Wikipedia talk:Trading card game/Rules proposal 4

"Using many black cards to decrease you opponent's articles to 0." Please avoid this strategy; in fact, I'm not so keen on the idea of black cards at all. The game should really be project centered, and it would be best if vandalism were reduced to a chance operation, an outside force. The goal should be to get x articles to FA status, while minimizing the amount of damage caused by the entropic force of vandalism.
Here's a related idea for game design. Each deck is made up of x black cards and x white cards, a fixed number. Before each game, the players write down a list of which black cards are theirs- the black cards are then separated from each player's deck, combined into a separate deck, shuffled, and then dealt out evenly to each player. The players then shuffle the given black cards into their library. Note that when a black card comes up, it must be played. It has a negative effect upon the player that is forced to play it, rather than his/her opponent. Cards such as administrators can counter the effects of black cards, ie: "The next time you would have to play a black card, discard it instead".

Alternatively, the black cards could remain in their separate deck, and be dealt out to players randomly. Some black cards, like sock puppets and rouge users, could remain in play as corrupting forces, having effects like this: "the next time you would draw from the black deck, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, you draw 2 black cards instead." or "whenever you draw a black card, reduce target article's AP by 1". Checkusers and such would be able to neutralize such permanent black cards.

Each editor in play contributes to the goal of building featured articles, which would function like life points, except that each player begins with 0 and builds up. "Article points" would be represented by tokens: a stub token is worth 1, a start class is worth 3, C=5, B=8, A=10, GA=15, FA=20; or something like that. Once an article reaches FA it is "locked in" and that set of 20 AP cannot be reduced. The amount of writing points an editor has determine how much it contributes in terms of article points; admins can increase these writing points, vandals decrease it, or directly effect article points. This is exactly the opposite of MTG: instead of creatures having power that decreases your opponents life total, editors have writing points that increase your "article points".

Just a few thoughts, I'll post more when I think of them. The point can't be made strongly enough that the "dark forces" are determined by whim and chance, the "light forces" by strategy and reason. Rather than directly sabotaging your opponent, you try to make your wiki-building cards and vandal defenses stronger. It is competitive, but not aggressively so. I realize it's completely different, but please give it a thought.

A more detailed description of the latter variant

This is incomplete, please excuse that, but I have work to do tomorrow; a week from now I will be free and at the beginning of Spring break, thus more able to donate time.

Players: 2-8

Objective: To be the first player to get 4 articles to featured status (80 AP). Players may work in teams of two if there are more than 3. Each player brings a deck of 50 cards containing 15 black cards and 35 white cards. Before the game begins, the fifteen black cards are separated out of each player's deck and shuffled together into a "vandal pool"; each player retains their own 35 white cards. Then the player that goes first is chosen by die or coin flip, and the turns proceed counterclockwise.

Each player draws a hand of five cards.

Turn structure: On the first turn, players draw one card from their white decks, but no cards from the vandal stack; on each subsequent turn, players will draw one card from the vandal stack and one card from their white stack, in that order.

After the draw step, each player may play one editor card.

About editor cards: Editor cards are generic. They each have 1 writing point, 5 good faith points (GFP), and one experience point. At the end of each turn, you gain one article point (AP) for each writing point (WP- ha ha) your editors have between them. At then end of each turn, each editor also gains an experience point (EP).

Good Faith Points (or morale points, or dedication points, I haven't decided yet -GFP) are used to determine the editor's susceptibility to the effects of vandalism, drama, and other shenanigans. Various effects of vandalism can reduce the number of GFP editors have, which in turn affects their morale. An editor with 0 GFP loses a writing point; an editor with 3 GFP does not gain EP at the end of each turn. This will be further discussed in the context of the vandal stack.
Experience points (EP) represent a user's edit count and are used to determine the evolution of an editor. Once an editor has 5 EP, they can be promoted to one of various states:

Content Contributor: has two WP instead of one, but gains only one EP every other turn: (reflects the relatively low edit count of article writers for wp versus stub sorters and the like)
Rollbacker
Bot programmer

Once an editor has 10 EP, they can be promoted to other editor types:

Vandalism and the Vandal stack: The "Black cards" are divided into Negative editors / situations (these are "permanent" cards), Nonconstructive edits (these have a one-time effect). At the beginning of each turn, one card is drawn from the "Vandal stack" (described above). All players draw from the same vandal stack. The vandal stack has its own "Banned pile" of blocked vandals and reverted edits.

Negative Editors are like editors in that they come into play on the side of the player who draws them, but unlike editors, who start off as the same and develop, negative editors come into play fully formed. They include:

Spammers: When a spammer (this includes autobiographers and other COIs) is in play on your side, you must randomly choose one of your editors at the beginning of each turn. Then flip a coin. If you lose the flip, that editor's Writing points do not contribute to Article Points that turn. (presumably because they are explaining WP's COI and spam policies over and over again, possibly at an AFD)
Sockpuppet: Comes into play as a copy of any negative editor in the banned stack
Troll:Lowers the morale/GFP of all editors you control by 1 as long as it is in play
Vandal:Lowers your AP by one each turn.

Can anyone else think of variations on this for Administrators, rollbackers, etc? Anyway, this looks like a fun project, just so long as we avoid copyright violations. I'm an art student and have a little experience with design and digital media, so I'd be glad to contribute on that front as well.

Proposed by Lithoderm
Discuss this proposal at Wikipedia talk:Trading card game/Action plan/Phase 1:Rules#Proposal #4.