with starters that have some trade-ins and a few of us just buy cards here and there. I have what I call a Permission bleed deck. It consists of mainly obfuscate/auspex with about a 2 to 1 ratio of intercept to stealth. I try to play with vampires of about 2 to 6 blood with some guns. I do admit I use the Hunting Grounds/Blood Doll combo. Jef Lepine