More Cards Don't Always Make a Better Card Game

There's a point in designing a card game when the obvious answer to almost every problem seems to be: Add more cards.

Need more variety? Add cards.
Need more replayability? Add cards.
Want more combinations? More cards.
Want players to keep discovering things? Obviously, you need more cards.

When we started developing Monsters, Magic & Mayhem, we could easily have gone down that road. Instead, something interesting happened.

We discovered that one of the things making the game better wasn't having more cards. It was knowing the cards that were already there.

MMM had started as a very simple game. Each card had a Strength, players chose which cards they wanted to commit, and when everything was revealed, the stronger force won.

There wasn't much more to it. And surprisingly, it was fun.

There was something satisfying about making your choices, waiting to see what your opponent had done, and then revealing everything. Sometimes you knew you had them. Sometimes you were certain you had them and discovered you were very, very wrong.

The problem wasn't whether the game was fun. The problem was what happened after you'd played it several times. You began figuring it out.

The cards were mostly numbers, and eventually numbers become predictable. You learned which cards were strong, which were weak, and which choices usually gave you the best chance of winning.

The surprise was still there because you didn't know what your opponent was doing. But there wasn't enough underneath that surprise. We needed more game.

The easiest solution would have been to create a lot more cards. We didn't.
Instead, we asked whether the cards we already had could do more.

So we started giving them effects. That sounds like a relatively small change. It wasn't.
Suddenly, Strength wasn't the only reason to play a card.

A powerful card might help you win a room simply because it brought a lot of Strength. But another card might have an effect that made it much more useful somewhere else. A card that looked weak by the numbers could become exactly what you needed in the right situation.

Now there wasn't always an obvious answer. And that's when MMM really began to change.

You weren't simply asking, “Which of my cards is strongest?”
You were asking, “Which of my cards do I need here?”

Then another question appeared. “What do I think they're putting here?”
That was much more interesting.

The hidden placement of the cards had already given MMM an element of surprise. You set up your characters or monsters in the rooms without knowing exactly what your opponent was doing on the other side.

Once the cards had individual effects, that hidden information became much more important.

Your opponent might be committing their strongest card to a room. Or they might be expecting you to think that's what they're doing.

Maybe they're using an effect you haven't considered.
Maybe they're sacrificing one room because they have a plan for another.
Maybe you've read them perfectly.
Maybe you're about to find out that you haven't.

Then the cards are revealed. That's the moment we kept enjoying.
But as we continued playing, we noticed something else happening. We were beginning to remember the deck.

At first, every card was simply something that appeared. After several games, you started recognizing them. You remembered what they could do.

You remembered which cards had caused trouble before. You knew which effects worked particularly well together. You started seeing possibilities before they actually appeared on the table.

Normally, you might think this would make a game less interesting. After all, isn't the surprise gone once you know all the cards?

We found almost the opposite. Knowing the cards made the game more strategic.

There was a very simple reason for that. If you know what's in the deck, you know what your opponent could have. And because MMM uses relatively small decks, that information actually means something. Then there's an even more obvious piece of information that becomes surprisingly important:

The cards you have are cards your opponent doesn't have.
If you're holding a particular character, monster, or effect, you know they aren't.

At first, that's just a fact. Once you know the deck, it becomes a tool.

Suppose there are several cards you're worried your opponent might have placed in a particular room. One would completely ruin your plan. Then you look at your hand. You're holding it. You don't have to worry about that possibility anymore.

Maybe another dangerous card has already been played somewhere else. That's gone too.
Suddenly, the list of things that could be waiting in that room is getting smaller.

You still don't know what's there. That's important. But you know what isn't there. Now you can start making an educated guess.

Of course, there's a problem.
Your opponent can do exactly the same thing. They're looking at their cards. They're wondering what you've already played. They're thinking about what you might still have.

And somewhere along the way, you're no longer simply playing cards. You're playing each other.

Maybe you have an obvious move. Your opponent knows it's obvious too. So perhaps they're preparing for it. Which means maybe you shouldn't make the obvious move. Unless they expect you to realize that. In which case...

Well, now we're getting somewhere.
That sort of thinking became possible partly because we hadn't filled the game with hundreds of cards.

Imagine the same situation with 400 possible cards.

You've seen six. You're holding five. What's your opponent holding? Who knows?
It could be almost anything.

There's certainly uncertainty in that situation, but there isn't necessarily much information for you to work with. MMM's smaller card pool creates a different kind of uncertainty.

You may not know exactly what your opponent has, but as you become familiar with the game, you can begin narrowing the possibilities. That's much more interesting to us.

You're not simply waiting to see what random thing happens. You're trying to figure out what another person has decided to do. And because they're trying to figure you out at the same time, even two players who know every card in the game can still surprise each other.

In fact, knowing the cards can make the surprise better. If you have no idea what's possible, anything can happen. If you know exactly what's possible and your opponent still manages to fool you?

They got you.
There's a big difference. This also gave us something else we wanted from MMM. Experience matters without requiring players to study the game.

You don't need to memorize charts.
You don't need to research combinations before game night.
You don't need to know a constantly expanding library of cards.
You learn simply by playing.

The first time, you're learning what your cards do. A few games later, you're remembering what your opponent's cards can do. Then you start recognizing combinations.

Eventually, you're thinking about cards that aren't even on the table. The rules haven't changed. The deck hasn't grown. You've gotten better at playing the game.

That's the kind of complexity we like. Not complexity created because there are more things to remember. Complexity created because a simple set of rules keeps giving you interesting decisions.

None of this means that a small deck is inherently better than a large one. Plenty of excellent games depend on enormous card pools. Collecting, deck construction, discovering new combinations, and never knowing what you'll encounter can be the entire point.

But that wasn't the game we were trying to make. Monsters, Magic & Mayhem was supposed to be small. It was supposed to be fast. It was supposed to be something you could pull out when you had ten minutes to spare. Making it deeper by simply making it bigger would have worked against the reason we created it in the first place.

So we didn't give players hundreds of cards. We tried to give them more reasons to care about every card they already had. And somewhere during that process, we learned something that has stuck with us:

More possibilities don't always require more pieces.
Sometimes you just need enough information to think you know what your opponent is doing...
and enough uncertainty to discover that you were completely wrong.

Next from the Engine Room

There's quite a bit of uncertainty in Monsters, Magic & Mayhem for a game that doesn't use a single die.
So where does the randomness come from?

Next time: Random Without Dice — How Other Players Create the Surprise.