Let’s talk mechanics! I want to start posting a bit more about game design and some mechanics choices, let me know if you like this idea.
It’s no secret that the skills are the heart of Ambal, and I wanted to share some of them and go over a couple of mechanics.
Skill 1 – Versatile Killer
[Mastery] is something you might not be familiar with, basically your Mastery is equivalent to how many cards of that School you have in the Discard Pile. It exists to reward players for using many cards from the same School, allow me to create some skills that were strong and prevent players from picking a School just to add that one strong card to their deck.
Another cool mechanic on this card is it’s combo potential, requiring you to play a card from another School in order to use this one. Mixing and matching Schools to create your own playstyle is a really important experience I want for the game, like when creating your character in an RPG. This also gives me more room to create cards that will be better when mixing schools and cards that will be better when focusing a single school.
For the art of Versatile Killer (done by the amazing @aun_hana ) I wanted to use the character from the box displaying it’s skills with both physical and magical combat, which work well with the idea of an Assassination skill removing a Boon.
Skill 2 – Fierce Thrust
Since Ambal uses simultaneous rounds, with players going through the Battle Phase at the same time, planning and timing is really important to succeed. But planning in this situation won’t be a straight path, be prepared to have a few options in mind depending on what your opponent plays.
With 7 skills in your hand and your pool of Energy, you not only have to plan what you want to use that round but also if you can disrupt your opponent’s plan with a block or removing a key condition or curse.
Using a skill like Fierce Thrust to its full potential might be tricky, but it pays off big time if you get it right. You can achieve this by preventing your opponent from using skills, using cheap skills to stall the use of Fierce Thrust or removing their Energy. This is where combining skills and different Schools can really improve a strategy you’re going for.
It’s all about creating the right moment in Battle to surprise your opponent. But be careful, they will be doing the same!
For the art of Fierce Thrust I wanted it to be really intense, and the pose inspired by fencing. Vincent (@Vincent_VanHoof) did an amazing job capturing the essence of the skill in this illustration!
Skill 3 – Harae’s Tear
At first sight this card’s use seems pretty obvious: remove something negative from you. But there’s way more to it, like many skills in Ambal, when you find the right moment to use it. When you are removing a Condition or Curse from yourself, that effect is triggered before negative effects coming from your opponent. This means that if they were planning on taking advantage of a Condition, like Burning, with their skill you can not only remove the Burning but also render their skill useless.There are many interactions and skill combos that are hiding in plain sight, part of the fun in Ambal is to explore and find clever ways to make the most out of each skill. Can’t wait for players to find these out. My goal moving forward is to offer more of these combos, more interesting interactions, surprising effects, everything to keep the battles dynamic and fun!
Harae’s Tear art (done by the amazing @gears2gnomes) is closely related to the lore of Ambal. The primeval spirit Harae is known for its purification abilities, and it’s mind-bending fiery water that soothes and heals others.
That’s it for today! I’ll keep posting these on IG every now and then, and compile the posts here.
Stay safe everyone.