Once a month, Georgia and Miriam give themselves one hour to devise an original game concept based on a prompt. Below is an overview of our print-and-play, Scrapheap Challenge-inspired robot building card game, Deckbreakers.
THE ELEVATOR PITCH
Deckbreakers is a print-and-play deckbuilding game with a twist for 2 – 4 players. You and your opponents play as scrappers using salvaged Parts to build giant robots, which you will pit against each other in a series of contests before finally selling to the highest bidder. Only the best and biggest robot can win!
THE LOOK
Deckbreakers is published in a print-friendly format focused on space efficiency. All cards have simple line art with a dieselpunk aesthetic and font style. Cards (specifically starting decks and Premium Scrap Cards) are 2:1 rectangles, and every Card has a dotted “break” line down its vertical midline, with separate Parts on either side. Parts are what make up players’ Decks and Hands.
Components include:
- 40 Starting Cards (8 for each player)
- ~200 Premium Scrap cards
- ~12 Mech Battle prize cards
Each Part is half of a Card, and shows a Scrap Value, three stats and an Action. Scrap Value is a number of points the card is worth if included in your final Mech. The three other stats are Speed (represented by a lightning bolt), Power (represented by a hammer), and Pizzazz (represented by a star/flame). Each of these can go up to +3. Actions are explained further below, and examples of Action text are given for various Cards in the Appendix.
THE AIM
Each player is a scrapper who over the course of the game will be building a Mech. Both glory and money are on the line. To win, players must build their deck effectively using the Parts available from the Scrap Heap and the Market. Their priority is to build their Mech by adding cards to a separate, face-down Mech stack. To win they will need a Mech which boasts high Part value (total Scrap Value listed on its Parts) but also good Stats to help it succeed in the series of contests (Mech Battles) at the end of play.
For setup, each player is given their Starting Deck of 8 cards. The Premium Scrap Cards are placed at the centre of the table in a face-down deck known as the Market. Space is left clear for a communal Scrap Heap. Finally, the Mech Battle prize cards are shuffled. Each player is dealt one of these privately, which they keep separate from their deck. 3 more prize cards are dealt face down to the centre of the table.
TURNS
Turns are taken clockwise around the table. This game has play similar to many classic deck builders: each player has their private draw pile and discard pile. When a player’s draw pile is empty, their discard pile is shuffled and returned face-down to become the new draw pile.
The gimmick of this game is that any time a player obtains a Card, they immediately Break it (tear it in half) into its two constituent Parts, adding one to their private discard pile (known as Keeping a Part) and one to the communal Scrap Heap (known as Scrapping a Part).
The exception is in the first round, which is played as normal (explained below), *except* that players start with their deck made up of entire Cards. Each time they draw a Card, however, they must Break it (Keeping one Part, Scrapping the other) as if they had just obtained that Card.
Other important actions within the game are designated as follows:
- Buy X Premium Scrap: take X Cards from the top of the Market deck. Break each Card you take, choosing which Part to Keep and which to Scrap. (This action may come with a cost, e.g. discarding Parts).
- Draw X Parts: draw X Parts from your private draw pile and add them to your Hand for this turn.
- Discard X Parts: take X Parts out of your Hand and add them to your private discard pile.
- Build X Parts onto your Mech: take X Parts from indicated location (e.g. your Hand, discard pile) and play them face down onto your Mech stack.
As well as these, Actions printed on Parts will allow other types of actions and interactions, such as manipulating your deck, stealing cards from other players, forcing opponents to discard, or tampering with the Scrap Heap.
A player has 4 Parts in hand at the beginning of their turn. Before playing any parts, they may optionally take one Part from the Scrap Heap and add it to their discard pile.
They may then play any or all Parts from their Hand in any order, playing each Part face-up to the table and resolving its effect fully before playing another. Once they have finished their turn, all played Parts are placed on their discard pile and they re-draw to 4 Parts from their deck.
SUMMARY
Play continues in turns. Players try to improve the efficiency of their turns by adding and removing Parts from their deck, with the eventual goal of Building Parts onto their Mech which will score high for Scrap Value and stats. When play finishes (after a certain number of rounds, or when the Market Deck is depleted?), Mech Battle prize cards are awarded according to their outlined competition – e.g. “Mech with the highest Speed”, “Mech with the most individual Parts”, or “Mech with the lowest total Scrap Value”. Each of these prizes awards a number of bonus points. Players then total the Scrap Value of their Mechs along with prize bonuses, and compare these points to determine the winner.
WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT THIS GAME?
Deckbreakers puts a creative twist on the classic deckbuilder, introducing a choice to be made for each card gained. The inclusion of prize bonuses at the end of play gives some extra strategic variety and unpredictability.
- Interactive element of “breaking” cards, and needing to place a Part within reach of other players
- Range of strategies available, particularly around how often players choose to buy Premium Scrap (giving access to choice and higher value), how much they take Parts from the Scrap Heap, and how much they focus on Building quantity vs quality Parts onto their Mech.
APPENDIX: PART ACTION IDEAS
Below are some suggestions of different Actions that Parts would offer, and an outline of which Actions would be available in Starting Decks.
Starting Decks
Each Starting Deck consists of 6 standard Cards plus 2 unique Cards tailored to a particular character. The standard starting Cards are:
2x: Buy 1 Premium Scrap / Draw 2 Parts
2x: Buy 1 Premium Scrap / Build 1 Part from your hand onto your Mech
1x: Buy 1 Premium Scrap / Swap a Part from your Hand with a Part from the Scrap Heap.
1x: Buy 1 Premium Scrap / Force an opponent to discard to 2 Parts.
The unique starting Cards relate to special abilities, for example:
- Thief archetype: stealing Parts from other players
- Inventor archetype: completing blank Parts by adding together stats from 2 Parts
- Heavy archetype: reacting to other players’ actions, preventing/benefiting from one action
- Forklift archetype: holding on to one Part played this turn, adding it to next turn’s hand
Other possible types of Action text (alone or in combination with other actions):
- Discard up to X Parts, then draw that many.
- You may choose to place a Part from your discard pile on top of your deck.
- Draw X Parts. If any have e.g. +Pizzazz, you may Build them onto your Mech.
- Take a Part from the Scrapheap and immediately Build it onto your Mech.
- Buy 1 Premium Scrap. You may Build the part you do not Keep.
- Look at the top X Cards of the Market. Choose 1 to obtain and place the others back in an order you choose.
- Draw 1 Part per opponent.
- For every (e.g. +Speed) Part in your Hand, draw 1 Part
- Choose 3 Parts from the Scrap Heap. Keep 1, and remove the others from play.
- Build 1 Part from your Hand onto your Mech. Each time you Build this turn, all opponents discard 1.
- Steal a Part from an opponent’s Mech.
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