Reactions and Traits

Revision as of 23:54, 29 August 2013

One of the most unique feature set of Card Hunter lies in its reaction mechanics. In fact, it is so unique that the developer diaries contain three chapters (Jon talks about reactions, Skaff Elias talks about reactions, developers talk about more reactions) worth of explanations on the history, motivation and implementation. Readers are advised to browse the links for in-depth information and key insights. Another distinct gameplay feature revolves around the Trait mechanic. While card reactions provide a subtle way of streamlining gameplay flow, traits present more strategic deck building depth to the player. This guide presents some basics with regard to reactions and traits with examples of commonly encountered cards. Readers are advised to browse the Keywords guides for detailed information.

Reactions

A reaction consists of a trigger condition, trigger effect and a trigger result. A trigger condition refers to the state required for the reaction to manifest/activate. Trigger effect refers to the function of the reaction while the trigger result refers to the outcome of the reaction. As reactions are tied to actions/state of the game itself, bounded action space translates into bounded reaction types. There are currently 6 broad types of reactions in game.

Figure 1 shows an example of a card with the Armor reaction: Reliable Hide Armor. Reliable Hide Armor is a common armor card found in most low-level items. It reacts to incoming damage and reduces it by 1. As the die roll is 1+, Reliable Hide Armor always mitigates incoming damage by 1 and is therefore an absolute damage reducer. Multiple Reliable Hide Armors will stack the damage reduction as the reaction processes from the first to the next. Also note that any card bearing an Armor reaction has a grey background. Figure 2 shows an example of a Block reaction: Block. Unlike Reliable Hide Armor, the Block trigger effect uses the keyword Block any. This means that the trigger effect will negate any type of attack from the front provided the trigger condition is satisfied. In this case, the trigger condition is an incoming frontal attack with a die roll greater than 4 in order for the Block any effect to occur. Successful trigger result 'blocks' the attack. Note that cards bearing the Block reaction has a green background. Another common reaction is the Boost. There are many interpretations to the boost effect. In general, boosts are commonly used to increase or enhance an action/game state. Arcane Aura (Fig. 3) is a classic example of a boost reaction. It contains two reactions: an Armor reaction followed by a boost reaction. This means that Arcane Aura reacts on incoming damage as well as when the card bearer plays a damaging Magic card. The trigger condition is a play of a damaging Magic card. The trigger effect is to add 2 to the damage. If a card like Surging Bolt is played with Arcane Aura in hand, the total damage dealt to the target is raised from 3 to 5. Not all boost reactions increase damage, some like Dimensional Traveller boosts the game state via enhancements. In this case, the character with Dimensional Traveller gains an additional teleport move of 1 tile at the start of each round. This is a highly useful positional ability. In addition, Dimensional Traveller also contains the Trait keyword which is covered in the Traits section below. All boost reactions are denoted by orange card backgrounds. Handicap reactions are the polar opposite of boosts. Where boosts add and enhance gameplay, handicaps create detrimental effects. Slowed is an example of a handicap reaction. It triggers when a positional change of the card bearer is detected. When the die roll is less than 4, the trigger effect (Encumber) is applied. Slowed therefore reduces the movement range of the character by 1. With the Keep keyword, Slowed is not discarded after it reacts. Instead, it will trigger if another move is detected, creating an annoying movement handicap chain. Handicap reactions does nothing beneficial to the player and are best avoided. However, a game feature of Card Hunter consists of in-game quests requiring players to form parties using items with handicap cards. As such, learning to play with and around handicaps are an excellent way to differentiate between good players and great players. Again, note that Handicap reactions are denoted by black card backgrounds. IMPORTANT: All reactions are represented by a grey text background.	Fig. 1: An armor reaction card	Fig. 2: A block reaction card
	Fig. 3: A boost reaction card	Fig. 4: Another boost reaction card
	Fig. 5: A handicap reaction card	Fig. 6: A move reaction card

Traits

Unlike reactions, traits are not as complicated and follow simple rules. However, it has important and strategic significance in deck building and game play. A card bearing the Trait keyword forces the player to play it when drawn. It takes precedence over all other in-hand cards and play is stopped until all trait cards are played. A player may select the order in which to play trait cards when multiples occur. A player cannot pass while holding a Trait card. The real kicker of traits are:

• Playing a Trait card does not end the player's turn.
• When a Trait card is played, draw another card.