The Spoils

The Spoils is a collectible card game which takes place in the epically diverse world of Luridia. Though often acclaimed as having some of the most elegant and balanced gameplay mechanics of any CCG, The Spoils also regarded as having rich flavor of any game of its kind to date. At present there are four sets for The Spoils: First Edition: Part One, First Edition: Part Two, Seed: Children of the Lingamorph, and Seed II: Gloamspike’s Revenge. There is also an Open Beta set which was released prior to the “official” release of First Edition: Part One.

The Game
During a game of The Spoils, two players compete against each other using The Spoils cards. Through efficient use of resources, effective manipulation of battles, and superior tactical decisions, one player emerges victorious. A game takes anywhere from 10-90 minutes, with games in a tournament setting being limited to 60 minutes. In order to claim victory, a player must lower his or her opponent’s Influence score to 0. A player’s Influence is determined by the Faction card that they have in play, with the standard starting Influence being 25.

Just like other card games, even games like Poker, the game-playing pieces of The Spoils are the cards, and these cards can be found in one of three places during a game: a player’s deck, a player’s hand, or the game-playing surface. Players draw cards from their deck into their hand, and then play cards from their hand onto the game-playing surface.

Cards
Every card in The Spoils conforms to a certain category. These categories are six in number and as follows:


 * Resource cards are used to pay costs during the game. They also provide threshold, which gives you access to more powerful cards in your deck.
 * Character cards are the bread and butter of The Spoils. Once played, characters can attack your opponent and do damage to his or her Faction, which equates to a loss of Influence.
 * Item cards, as with items containing the Gear subtext, are used to give advantages to your characters or to grant you general abilities that change the game. Often, they drastically change the way The Spoils is played.
 * Location cards also drastically change the way The Spoils is played, but unlike items, they can be attacked, receive damage and ultimately destroyed. They are destroyed if the damage that they take throughout the game exceeds their Structure value.
 * Tactic cards can be played at nearly any time, and have immediate, one-time impacts on the game. Tactics swing particular situations in one player’s favor, but once played and resolved are immediately discarded.
 * Faction cards are never found within one’s deck, but are permanent, unchangeable fixtures of the game-playing surface. Each player brings one Faction card to the table at the beginning of the game, and it remains there until the game is over. The Faction card provides specific rules for the player who owns it, the most obvious of which is Influence.