Good day gunslingers!
In this post I will introduce you to how Action Cards work in the current iteration of Duendo card game.

Duendo is all about taking action, and if you have ever seen a western movie, you probably have also seen a scene with a high-noon duel where who draws and shoots first wins (or lives).
In the game action comes in different ways, and one of these is ‘Attack’ where you challenge another player to a duel. We haven’t really introduced the concept of speed like “who draws first”. If after reading this you have ideas on how that concept can be introduced in the game, we’ll be very happy to read about it in the comments 🙂

The ‘Attack’ card in Duendo, like all other action cards in the game, requires an accompanying card in order to be used. Who ever is attacking first must have the ‘Attack’ action card and also a weapon card. A tiny icon that shows a dagger at the bottom of the ‘Attack’ action card indicates that the player needs to find a weapon card. All weapon cards carry the same icon.  Additionally each weapon has a cost tied to it, that indicates the number of coins the player needs to place on the cards being played.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why on Earth would you attack someone?

The end goal of the game is for you to complete your current mission.  Missions come from mission cards that are distributed one to each player.

Each mission would instruct the player to collect 3 specific playing cards.  Cards that contain mission items are labeled with an ‘M’ icon at the top-right corner of the card.  My favorite mission item so far is the voodoo doll shown below, only because the drawing came really cool, what do you think?

So you need to attack other players and challenge them to a duel in the hopes of winning and being able to take a random card from their hand.  If you’re lucky enough, the card you pick is one of the mission items you are looking for.

What’s the worse that could happen?

Well, your victim is definitely going to retaliate.  That means they can attack you back with a weapon of their own if they have the right cards at hand.  If your weapon does more damage than theirs, you win that duel.  If their weapon of choice does more damage than the one you picked, you lose the duel.

If you win, you get to pick a random card from their hand.  The cards you attacked with will go into the discard pile and you can take back your coins.

If you lose, the cards you attacked with go into the discard pile and the coins will go into a common pool at the center of the table.  We’ll get to these coins in another blog post.

What if you can’t attack back when challenged?

Say someone attacks, challenging you to a duel.  You look at your hand and you don’t see any Attack Cards or Weapon Cards, what are your options?

The options are two.  First of all, you might have a ‘Take Cover’ card that allows you to hide behind something in order not to be hit by the attacker’s weapon.  This action card also requires an accompanying card to be played.  For example, you can have a ‘Take Cover’ card and a ‘Barrel of aged whiskey’ card that will allow you to hide behind the barrel.

The second option requires some skill.  You can pick any two cards from your hand, which can be something as silly as ‘Magic Beans’ and a ‘Pheasant Feather’, and place them face down on the table whilst wearing your best poker face.  This is a bluff.  If your attacker does not call your bluff, you win!

 

There are more details to the dynamics of these actions that will be uncovered closer to the publishing date.  I hope this post still captures your interest and if you would like to receive more updates for posts like this, subscribe to our blog here.