FFG Announce Richard Garfield’s New Card Game, KeyForge
August 2, 2018 by brennon
Fantasy Flight Games announced yesterday at their Keynote speech that there would be a new card game landing from them helmed by the talented Richard Garfield. KeyForge has been causing quite the storm over at Gen Con.
KeyForge is a game that promises to be completely different from others of its ilk. There is no deckbuilding element here and no blind buys in the traditional sense. Instead, each deck is entirely unique and features cards that maybe will never be seen by another player. According to the Blog Post on the game there are 104,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 within just the first set. I will wait to see if that truly is possible...
Bucking the traditional format the game now focuses on each deck being an entirely self-contained and unique way to play the game with a set of cards that you need to get used to using in whatever combination they arrive.
The game, therefore, stops being dependant on the 'best cards' as it were and instead focuses on you being a skilled player, adaptable to the whims of your deck. The Starter Set for the game comes with two distinct decks that will help you learn to play as well as all the gubbins to get going.
You will also find two Unique KeyForge Archon Decks within the set which you can then crack open to begin delving into the mad world they appear to have created here.
I'm not entirely sold on this concept as of yet but I'll have to watch some gameplay to get my head around this. Hopefully, the guys and gals will get a look at this in more detail during their Gen Con coverage.
What do you think from what you've heard so far?
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It will be an entirely different way of playing compared with most card/deck games and that is interesting in its own right. I believe that more needs to be seen to truly know if this game will fulfill what could rise to some very lofty heights.
We all received two decks last night. It is very interesting game play. Waiting to see after we play some more.
It’s a shiny trailer… not being a TGC, CCG or LCG player this doesn’t ring a bell for me… at first sight I though that there was some satire going on… but… well…. not my cup of tea 😉
Interesting looking world they are building for the game.
That does look interesting.
The price points being talked about make it worth a go at least. I’ll most likely pick this up and see if it grabs me or not.
This has really gotten my attention, that is for sure.
The idea of unique decks, is huge. I actually don’t care about the “if your deck sucks” arguments. The idea that only I have this deck. Only I have this Archon (archon names and pics are unique to every deck as well). That is what grabs me.
As players we can set up our own game plays, so even low tier decks will get some play time. Players invented pauper for magic, after all.
The only way that I can see this being possible is if they have an algorithm designing their cards (I’m quite certain that they won’t be making and playtesting an octillion combinations, you know?).
I think it is more like how Borderlands has a bajillion guns, by randomizing different components and stats.
So, I think this is procedurally generated game design. Which is interesting- and certainly not something we’ve seen in a card or board game before.
The cards are not unique in the set. There are 360 cards in the first set, for 7 factions. The cards are set in stone, for that set. The uniqueness comes from the combination of those cards, to make your deck. Your deck has an archon, who is unique (both in name and artwork). Every archon can use three factions (out of 7). So your deck is composed of cards from those three factions, in a unique distribution that is unique to that archon and that deck. Your deck is serialized, some how. Each deck has your archons picture art… Read more »
Do you have solid info on that? What I’m not getting is how you’d get to a bajillion possible decks from that. With 360 cards for each faction, and sixty cards in your deck, I’m coming up with only about a hundred thousand possibilities. Seems like a fair amount, but they said a Hundred and Four SEXTILLION possibilities. I don’t think that they’re just throwing a made up number- and the only way I can see for them to get there is if they have something procedurally generated from a set of possibilities. Do we know what the archon cards… Read more »
Look up above in the article. The “Radiant Argos the Supreme starter Deck” picture is the picture of that decks Archon. His name is “Radiant Argos the Supreme”. Every Archon will be unique. But you need to understand, they don’t need a billion possible archons. They are never going to sell a billion decks from the first set, at most maybe a million? And that’s being generous, for starting game. So while yes they have to have unique names for every deck, they don’t need names for every possible deck combination… just the decks the print. Every deck has 36… Read more »
A 36 card deck, with each card being one of 360 options gives 10^92 possible decks. They are advertising 10^26 possible decks, so they have plenty of room to apply some constraints that eliminate unplayable or otherwise stupid decks.
Huh, it really did look to me like too many possible combinations for 360 cards, but I think I might have done my math wrong. I’m pretty sure you’re accounting for combinations where exact duplicate cards are printed in a different order, though. But maybe they made the same mistake.
They’re clearly using an algorithm for the card backs and card name (basically a name generator).
Something to note- the official page for Keyforge now claims merely 104 Quadrillion possible combinations, rather than 104 Sextillion. While still an astronomically larger number than decks they will print, it is also a number that is a LOT smaller.
Yes, you’re right, my number treats the same cards in a different order as a different deck, but since there are over 50 orders of magnitude between my figure and the one they are advertising that can’t be the whole explanation – I assume the remaining difference is the constraints imposed by the algorithm to keep each deck viable.
And I agree, they must be generating the identity cards / card back procedurally, which is pretty neat in and of itself.
It is a really interesting concept, but probably not one for me. I like deck building (not competitively – more themed jank) so the fixed deck doesn’t really work for me. Also not really buying the art style.
Will be interesting to see how it gets picked up
IT seems wont be 100% random. The algorithm will pair some cards with some other cards. Some cards require certain cards to combo with, so those cards are in the decks.
Also some cards can be in different flavors. For instance a axe of troll slaying, verse and axe of giant slaying. They are same cards, just with a words troll swapped with giants.
What a fantastic way of disrupting the whole CCG/LCG/TCG marketplace. Unique, presumably balanced decks. No pay-to-win.