While on a four hour drive along the forested roads of Pennsylvania, I was listening to an episode of Talk Cardboard. Their board game recommendation for that episode was Forest Shuffle. That night, when I finally had time to look more into the game, was when I realized this game was designed specifically for me.
Before diving into the game, come take a stroll along the paths that converged into this experience.
Card games
I started playing collectible card games as a young age with the Pokemon TCG and Yu-gi-oh. And by play I actually mean I collected cards and had no idea how the games played. In college I played some Magic the Gathering with friends. The one I invested the most time into was Hearthstone (which I played until October 2019).
But something that I believe card games do extremely well is player expression. Let’s take two of games to show the difference.
Photosynthesis is a board game where players control tree pieces with the goal to gain the most victory points. Everyone has access to the same pieces, but it is up for them to decide what to invest into. Should you plant a lot of small trees to cover the board or only have a few towering trees?
Even though I don’t play Magic the Gathering anymore, I still have my Treefolk deck. In a game where you can summon warriors, dragons, and angels, I wanted big trees. Even though I have not played in years, I still love that deck.
Now both experiences let me play with trees. But generally in board games you do not have as much player expression as in card games (mostly because card games are constantly expanding and have thousands of cards). While in Photosynthesis I would feel powerful eeking out a few more points than my opponents, when playing with Treefolk I would feel like I was marching with the ents.
I play Photosynthesis a few times a year with family and friends, while my Treefolk deck has been sitting for years unplayed. But I could never get rid of that deck because of how connected I feel to it.
What do card games do better than board games for player expression? I feel it can be distilled to two things (with some flaws as well):
With constant expansions, players have unlimited options for what they want to play.
These constant packs are often filled with cards that no one needs, which creates a lot of waste that cannot be recycled.
The price can be restrictive, with some decks costing hundreds of dollars.
The cinematic conflict. While competitive board games have conflict, it is often “get victory points” instead of “you are two warriors fighting to the death!”
Which is why I decided to make my own card game.
Ecotone
In Magic the Gathering, the players are two wizards (called planeswalkers) summoning monsters and spells to destroy their opponent. In Flesh and Blood, two combatants are tangled up in hand to hand combat. What could an ecosystem based game have in terms of combat?
“An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems).”
Below are the condensed version of the rules and mechanics I developed over years thinking about this.
Cards are made by players using whatever means they want. Paper cards from a printer, wooden cards from a laser cutter, etc. This would reduce waste and eliminate the cost that happens in other games.
Players would create decks based on ecosystems. The deck would have two attributes: precipitation and temperature.
Precipitation can be low, medium, or high, and the effects care about cards. Higher precipitation has lots of card draw, while low precipitation rewards those who have no cards in hand.
Temperature can be cold, temperate, or warm. Cold was more control, while warm was more aggro.
So while both temperate and tropical rain forests could have high precipitation cards, they would use different temperature cards.
The attributes are based on the following habitat chart
Players would start with some vegetation on the board that could grow during the game. The decks would consist of animals and weather cards.
There is a shared resources track (pictured above). If one person starts at 3, and uses 10 “resources,” it would go to the opponents 7. This gives a nice push and pull between players.
I was still testing, only having made a handful of cards. But the gameplay was fun! It captured that feeling of player expression while in a conflict that actually happens in nature. Players could then create cards for their ecosystem that they could balance with others. The game would constantly be evolving just like actual ecosystems.
Like many unfinished projects, this was something I would tinker with during some free time. Maybe make a significant change every few months. But I would think about new cards every now and then. That was until Forest Shuffle was released.
Forest Shuffle
In Forest Shuffle, designed by Kosch, players build up their forests to collect points. While it isn’t exactly the game I was designing, it scratches that same itch.
Players build their forests by growing trees and attaching animals to those trees.
To pay for cards, you need to discard a certain number of cards from your hand. Not only does not eliminate specific “resource cards,” often causing mana flooding, in Forest Shuffle other players can use those discarded cards which simulate how everything is used by someone in an ecosystem.
Each animal card is split between two, (allowing more player expression) which are then placed under a tree.
Photo courtesy of Ottavia and Cesar on Boardgame Geek.
Photo courtesy of Sabine Lau on Boardgame Geek.
On top of the gameplay invoking natural systems, the entire game was less than $25 with everything made from sustainably sourced materials. There was no plastic wrap, even for the cards.
I have never been happier to have a project of mine die. In the future I might try to create my own expansions to this game. But for now I’ll just enjoy playing the game that was made for me.