Blah blah Andrew got bored, designed a card game, etc. Only really have a skeletal ruleset, some notes and two completely unbalanced and unchecked demo decks, but I figured I'd share.
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Building a character and a deck
A character in Dueling League is comprised of four elements: the character card and three pieces of equipment (a weapon, armor and an accessory). These cards are kept separately from the deck and, together, comprise your character.
A deck in Dueling League is an assortment of 40 cards, including attacks, defenses and actions. You may include up to 3 cards of a given name.
The cards you can include in your deck are determined by your character. Cards you can include are generic cards or ones that designate your character, your character's class, your character's cast or otherwise match any special conditions designated by your character or their equipment.
Cloud Strife is a fighter. As such, he may include the following cards in his deck: Climhazard (Cloud Strife), Sweeping Blow (Fighter) and Parry (No Designation). In addition, since he is equipped with the Fire Materia (Final Fantasy 7, This character may include Magical Attack – Fire attacks in their deck), he may also include Firaga (Mage, Magical Attack – Fire).
The Flow of Play
Dueling League is played in alternating turns, with the turn player being the attacker and the other player being the defender. Each turn is broken into several sections, as noted below.
Start of Turn
Anything that indicates it occurs at the start of turn triggers.
Draw
Each player draws cards. The attacking player draws 4 and the defending player draws 2. If drawing a card would increase your hand size beyond 7, skip drawing that card. If you would draw a card but the deck is empty, shuffle your graveyard back into your deck and remove a number of cards equal to your character's energy pool from the game, then resume drawing. If you have no deck left to draw from after that, you do not draw cards.
Stock
Each player restores a number of energy to their pool equal to half the value of the pool. If this would increase the pool beyond its size, then all excess energy is lost.
Main
During this phase, the players alternate playing or activating cards, starting with the attacking player. The main phase ends once both players pass the opportunity to play a card in succession.
The types of cards that can be played are as follows:
Attacks: Played only by the attacking player, unless otherwise instructed by a card.
Defenses: Played only against an opposing attack.
Actions: Played at any time during the main phase.
Attacks are resolved only at the end of the main phase. For more details, see the Flow of Attack/Defense.
End of Turn
Any effects that indicate the end of turn take place.
The Flow of Attack/Defense
The main chunk of the game is in the back and forth of attacking and defending.
Attacks are only played during the Main Phase, and are typically only played by attacking player.
To play an Attack, the attacking player must simply announce that they are playing the attack, pay all designated costs and place the card (or an indicator, if using a Basic Attack) into play. Once an Attack has been played, the attacked player has the option of playing a Defense. The process is the same as playing an attack.
The damage of an attack is determined during the Attack Resolution at the end of the Main Phase. The Attack's damage is added to any existing modifiers from equipment, actions or reinforce values. You then add the Defense's (if any) Defense Value to any existing modifiers, and subtract this value from the Attack's damage. If this is a positive value, then that amount of damage is dealt. If it is 0 or less, then the attack deals no damage.
Attacks and Defenses may be modified by reinforcing them. This is done in two ways.
Energy Reinforce: This may only be done once a turn. You may add any number of energy from your energy pool to the attack. This is done by moving the energy counters next to the Attack or Defense.
Hand Reinforce: This may be done multiple times. You may place a card from your hand facedown next to the Attack or Defense to use its reinforce value to increase the power of the attack or defense. These cards are revealed during the Attack Resolutoin.
Winning the Game
A player wins the game when the opposing character's HP is reduced to 0 or less.
