MTG in PbP

[akiko]

Has anyone thought of playing magic as a PbP? Any thoughts on this? I think it is possible.

I see a few issues and solutions.
1. We can't verify anyone actually has the cards they say they do.
+Solution: We play with cards most of us likely don't have. We use known championship decks that are printed in thier entirety online.

2. Shuffling.
+Solution: We have die rollers! We could post a list of the cards with the land mixed mixed in and then roll the dice to get card. 1d54 coming up!

3. What's on the board? Interrupts.
+Solution: 1 thread with the board and when you dropped it. And we always have the chance to play an interrupt. For the sake of the game no strictly countering decks people, let's make it fun.


Any other issues? Ideas?

[LuneMoonshadow]

The problem with having your deck listed is that they know exactly what cards you have, which can suck big time depending on what deck you're playing. Holding out an artifact destruction because you noticed that a certain card is basically the key to some massive combo could be a bit unfair. Metagaming makes baby Jesus cry.

[LeeCHeSSS]

How do you keep your hand hidden, but still keep people from cheating?

[Mercutio]

You'd have to have a DM and locked threads for only a DM and the player to look at.

Really, implement a DM and all problems would be solved. One locked thread for each player that has their deck. One locked thread for each player that has their hand. The DM rolls and determines the cards that come into hands. One open thread that has the game board. The DM wouldn't post in the game board thread. One Comment thread where the DM makes any rulings (if needed).

Basically it can be done, but you'd need a third party involved.

[akiko]

I thought so. And Merc hit my idea about a DM. I didn't mention it but that was part of my original thought. It seems doable. Any other thoughts?

[Black Plauge]

Actually, I'd suggest a sealed format for any collectable game in PBP format. The "DM" would generate sealed packages of cards for each player and then the player would create their deck out of that.

So say a booster normally has 15 cards in it, 2 rare, 3 uncommon, and 10 common (I'm unfamiliar with MtG's packaging rules, I'm just pulling numbers out of a hat here). The DM would then select a set and using the set list (which generally lists rarity) generate 10 booster packs, 5 for each player (so each player in this example would have 75 cards. The players would then use those cards to construct their decks. I believe that would mean eliminating 15 cards to get to the standard 60 card deck.

I've been toying around with an idea like this for Dreamblade in order to iron out the actual mechanics of the game I'm thinking of running.

[Linklegacy77]

I'd be willing to DM for some players. I've played for some 10 years now, and I think the concept is pretty good. I think it deserves it's own forum too, and I'd be willing to run a few at a time, as they probobly wouldn't take long.

[nightinverse]

I would be willing to do this once I release the ORP MtG set. I have about one hundred and thirty planned cards, and then we have all the others done by other members of the community.

[akiko]

I was thinking that too. With only 2 players it shouldn't take too long except for interrupts and counters.