{"id":498,"date":"2025-12-13T05:09:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T11:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/?p=498"},"modified":"2025-12-13T05:09:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T11:09:34","slug":"crystal-clash-a-deckbuilding-minigame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluoriteguillotine.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/13\/crystal-clash-a-deckbuilding-minigame\/","title":{"rendered":"crystal clash: a deckbuilding minigame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever thought to yourself: “I wish my fantasy campaign had a deckbuilding minigame like Triple Triad<\/a>, Gwent<\/a>, or Pazaak<\/a>“? Would you like something more mechanically involved than doing an opposed luck check but not something that would completely derail the session? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have these thoughts. I have these demons — the minigame demons — and they haunt me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Establishing an in-universe deckbuilding game is great! It gives you a diegetic reason to have collectables as a type of loot completely unrelated to combat design or even the economy at large. A rare trading card is something special, yet it also won’t disrupt any of your careful game balance. I knew that I wanted to build something<\/em> for my Fabula Ultima campaign, but I wasn’t sure what it would look like or even when it would happen. Well, inspiration struck me on Monday and I had a prototype ready by the session on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"the<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

how to play<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Each player has a deck consisting of 1 Hero<\/strong> and 3-5 Party Members<\/strong>. Additionally, each player has a Crystal<\/strong>: the goal of the game is to break your opponent’s crystal while defending your own. Only the Hero<\/strong> is capable of dealing damage to a crystal; your Party Members<\/strong> support the Hero<\/strong> and remove obstacles.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"the<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At the beginning of the game, each Crystal<\/strong> has 5 Health and 2 Barrier<\/strong>. The barrier’s appearance is unique to your deck’s hero: for a mage, it might be a magical forcefield, while a demon’s barrier might be a horde of minions. It exists to be a layer of protection for your crystal, but it can be damaged by enemy Party Members<\/strong>. Unless stated otherwise, your Hero<\/strong> will deal damage to any Barrier<\/strong> present instead of the Crystal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game takes place over a series of rounds where each player rolls some dice and resolves their effects simultaneously<\/em>. At the beginning of the game, players roll 2d6<\/strong>. Each Party Member<\/strong> has one or more numbers which must be rolled to activate their ability. For example, a card might have “[4, 5]: +2 Barrier”. If you rolled a 4 on a die, you may assign that die to activate the card and gain 2 Barrier<\/strong> during the resolution phase. You may add dice together to activate a Party Member<\/strong>, but the number must be an exact match: adding 2+2=4 would work, but adding 3+3=6 would not. Barrier<\/strong> can never be greater than your Crystal<\/strong>‘s starting health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players may gain more dice by leveling up<\/em> their party. They do this by spending an amount of Gold<\/strong> equal to the number of dice they currently roll. For example, at the start of the game, players can spend 2 Gold<\/strong> to level up. On the next round, they will then roll 3d6<\/strong>. Any leftover Gold<\/strong> “rolls over” so if the player needs 3 Gold<\/strong> to level and they gain 4, they will level up once and have 1 Gold<\/strong> left over. Players may level up more than once per turn if they have the necessary Gold<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Heroes<\/strong> require Energy<\/strong> to activate their ability. This is how players attack their opponent’s crystal and win the game. Each Hero<\/strong> is unique and will deal damage differently. For example, the Thief hero requires 3 Energy<\/strong> to activate and will deal 1 damage directly to the enemy crystal. To contrast, the Fighter hero also requires 3 Energy<\/strong> but deals 3 damage. This deals much more damage than the Thief, but does not ignore the barrier. Like Gold<\/strong>, Energy<\/strong> “rolls over” so any excess remains after the Hero<\/strong>‘s activation. Players may have multiple Hero<\/strong> activations if they have the necessary Energy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resolution happens simultaneously in a series of phases. If the players are going against an NPC, their actions happen “first” during a phase to prevent draws. If players are dueling amongst themselves, everything is simultaneous, so draws are possible if they destroy one another’s crystal at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Gold\n