I'm just saying…

This garners a mighty “Holy Shit” from the Phil department.

“Take that! My Gabe smashes your Tycho with his +1 Cardboard Tube!”
“So you think, but my Carrot Cake Soup is in play, giving my Tycho a +3 Circumstance bonus to defense. Now I’m gonna go ahead and use my Fruit Fucker to attack your Claw Shrimp.”
“But that’s just stupid. Fruit Fucker’s weaker than the Claw Shrimp.”
“Ah ha, but not unless I play Really Big Word on your Claw Shrimp, utterly decimating his attack and defense.”
“Not happening. I play It’s Just Nor For Me, which counters your Really Big Word. The Fruit Fucker is effectively pwned.”
“You Bastard.”

That’s how I could see the game being played. And it does sound fun. The fanboyish nature I hold dear to universe that is Penny Arcade (surely second to Annie’s) would make this game quite enjoyable. When asked about game details, Tycho had this to say:

“Right now, it’s basically radio silence about the game mechanically,
which I feel confident saying is really fun. Every card is some weird
in-joke from the entire archive, we came up with all the cards, and
Mike is doing all the art – and don’t forget, Hawk is hooking up the
colors.”

The art itself is looking quite good. Samples can be found at the link above, and at Applegeeks Central. The duo effort is striking, to say the least.

I’d be suprised if this CCG became any nationally-played-status card game like Yu-Gi-Oh! (blegh) or Magic: The Gathering. The reference material is entirely too specific, being Penny Arcade strips and in-jokes. I mean sure, it’d be nice if the brats of America were doing battle with The Merch and Div over some goddamned Blue-Eyed White Dragon (terrifying still, is the fact that I know it exists). That’s the curse of the webcomics world, is that the material involved is all too often too specific for the greater audience, but maddeningly popular to a very specific set of people. Which is why I would be very surprised to see this CCG on the shelves of joe-average American Comic Book store. This isn’t to say that creating a Penny Arcade CCG is folly, either.

The merits of Penny Arcade as a CCG are strong, financially. The fanbase is certainly large enough that they will sell well (if the Laser Cell sales say anything). I see the success of this CCG lying in small gaming communities who love the franchise and the card game, and get together regularly to play it together. I wonder if it might be a better game as a Non Collectible Card Game, a la Munchkin. But still, as a CCG I can’t help but wonder at what cards would be Commons, Uncommons, and Rares. And the elusive Ultra-Rare Holofoil Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood (which, as a game card, would most assuredly be broken).

My only worry for the success of the product is the fact that many (myself included) wouldn’t buy much of the game if they knew there wouldn’t be many in their neighborhood that play also. That’s the reason I didn’t get into Mage Knight, HeroClix, DBZ CCG (Give me a break, I was 15), D20 Modern, and other games that I wanted to play very badly, but had no one in the suburbs who shared my gaming obsessions. I’ve never lived in an area where the CCG scene was strong, so I don’t know from experience. I just know from where I’ve been. I’m moving to Philly this fall, so that may change if I can convince enough PA nerds to buy the game and play.

That’s just me rambling about my own shit, though. I’m sure it’ll do fine in the traditional PA business method. And if it does become a hit, there could be a great future. For the game itself, we could start seeing exclusive cards popping up in comic books, or inside game boxes. And what about Expansions? I’m hoping that the initial set of cards leaves room for expansion.

Possibly within other webcomics?

I could see a PVP expansion, allowing everyone to once settle disputes once and for all. Pitting Brent against Tycho would be a great battle indeed. Or, since the art of the game itself is a collaboration between Gabe and Hawk, why not an Applegeeks expansion? Hawk vs. Chuck, a fight to decide the greatest Mac Elitist of all.

What if this becomes an open source system that could easily be adaptable to all webcomics ever? Imagine the matchups! Jin Wicked vs. Jennie Breeden, Naoko Muragama vs. Monica Villarreal, Checkerboard Nightmare vs. Snarky, Choo Choo Bear vs. Snooch, Eric Von Frankenstein vs. Helen Narbon, D.J. Coffman vs. Everyone, etc!

A guy can dream, can’t he?

At any rate, I know I’ll be picking up an assload of boosters and starter decks when it’s finished. And bugging all my PA fan friends to play. And quite possibly the ones who’ve never heard of it. There’s no doubt in my mind that this game will be a lot of fun.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2005 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Games, Webcomics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.