This is a card game that I have been actively developing for the past year or so. Though two separate projects proceeded this, it is the result of both research into the market and a combination of those previous projects, essentially their brain child.
What is Sentien?
Sentien is a Tactical Role-Playing Card Game, within which you assume the role of a character within the game's universe and fight other characters on predesigned battlegrounds.
What are battlegrounds?
Battlegrounds come in each Sentien Story Pack in the form of multiple tiles. These tiles are assembled at the beginning of each game in sequence order to form a tangible backdrop for the fight between you and your opponent. Character cards are placed onto the battleground in a designated location at the beginning of every game.
What is the functionality of a battleground? What does it do and how does it change things?
A battleground serves as the tangible backdrop for each battle. Your character card exists on the battleground and can move from one location to the next, as long as the one you wish to move to is empty.
When summoning an ally to assist you in combat, you can only summon it in certain empty locations relative to your character. They can also move around the battleground like characters.
When casting a spell, you as the character are casting the spell from the location of your character; while some spells target yourself, other spells have a set reach value on them, determining how far the spell can reach from the point of your character.
When placing an item into play, where you can actually place the item is determined by the location of your character and whether or not the item is a stationary object.
When attacking with your character or an ally you control, where it can reach depends on it's attack style and it's location relative to a potential attack target.
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With the introduction of actual, tangible movement within a card game, existing themes previously used in multiple card games come to life with a third dimensional layer added to them, introducing a fresh take on existing material and an outlet from which to introduce new material into the genre.
More about Sentien:
Sentien is a Tactical Role-Playing Card Game; Tactical not only in the sense that tangible movement dictates that strategy and placement is extremely important, but in addition card design allows for more powerful dedicated strategies or less powerful combination strategies that the player can create themselves. It is Role-Playing by definition because you are assuming the role of a character and playing as that character. Each character comes with it's own backstory relative to the game's universe, down to height, weight, likes and dislikes. As the main storyline develops and as side stories begin to open up and develop as well in narrative, you will see more and more characters with unique abilities and ways to play. In addition, all changes in a character's abilities, physical appearance or capabilities over time are indicated in new card releases for that character. If a character loses an arm, it is reflected in the most recent version of that character's card, and it can no longer use two-handed weapons. A lack of being able to do what he/she is used to might drive the character to develop additional abilities and/or lose abilities, creating new character interfaces as the story progresses.
If a character loses or gains powers, doesn't that mean it's class changes? If so, what happens to the cards I've already purchased for that character?
There will almost always be at least one character card publicated for each class that has already been developed. If a character loses his/her powers, a new character with the same class but different abilities will be introduced as soon as possible to allow you to continue to use those cards. If there are already multiple character cards that exist with the same class, both characters can use all cards available with that class's card pool.
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Beyond game features, this game will begin to become extremely integrated with it's community. Both myself and the rest of the development team agree that allowing players insight into certain card designs and allowing them to determine the outcome of some plot points in the story will allow players to immerse themselves within the story's universe and make their voice heard. This would not just apply to what should happen within the story but indirectly (through the storyline) and directly through the forums voice their opinion on potential card designs or any possible existing problems in terms of problems with class balancing, etc.
Art Direction
The world of Sentien is full of life energy; it surrounds everyone and everything and has affected them in different ways. The life energy that surrounds the forests and land of the world has made it grown to enormous proportions; some animals get to be as large as some small villages. Beyond the wildlife, the living races of Sentien have experienced the life energy in a different way, by learning how to harness and use it for not only everyday tasks but also to enhance their abilities in combat. The living races of Sentien call this life energy mana. Each living being has mana within them, but if they harness it and learn to use it, they can receive more by harnessing the mana that is around them.
Because this world is full of life, most of the art is going to be very vibrant. We do not intend for things to look cartoony, as we would like this to be taken seriously as a potential Fantasy game. However, we thought that the art style inparticular would be fitting, not just because of everything being more alive, but because the traditional fantasy game attempts to look as realistic in coloring as possible. We chose to go against that current.
This is a picture of the main character of the primary storyline and is also a prime example of the art style we are choosing to use moving forward.
How much of Sentien has been designed and what can we expect to see?
At launch, we plan to offer two products: First, Sentien Story Packs, which serve as an all-in-one and include both initial character cards with their respective starter decks, a battleground designed based on the location of their fight within the story, a comprehensive rulebook, a booklet of lore, which includes character profiles and backgrounds and important events leading up to this conflict, a notepad and two pencils to keep track of ongoing health and mana totals, and many dice for keeping track of damage on allies throughout the battleground. Second, Sentien Expansion Packs, which include seventy-two specific cards that will allow you to expand upon the starter decks and give you many options as to which strategy you choose to go with or which strategies you choose to combine. Each expansion pack will be for the designated classes, and lists of the cards included will be published. In addition, you will get the same seventy-two cards everytime you purchase it, so you never have to hunt down a specific rare card again. Everything is accessible, which gives everybody an equal opportunity and standing and allows more room for focus on skillful gameplay and not whether or not the player could afford his $500 deck.
In terms of what has been designed so far, the starter decks are 100% completed whereas both initial Expansion Packs are 20% completed.
What can we expect from this in the future?
Local Organized Play support starting on day one. Hobby shops will be able to contact us and become registered Sentien retailers which allows them to carry our product at a special rate and allows them to run sanctioned tournaments.
Expanded Organized Play one year after launch, introducing Story Mode which only allows players to use the most recent versions of characters. Local play will allow all cards.
Gauntlet Mode, which will focus on two player versus two player arena combat on larger battlegrounds.
Sentien Story Pack releases every three months after debut, with Expansion Packs for characters releasing simultaneously.
Where can I get more information?
The official game website is www.playsentien.com, and you can find our facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sentien-Tactical-Role-Playing-Card-Game/416962608420823 . While the format of the website is in a blog style to allow constant discussion and daily updates once the game's Kickstarter Campaign launches, the website design will be changing at product launch. You can also find the official rulebook on the website, as well as a shortened version of the game's process.
What is Sentien?
Sentien is a Tactical Role-Playing Card Game, within which you assume the role of a character within the game's universe and fight other characters on predesigned battlegrounds.
What are battlegrounds?
Battlegrounds come in each Sentien Story Pack in the form of multiple tiles. These tiles are assembled at the beginning of each game in sequence order to form a tangible backdrop for the fight between you and your opponent. Character cards are placed onto the battleground in a designated location at the beginning of every game.
What is the functionality of a battleground? What does it do and how does it change things?
A battleground serves as the tangible backdrop for each battle. Your character card exists on the battleground and can move from one location to the next, as long as the one you wish to move to is empty.
When summoning an ally to assist you in combat, you can only summon it in certain empty locations relative to your character. They can also move around the battleground like characters.
When casting a spell, you as the character are casting the spell from the location of your character; while some spells target yourself, other spells have a set reach value on them, determining how far the spell can reach from the point of your character.
When placing an item into play, where you can actually place the item is determined by the location of your character and whether or not the item is a stationary object.
When attacking with your character or an ally you control, where it can reach depends on it's attack style and it's location relative to a potential attack target.
---
With the introduction of actual, tangible movement within a card game, existing themes previously used in multiple card games come to life with a third dimensional layer added to them, introducing a fresh take on existing material and an outlet from which to introduce new material into the genre.
More about Sentien:
Sentien is a Tactical Role-Playing Card Game; Tactical not only in the sense that tangible movement dictates that strategy and placement is extremely important, but in addition card design allows for more powerful dedicated strategies or less powerful combination strategies that the player can create themselves. It is Role-Playing by definition because you are assuming the role of a character and playing as that character. Each character comes with it's own backstory relative to the game's universe, down to height, weight, likes and dislikes. As the main storyline develops and as side stories begin to open up and develop as well in narrative, you will see more and more characters with unique abilities and ways to play. In addition, all changes in a character's abilities, physical appearance or capabilities over time are indicated in new card releases for that character. If a character loses an arm, it is reflected in the most recent version of that character's card, and it can no longer use two-handed weapons. A lack of being able to do what he/she is used to might drive the character to develop additional abilities and/or lose abilities, creating new character interfaces as the story progresses.
If a character loses or gains powers, doesn't that mean it's class changes? If so, what happens to the cards I've already purchased for that character?
There will almost always be at least one character card publicated for each class that has already been developed. If a character loses his/her powers, a new character with the same class but different abilities will be introduced as soon as possible to allow you to continue to use those cards. If there are already multiple character cards that exist with the same class, both characters can use all cards available with that class's card pool.
---
Beyond game features, this game will begin to become extremely integrated with it's community. Both myself and the rest of the development team agree that allowing players insight into certain card designs and allowing them to determine the outcome of some plot points in the story will allow players to immerse themselves within the story's universe and make their voice heard. This would not just apply to what should happen within the story but indirectly (through the storyline) and directly through the forums voice their opinion on potential card designs or any possible existing problems in terms of problems with class balancing, etc.
Art Direction
The world of Sentien is full of life energy; it surrounds everyone and everything and has affected them in different ways. The life energy that surrounds the forests and land of the world has made it grown to enormous proportions; some animals get to be as large as some small villages. Beyond the wildlife, the living races of Sentien have experienced the life energy in a different way, by learning how to harness and use it for not only everyday tasks but also to enhance their abilities in combat. The living races of Sentien call this life energy mana. Each living being has mana within them, but if they harness it and learn to use it, they can receive more by harnessing the mana that is around them.
Because this world is full of life, most of the art is going to be very vibrant. We do not intend for things to look cartoony, as we would like this to be taken seriously as a potential Fantasy game. However, we thought that the art style inparticular would be fitting, not just because of everything being more alive, but because the traditional fantasy game attempts to look as realistic in coloring as possible. We chose to go against that current.
This is a picture of the main character of the primary storyline and is also a prime example of the art style we are choosing to use moving forward.
How much of Sentien has been designed and what can we expect to see?
At launch, we plan to offer two products: First, Sentien Story Packs, which serve as an all-in-one and include both initial character cards with their respective starter decks, a battleground designed based on the location of their fight within the story, a comprehensive rulebook, a booklet of lore, which includes character profiles and backgrounds and important events leading up to this conflict, a notepad and two pencils to keep track of ongoing health and mana totals, and many dice for keeping track of damage on allies throughout the battleground. Second, Sentien Expansion Packs, which include seventy-two specific cards that will allow you to expand upon the starter decks and give you many options as to which strategy you choose to go with or which strategies you choose to combine. Each expansion pack will be for the designated classes, and lists of the cards included will be published. In addition, you will get the same seventy-two cards everytime you purchase it, so you never have to hunt down a specific rare card again. Everything is accessible, which gives everybody an equal opportunity and standing and allows more room for focus on skillful gameplay and not whether or not the player could afford his $500 deck.
In terms of what has been designed so far, the starter decks are 100% completed whereas both initial Expansion Packs are 20% completed.
What can we expect from this in the future?
Local Organized Play support starting on day one. Hobby shops will be able to contact us and become registered Sentien retailers which allows them to carry our product at a special rate and allows them to run sanctioned tournaments.
Expanded Organized Play one year after launch, introducing Story Mode which only allows players to use the most recent versions of characters. Local play will allow all cards.
Gauntlet Mode, which will focus on two player versus two player arena combat on larger battlegrounds.
Sentien Story Pack releases every three months after debut, with Expansion Packs for characters releasing simultaneously.
Where can I get more information?
The official game website is www.playsentien.com, and you can find our facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sentien-Tactical-Role-Playing-Card-Game/416962608420823 . While the format of the website is in a blog style to allow constant discussion and daily updates once the game's Kickstarter Campaign launches, the website design will be changing at product launch. You can also find the official rulebook on the website, as well as a shortened version of the game's process.
