Book of Ages: Mysteries of Shadow Era Revealed

[Gondorian]

O boy, I'm pretty psyched! Normally I couldn't care less about writing a manual, but there is something about TCG's that just grab me!

I missed the bit where you said you wanted to write it.

That's great. I can help you out, if you want.

[Warr Byrd]

I think the best way to learn the rules to the game are to play it. I learned how to play by playing in the world map. I do think, however,
that the decks you play against should be much better with a larger rotation of heroes. The decks should also make use of all the cards in the game so you can see how they work and become familiar with all the different ways a single card can be used in multiple decks.

As you advance through the levels, the AI opponents (as of 1.277) become more difficult, rotate heroes, and use a wider variety of cards, including most if not all the cards introduced before the latest batch of allies. The devs have also already announced that they intend to further expand AI play.

To the OP: I think it's a great idea. However, how many of the new players make it to the forums before they learn how to play? Most at least know the basics, and don't find the forums until they run into a problem or think that something should be different or think they ran into a bug.

[He-Man]

Warr Byrd raises a good point--perhaps the game could get a link to the online manual after it is published?

I am available to proofread and comment once you have a draft.

[Geargrinder]

@GondorianDotCom:
That would be terrific! There are different things to be done and the more the merrier!
Once I've thought it out a bit more I'll send you a pm with what I would like to do and why, if that's ok with you.

@He Man:
Thanks for the offer.

Remember though that the idea is still in it's infant stages. I've got a rough idea about what to do.

@masonti
Right now the game is pretty 'simple' but perhaps in the future mechanisms will get implemented that are perhaps less straightforward.
SE is perfectly playable and understandable, but still there are a lot of questions regarding rules, and no official documentation to fall back on for all the specifics.
An example: I'm playing with Gravebone and my board gets wiped. I've got a Hellsteed, a Brutalis and a Beladonna that go to the graveyard.
Which goes first and which goes last, thus ending on top of my graveyard?
It's small things like these that should be written down.

And another point: Different people learn in different ways. There are a lot of people who would like to know the rules inside out (or pretty much so) when playing a game.


I'll take some days to let the ideas form and will probably post more on this in the coming weekend.

[Quorlan]

I can help with a play manual as well. I've got many years experience both designing games and writing documentation and manuals to draw upon, so I could be useful if you need some more help. Perhaps do it on a multi-user blog so a few of us could all be writing parts of it. Just a thought. Let me know if you'd like some more help

Q

[Gondorian]

I can help with a play manual as well. I've got many years experience both designing games and writing documentation and manuals to draw upon, so I could be useful if you need some more help. Perhaps do it on a multi-user blog so a few of us could all be writing parts of it. Just a thought. Let me know if you'd like some more help

Q

I registered http://shadowera.wikia.com yesterday.

I figured we could put the content on there at first (and leave it there), but also turn it into a manual in PDF form.

Feel free to sign up and start adding pages.

[Geargrinder]

Thanks for the offer.

I noticed that some stuff I was planning to do is already being done by others.
Gondorian and Ninjaducky are currently working on the wiki, so perhaps the best
way to go for this is to make it a thread like the new players one, which contains
links to the relevant pages.

What do you guys think about it?

[Anurak]

I noticed that some stuff I was planning to do is already being done by others.
Gondorian and Ninjaducky are currently working on the wiki, so perhaps the best
way to go for this is to make it a thread like the new players one, which contains
links to the relevant pages.

What do you guys think about it?

SE is a simple game, so I don't think a manual is necessary. The New Players sub-forum, and especially this thread, has everything a new player needs to know. The game is really simple, and after playing some matches everyone will learn what he needs to know. So I believe creating a thread with everything we have missed or updating the existing ones would be better.

[Montag451]

The game is really simple, and after playing some matches everyone will learn what he needs to know.

While yes this works, this is not how you want to teach your game to people. Sure, some players like to learn by doing rather than reading a lengthy rule book, but at the very least, SE should offer both means of learning the game, rather than a brief rule book and then ask players to go straight into the game to figure out the rest.

[Gondorian]

If you only plan to learn through playing against other people, your rating is going to suffer in future due to those early losses, so it's probably best to give yourself as much knowledge of the game in advance, if you care about getting a good rating.