You Make The Card - Part 5 (Continued)
by Brian Weeks

If you've been following us along our journey each step, you can see that our card is slowly taking shape as you help to make design decisions. First you decided to make an Equipment card, then decided that it should be affiliated with the Neutral side. Then in very close vote, you decided that the equipment you wanted to make would be the Thermal Detonator, a piece of equipment made popular by Princess Leia's Return of the Jedi disguise, Boushh. Last week, we asked you to submit your own ideas for what the card rules text should be.

In a trading card game, the card text is where you define and redefine the rules of the game. It is where a card finds it's unique individuality and special purpose.

The Card Development Committee of the IDC took an extra week to read through all of the ideas that were submitted and found that there were a lot of great concepts to go over! In the final analysis, they selected 5 card concepts that they felt would work well with the set. They then sent them to the Rules Committee and they've re-worded them in a way that makes sense with the game rules. Now it's time for you to decide which one will be the Thermal Detonator!

Here are the final concepts you will be voting on in no particular order:

(A) -
Pay F -> Equip
Equipped Character gets "Tap, detach a Thermal Detonator from this unit -> Roll a die. Do X damage to each unit in the Character arena (yours and your opponent's), where X is equal to the die roll result. Play only when no unit is attacking."

(B) -
Pay F -> Equip
Equipped Character gets "When this unit does damage to another unit, you may pay F and discard a Thermal Detonator from this unit. If you do, Thermal Detonator does 3 damage to each untapped unit in the Character arena."

(C) -
Pay F -> Equip
Equipped Character gets "Tap -> Do 2 damage to each unit (yours and your opponent's) in the Character arena. Play only once per turn."

(D) -
Pay F -> Equip
Equipped Character gets "Tap, discard a Thermal Detonator from this unit -> Put 2 damage counters on each unit in the Character arena. Play only when this unit would attack."

(E) -
Pay F -> Equip
Equipped Character gets "When this unit attacks and does damage, you may do an additional 2 damage to the defending unit. If you do, put 1 damage counter on this unit."
Discard a Thermal Detonator from this unit -> Choose a unit in the Character arena. Put 3 damage counters on that unit and 1 damage counter on this unit. Play only when this unit would attack."


One thing to keep in mind is that the selected mechanic will be the feature ability of the Thermal Detonator. Another thing to remember is that this card will appear in the Scum and Villainy expansion, so feel free to speculate on how these abilities would interact with what you think might be in that set.

We know that the mechanic is not just the heart of the design but also the most fun part. Please enjoy the experience. We're looking forward to seeing which ability the community choses.

In order to fully involve the current TCG community and players, the poll will be conducted over on the Rebelbaser forums. You must be a member of the forums to vote.

When you're ready to get started... Register HERE - Vote HERE

Voting for Step Five ends 12:00pm CST, Wednesday, August 23th, 2006. We will post the results Friday, August 25th along with Step Six.

We're very glad that you've joined us for this fun and exciting process and we look forward to seeing what kind of card the TCG fan community can create!

So join us each week as You Make The Card!

Thoughts or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.

About the Author
Brian Weeks (aka Skywlkr) has been playing the Star Wars TCG since its introduction at Celebration 2 in 2002. After playing the demo game and introducing it to RedneckJedi and Darthwalls, Team 'Dude Where's My Card' was created. He competed in three qualifiers, yet the closest he ever ranked was eighth. As a member on Rebelbasers, SWDuelist and a writer for the now defunct Diehard Online, he has tried to promote the game through information and interaction.

He is married, has a three year old son, is an architect, has been the Treasurer and Newsletter Editor for five years for JediOKC (an Oklahoma City based Star Wars Fan Club), was the IDC Card Development Chairperson for Fall of the Republic and is now the IDC Public Affairs Chairperson. Despite all that, he still has time to introduce the game to new players…KEEP THE GAME ALIVE.