Difference between revisions of "Triple Triad"

The board is composed of 9 different areas where the cards can be placed into. Each player starts with 5 cards, and place card one after the other. The cards played 'attack' each other through the ratings seen on the card.

For example, if you place Geezard into the position number 1, the 'Down' rating (1) will attack any card in position 4, and the 'Right' rating (4) will attack the card in position 2.

If there is a card in the positions next to the card, they will be defending using their own opposing ratings. That is, the 'Down' from Geezard would be opposed to the 'Up' for position 4, and the 'Right' of Geezard would be opposed to the 'Left' of the card in position 2.

The way it 'attacks' depends on the rules in play, as there are various rules that dictate the gameplay. When you win over a card through any of those rules, the card gets 'flipped', which is the term used when changing a card from the opponent's color to yours. The two players are Blue and Red, and the one that has the most cards of their own color at the end, including cards left unplayed, win the game.

In case of a tie, the cards are returned to the hands and a new round starts.

There are several rules that determine how a game is played out. There are 2 categories of rules that can be chosen before the game starts, which are GamePlay rules and Trading rules. Once the player agree on the rules, the game starts.

Gameplay rules affect how the game is played out directly, while trading rules apply at the end of the game, on how many cards the victor can pick from the losing's hand.

Gameplay Rules

The Standard Rule

This rule is always in effect, you cannot select it or turn it off, it's the most basic part of the gameplay.

When you play a card, if your rating is greater than the opposing card's rating, you win. If your rating is lower or equal, nothing happens. The thing to remember is that you cannot lose cards during your turn, only turn some to your color. So you can play defensively.

In this example, Geezar's 'Right' rating of 4 beats Funguar's 'Left' rating of 3.

The Same Rule

This rule is a little more complex, as it requires not one, but two opposing cards. Slightly different as well, you don't need that both cards be under your opponent's control, but you need at least one, of course.

This rule plays off that you have matching numbers in two different directions. In this example, Geezard has matching 4s with SAM08G (Geezard's Right 4 = SAM08G's Left 4), and matching 1s with Bite Bug (Geezard's Down 1 = Bite Bug's Up 1).

The key here is that there's two matches, with a single card played. If in this situation Geezard was played here, both SAM08G and Bite Bug would be flipped to Blue.

As said before, if there was only one Red card, it would still trigger the Same rule. It requires at least one opponent card, so you can setup your own cards into a Same combination if you play accordingly. It can be triggered on 3 or 4 cards as well, depending on the position played in.

The Wall Rule

This is an extension of the Same rule, in fact you cannot play with the Wall rule without the Same Rule.

The major difference is that it can be technically triggered with only one opposing card instead of two. In the Wall rule, the 'outside' of the fields is lined with cards with all 'A' values.

In this example, if the Red card was played, the '4' would match with Geezard's Right value. If the 'A' value of the Red card is facing the outward of the field (in position 2 or 3 of the grid in this example), then a Same would be triggered. 'A' rating versus the 'A' of the invisible card outside of the board, and the matching 4s with Geezard.

The Plus Rule

This rule is similar to the Same rule in the way that it requires two opposing cards (Wall does not work here), and that at least one of those cards is controlled by your opponent's.

The major difference is that this rule doesn't require matching ratings, in fact your ratings might be even lower than the opposing cards, unlike the standard rule.

What the Plus rule looks for is matching sums of ratings. In the example here, you can see that the two sums of opposing rating both are '8', which triggers the Plus rule.

Again you need at least one opposing card to trigger this. But its possible to trigger it on several cards depending on the position played in.

The Combo Rule

This rule is the most dangerous of them all. You ever played a game that you see the entire board flipped to your opponent's control with a single card? That's the power of Combo.

This rule requires that Same, Wall or Plus to be triggered first, Combo doesn't trigger on the standard rule.

When Same, Wall or Plus is triggered, every card that were your opponents and now are flipped to your color, are replayed into the game as if they had been set by the standard rule.

To illustrate this, you can look at the animation. Two standard rules, followed by the Plus, finally triggering Combo. What you need to watch in this case is how the Bite Bug gets turned to Blue at the end. That is because of the Standard rule being applied, where SAM08G's Down rating of 2 is higher than Bite Bug's Up rating of 1.

Combo only works on the standard rule, thus it will not re-trigger the Same, Wall and Plus rules again. And only the cards that are flipped are affected. As in the animated example, if one card is already to your color (Blue), it won't propagate Combo.

The last thing to note is that any card flipped by Combo (in this example Bite Bug), also propagates Combo to nearby cards. So Bite Bug will also try to win nearby cards in the same manner.

The Elemental Rule

When playing with this rule, the board might have elemental icons on them. These are randomly placed at the beginning of a game. As noted before, some cards have elemental icons (such as Fire for SAMN08G).

If a card with the same elemental is placed on that position on the grid, then all of the ratings on the card receive a bonus of +1. Thus, Geezard's ratings would become 2 6 5 2 instead. Note at the maximum value of a rating is still 'A', it cannot go any higher.

Inversely, if you put any card that the elemental doesn't match, even if the card has no elemental icon, then that card will receive -1 to all ratings. Geezard's ratings would become 1 4 3 1 instead. Again, ratings cannot get any lower than 1.

Note that elemental value only affects the Standard and Combo rules. Same, Wall and Plus a triggered from the original ratings of the card, and not the elemental modified ratings.

The Open Rule

This rule doesn't affect gameplay directly, but it lets you see what hand your opponent have, what cards he has not played yet. Of course, your opponent gets the same advantage here.

Trading Rules

Trading rules are necessary to the game. If no trading rule is given, the default of One is used.

Obviously the translation to a text game required some adapting and flexiblity of certain aspects. Here you can find the information and commands to be able to play in the MUSH.

Your Stash

Your stash is where you keep all of your cards. The cards are identified by their names and their ID number. The ID is made from a letter or a number representing the series, and a 3 digit number.

The first series (A - Final Fantasy) is based on the original series, with some modifications to remove all character cards, and replacing a few monsters by some that are more broad to the series (such as Goblin that wasn't in FF8). The numbers are also in the original order, as well as their levels. Other series won't necessarily be ordered by their level with their Identification number.

The amount that you can hold per card depends on the level and the series. The standard amount is 9x Level 1 and 2, 7x Level 3 and 4, 5x Level 5 and 6, 2x Level 7 and 8, 1x Level 9 and 10. Some series might only allow 1 per card, such as the Custom Cards series.

Your Deck

Before you can play, you need to ready playing hands, named 'deck'. Decks are 5 cards that you pick to play. You identify decks by a single word name (but you can use - or _), and when you start a game you specify which deck you will be using.

A deck will not be usable if it doesn't meet these conditions :

• Deck contains 5 cards.
• Deck contains cards that are in your stash.
• Deck is under the Level Limit of 20. This is skipped if playing under the Limitless Rule.

When putting cards in a Deck, they are not removed from your stash. You only lose cards from your stash if you lose them after a game, which might make your deck immediately unusable. You might need to refill your deck with new cards before playing again.

The level limit serves for balance purposes. When playing with this limit, the total levels of your 5 cards need to be 20 or lower. You can make decks higher than 20 levels, but they can only be used with the Limitless rule. The rules are announced before a game starts, so you will never be surprised by someone with an unbalanced deck.

Playing the Game

Once you have your stash and your decks ready, you can play! You should be aware of the different rules first, so you can send proper game invites.

Acceptable rules are :

• Open
• Same
• Wall
• Plus
• Combo
• Elemental
• Limitless

Trading rules are :

• None
• One
• All
• Diff

Also, options can be used in as rules :

• Broadcast
• Private

If the game is played without the Private option, a prompt will be sent to the room for possible spectators to join in. The Private option disallows any spectators, while the Broadcast option sends the game grid to the entire room everytime a card is played. Broadcasting should be used only in certain cases, such as tournament finals.

The game cannot be started without at least one rule, so you should choose a Trading rule if you don't wish to play with any Gameplay rules. If no Trading rule is given, it defaults to One. If no option is given, the game is open to spectating by default.

Card Shop

Found in Serendipity, the Card Shop is always open to trade your points against new cards. Every game you play, you receive 5 points. 5 more points if you win the match. The card shop holds a complete database of all cards existing, along with prices to buy them.

The price listed is multiplied by the level of the card. Thus if the price listed is 10 points, you will need 50 points to buy a level 5 card.

Each series has two prives listed, the first being buying a random card, while the second number is the price for buying a specific card. A '--' means that you cannot buy using that method (Random or Specific). Thus a '--/--' cannot be bought at all, but is listed for database keeping.

Custom Cards

The current rage, trade your points into a card of your choosing, as long as it doesn't already exist in the database of course. These cards are rare as a result, although you can buy them from the shop at a high price for collection purposes. These cards are mostly for show, and not for their power. They are unique cards designed by players, but still follow certain rules for their attributes.

The custom cards can be of any level, but the sum of the attributes must be within the allowed range for that level. They should represent the showcased character with attributes and elementals as well. The price for creating a custom card is half of the listed price in the card shop.

Series A - Final Fantasy