Answers to the questions from:

I Have No Words & I Must Design

"What's key here? Goals. Opposition. Resource management. Information. Well talk about them in half a mo.

"What decisions do players make in this game?"

Players choose what cards they play when, and for what. They choose how they maneuver about the board. They also control they distribute their realms.

"If you have no goal, your decisions are meaningless. Choice A is as good as Choice B; pick a card, any card. Who cares? What does it matter?

"For it to matter, for the game to be meaningful, you need something to strive toward. You need goals.

"What are the players' goals? Can the game support a variety of different goals? What facilities exist to allow players to strive toward their various goals?"

Players strive to knock each other from the sky in individual duels. Winning duels grants them control over more realms, thus enhancing their power (still not sure in what way).

"A game without struggle is a game that's dead.

"What provides opposition? What makes the game a struggle? "

Players oppose each other, what better competition is there?

"Ultimately, 'managing resources' means managing game elements in pursuit of your goal. A 'resource' that has no game role has nothing to contribute to success or failure, and is ultimately void.

"What resources does the player manage? Is there enough diversity in them to require tradeoffs in making decisions? Do they make those decisions interesting? "

Players struggle with ever changing resources. As they play cards from their hands they have fewer and fewer options left, until they play their hand, at which point they start over with a new and different hand.

Realms are also resources, though at this point I don't know exactly how those will work

"To give a player a sense that he controls his destiny, that he is playing a game, you need game tokens. The fewer the tokens, the more detailed they must be; it is no coincidence that roleplaying games, which give the player a single token, also have exceptionally detailed rules for what that token can do.

"What are the players' tokens? What are these tokens' abilities? What resources do they use? What makes them interesting? "

The playing pieces are plastic or pewter dragon miniatures. There are also glass tokens that interact with the board and cards to represent realms and damage respectively. These pieces are used to represent actions taken by the players using cards and dice, the two other pieces involved in the game.

"Given the decisions players are required to make, what information do they need? Does the game provide the information as and when needed? Will reasonable players be able to figure out what information they need, and how to find it?"

A player skilled at counting cards will be at an advantage in this game, as well as one who can simply remember which Major Arcana (spells) have been played. Other standard card game tricks, like reading people's behavior, will also help fill in the gaps in the information available and give a skillful player the advantage.

"How can players help or hinder each other? What incentives do they have to do so? What resources can they trade?"

At this point I have not written suggestions for team play, but it could easily be done. As it is I'm not sure if you are required to attack someone when you land on their dot. Team play could be very interesting, as the dynamics of the flight patterns of multiple dragons would add much complexity to the strategy of the game.

"Pageantry and detail and sense of place can greatly add to a game's emotional appeal.

"How does the game evoke the ethos and atmosphere and pageantry of its setting? What can you do to make it more colorful? "

The game is very colorful. The design and art of the board itself has a lot to do with this. The various materials used in the board and pieces, cloth, metal, card stock, glass, and ivory-ish plastic (dice) all contribute to the feel of the game.

"color adds to a game's appeal. And simulation is a way of providing color.

"How can elements of simulation strengthen the game?"

The board itself, the way the dragons fly on it, resembles closely the swooping flight paths of the beasts.

"Randomness can be useful. It's one way of providing variety of encounter. And what does that mean?

"It means that the same old thing all over again is fucking boring. It means that players like to encounter the unexpected. It means that the game has to allow lots of different things to happen, so there's always something a little different for the players to encounter.

"What things do the players encounter in this game? Are there enough things for them to explore and discover? What provides variety? How can we increase the variety of encounter?"

Two things that greatly enhance the variety in the game beyond that which natural occurs when two different minds approach the same task are the randomness of the dice and the cards. The dice add an equalizing random factor to combat, while also preventing stalemate maneuvers by randomizing flight distances. I also hope to invent a number of spells that utilize the dice, as they are currently being utilized far less than the cards.

The variety of encounter in the game is multiplied many times over by the addition of a deck of tarot cards. Each member of the Major Arcana is its own unique spell, leading to a vast variety of combinations. The fact that hands are constantly being depleted and refreshed also keeps the game exciting and the encounters unique. Some cards, such as the Court Cards and hopefully some of the spells have multiple uses, which also mixes things up. Tarot is the best thing to happen to this game since I came up with the board design.

"What can you do to make the player care about his position? Is there a single game token that's more important than others to the player, and what can be done to strengthen identification with it? If not, what is the overall emotional appeal of the position, and what can be done to strengthen that appeal? Who "is" the player in the game? What is his point of view?"

I have yet to create a back story, a premise, for this game. I'm not sure if the dragons are just fighting for territory, if they're in sanctioned dueling tournaments, a war, being ridden by wizards who cast spells from their backs, etc. Once I determine this I will know what the players position is relative to these dragons.

"Roleplaying is a powerful technique for a whole slew of reasons. It improves position identification; if you think like your character, you're identifying with him closely. It improves the game's color, because the players become partly responsible for maintaining the willing suspense of disbelief, the feeling that the game world is alive and colorful and consistent. And it is an excellent method of socialization.

"How can players be induced to roleplay? What sorts of roles does the system permit or encourage?"

This depends a lot on my answer to the previous question. I'll have to keep the possibility of role-playing in mind when I determine a back story for the game.

"Or as another example, many tabletop roleplaying games spend far too much effort worrying about "realism" and far too little about the game's use by players. Of what use is a combat system that is extraordinarily realistic, if playing out a single combat round takes fifteen minutes, and a whole battle takes four hours? They're not spending their time socializing and talking and hamming it up; they're spending time rolling dice and looking things up on charts. What's the point in that?

"How can the game better encourage socialization? "

Removing the cumbersome paper and pencil of the old rules greatly enhances the social nature of this game. Cards and dice are fun party toys. The game can now be played with varying levels of concentration, allowing for it to become the background to a fun evening with friends.

"In fact, one of the most common game failures is anticlimax. The period of maximum tension is not the resolution, but somewhere mid-way through the game. After a while, the opposition is on the run, or the player's position is unassailable. In most cases, this is because the designer never considered the need for narrative tension.

"What can be done to make the game tense? "

This was the major improvement from the original rules. It used to be that a dragon was at its strongest at the start of a duel, when all its spells and tricks were available. They would then be used up, leaving the dragon less powerful. If each dragon used up its power, they could continue circling each other to no effect for hours.

Now once a dragons resources are spent, a new hand is drawn, bringing unknown new factors into the game. Tricks and Spells are designed in order to increase mobility as well as for manipulation. This makes it harder for a dragon to avoid confrontation and therefore stall a game.

Increased randomness, especially in the distance a dragon flies in a turn, also help avoid stalemate.