Summary

A card game based on a dream, where players try to obtain artifacts while avoiding corruption from the forces of evil.

Status

I had a dream where I was an explorer, jumping around from planet to planet trying to find some old artifacts, while being pursued by bad guys, all while fighting with my inner self. The dream was the basis for the rules for Darkness: The card game. Conceptually, this game seems really interesting. From a practical standpoint, however, the logistics of getting all the proper art for the cards, combined with its difficulty, meant it was abandoned. Still, the game may resurface in a different form in the future.

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to be the first to obtain three artifacts from other planets. The game is played in stages with three separate decks: Recruitment, Exploration, and Endgame. Recruitment is when players find resources and characters to join them on their journey. Exploration involves travelling to worlds in hopes of finding clues for the artifacts. The artifacts themselves only show up in the Endgame stage, when they have to be found and won.

Players also have a pool of darkness counters, that represents the growing evil inside them. Darkness can be a source of strength, manifesting in stronger attacks during combat or other special abilities, or a source of weakness, as exceeding certain threshholds result in limitations, leading to game loss at 100 darkness. Players gain darkness in different ways, as character cards each add a new "darkness trigger" to that player, causing them to gain darkness counters whenever the trigger condition is satisfied.