Last time, we talked about the Delta of Randomness.
The maximum and minimum distance a card with a random element will fall from the power curve.
And why having a high Delta of Randomness doesn't create exciting moments as often as it simply makes a game feel arbitrary.
This time, we'll talk about how that works with random effects that aren't necessarily beneficial.
We'll discuss some other ways to use randomness, and then we'll dive into some practical examples.
So first off: what happens when you wanna put a negative random effect into your game?
Well, this mostly functions like the positive effects, but in reverse.
The higher the Delta of Randomness here, the further above the curve the vanilla version of the card will have to be.
The Ogre Brute is a good example of this. A 4/4 for three mana is fairly strong in an Arena environment.
It trades well with almost anything the opponent's gonna be putting out on turn three.
It's substantially above the curve, so it's potential downside has to be substantial as well.
The fact that there's a 50% chance that it'll attack the wrong target fits that bill.
This card is cleverly designed, though, at least for an Arena format.
It's immediately apparent to any player that this card's stats are above the curve...
...making it a good introductory tool to randomness for new players.
And making it so that it feels like you're getting away with something when it DOES attack the right target.
Rather than just simply losing something when it doesn't.
Even if this card attacks the wrong target in the early game, it still often remains a threat on the board...
...meaning that a bad roll doesn't just make it useless. The opponent still has to deal with it.
It provides some value, even if it isn't the full promise of a 4/4 minion for three mana.
Lastly, the random element on this card gives the player a lot of interesting choices if it's on the board later in the game.
The player can start an attack by seeing where the ogre goes and playing around that.
Or they can try to eliminate the targets that would trade well with the ogre before seeing what direction it charges off in.
Which might result in a slightly less optimal turn, but also potentially mitigates the downside of its randomness.
These are the general design principles you want in a negative random effect card.
You want the card to be clearly above curve, so it feels positive to pick.
You want the negative effect to feel less like a negative effect than just how that card plays.
Which makes a good random result feel like a positive effect.
And you want the player to have interesting ways to play around the potential negative effect of the random element.
So now let's talk about reciprocal randomness, which is just a plain odd idea, but actually has a lot of utility in games.
This leads us, at last, back to Spellslinger.
When Spellslinger hits the table, both players get a random spell. But it's not the SAME random spell.
Both players roll independently on the same random table. Which means that taken over the series of a thousand games...
...both players should be getting approximately the same advantage out of the card.
But the problem is that players don't play in increments of a thousand games. They play one game at a time
And even if they understand that the randomness evens out over a thousand games...
Emotionally, they feel the effects of cards like these one game at a time.
Now these sorts of cards REALLY have to have a small Delta of Randomness as the effects of that Delta are essentially doubled.
A positive effect for your opponent is a negative effect for you.
This means that the wider the Delta of Randomness, the less likely it is that this card actually impacts both players.
Even though that's how reciprocal randomness is sort of supposed to feel.
Sure, over a thousand games, this card will help you win as often as it makes you lose...
But in almost none of those games will playing this card be roughly equally beneficial for both you and your opponent.
Which is unfortunate, as cards like these can be a great way to get players to try something new and interesting...
...rather than just playing out their rote game plan. But ESPECIALLY in formats like Arena...
...where you usually can't edge the reciprocal randomness in your favor.
That's just not what happens when a card can swing the game this much.
So let's contrast Spellslinger with Mechanical Yeti.
The vanilla versions of both of these cards, Spider Tank and Chillwind Yet, are slightly above curve.
And that's exactly where Spellslinger and Mechanical Yeti should be, as uncertainty is always a negative in strategy games.
And so you have to reward the player a bit for indulging in that reciprocal randomness, because it makes planning ahead more difficult.
But that's where the similarities end.
Both of these have reciprocal random effect and yet, they affect the game in very different ways.
Spellslinger is a wildly swingy card that can simply determine the course of a game on its own if the players' rolls vary significantly.
This means that in cases where the player is ahead, it's a dead draw because they can't risk playing it.
Doing so might lose them the game.
But even when the player's behind, Spellslinger's not necessarily gonna save them in that scenario, either.
What this card should do is make players switch up their strategies a great deal, and play in new and interesting ways...
Because it gives them access to cards they might otherwise not have in their decks.
But having that much swinginess buries this aspect under a feeling of arbitrary value.
Winning or losing doesn't depend on how well you adapt to playing with the new cards it gives you.
It depends simply on what cards you're lucky enough to get.
Mechanical Yeti, on the other hand, has none of these problems.
And while it doesn't create the same ridiculous moments where a Hunter pyroblasts a mage or something...
Really, those moments are almost always as unfun for one player as they are fun for the other guy.
And that's the key: when dealing with randomness, you're not just looking to create big moments.
You're looking to create moments that are engaging for both players, even if they end up getting the short end of the stick.
The way the Yeti's Spare Parts creates some moments where players have to adapt to having a Freeze or a Taunt where they otherwise wouldn't...
...and the skilled use of such cards can often change the course of the game, creates mutually engaging moments
And while Yeti isn't the perfect card in terms of using reciprocal randomness to vary up the play...
...it probably creates more enjoyable and interesting games than Spellslinger does, especially in an Arena format.
Which is a real shame. If Spellslinger simply read, "Draw a random 2-mana cost spell"...
...it would drastically shrink the Delta of Randomness and probably be a great example of how to do this.
Okay, that's enough about randomness.
James is actually playing some Hearthstone over on Extra Play right now...
So if you would like some more CCG design discussion, just click that link at the end. See you all next week!