FissureVerse is a card game I've been developing for the past few years.
The World:
The universe is dying. Fissures in the fabric of space are appearing, sucking in alien races and spaceships, and spitting them out elsewhere across the universe (and sometimes outside it). No one quite knows why this is happening: perhaps these are a sign of the end times, as the universe gives its last rattling gasps before it destroys itself; perhaps some experiment went catastrophically, apocalyptically wrong; perhaps something is breaking through, trying to get in.
Four factions have developed, each believing they know the cause, each out to prove they are right. The Infinite convince through logic and reason and evidence, and when that fails, they go for trickery. Solidity rules the cosmos, converting by fear and by torture, and their brutal King reigns from Capitalia, with the Bishop of Hatred whispering in his ear. Emptiness are the peaceful, zen-like tribes who want nothing more but to live alone and welcome the end times their way, but they are forced to fight back to defend themselves from the crusades of the others. The Noise care nothing for talk, for proof, for convincing; if you question them, they will cut your throat and let you see first hand what the afterlife holds.
These four factions have taken up arms in a final crusade, to appease their gods to prevent (or hasten) the end.
Who do you support?
The Mechanics:
FissureVerse is a living card game, meaning it is something akin to a collectable card game like Magic: The Gathering, but instead of buying booster packs with random cards, expansions will come out in waves, allowing players to pick and choose from all possible cards to construct their decks.
One unique feature of FissureVerse is that you can convert another player's crusaders to join your side. You can take their cards and use them for yourself. The rules have been carefully crafted to prevent arguments about whose cards are whose at the end of the game: each player controls a single faction (or color), and players must all have a different faction to begin. So if the red player takes some yellow cards, the red player can easily distinguish and give back the yellow cards at the end of the game. Other types of cards (Frenzies and Rogations) which players always have the free option of using, can't be taken by other players.
Progress:
Right now, FissureVerse is still in its alpha stages. I'm in the middle of adding artwork to the cards, clarifying rules, and fiddling with attribute values to make things even. However, it's still fully playable if you don't mind "ART TBD" being written on half the cards. It's available for free to play, just by printing some PDF files (or individual PNGs if you are looking for single cards).
If you're interested in how the game was developed, I've got loads of development logs on the linked blog.
If you're of a mind to try out something new (and likely broken and imbalanced), have a ball! I'd love to hear some questions and critiques about what's fun, what isn't, what's confusing, what's unclear, etc., whether you playtest a game or if you just read the instructions and think something is off.
I'm considering posting here on Hubski when I make a new post on my blog about FissureVerse (which is why I'm posting today, nine cards got new art!), or perhaps just on occasion when something major happens (depends on how well I gauge the level of interest here).
I really enjoy getting into the meat of a game and doing playtesting/balancing. Going to give this a run in the next few days and see what's what. Are you doing some more lore alongside the game (haven't poked around in the blog yet to see if you answered this question)?
The lore mostly comes in the form of flavor text on cards or in the instructions. I want the lore to mostly come in cryptic bursts that fire the imagination of the players, and give suggestions as to the larger picture of things. I especially try to be hazy on the exact details of each faction's religious views, so players can interpret what they believe however they like. I have a lot of ideas on what some cards should be, but I give myself enough room to improvise in case I see some amazing piece of art that fits a card in a new way I never considered. That was half the theme of my most recent post, where I described how the nature of some cards changed based on the art I found. For instance, there's a race called The Cracked, which were meant to be a completely bonkers race (and the placeholder art I originally used was a photo of a guy in a straightjacket in a padded cell with a gag in his mouth). But I changed it to a kind of android instead, because of the final art I found, and it struck me in a particular way and made me think of taking The Cracked in that direction. I have also been considering writing tie-in stories that go along with the game, though I want to probably get at least the base game complete before I start those. Also, when this base set is complete and I begin work on the expansion sets, I might try to push a narrative flow through them so there's a bigger overarching story that progresses (and might even change how the game is played as it goes on). As for playtesting: super apologies in advance! You'll be doing a lot of printing and cutting! :p
Got any updates on playtesting? If you have, no need to be gentle about critiques; I'm not completely in love with the mechanics or anything, so I'm definitely looking to fix what's broken or boring.