<BB> Battle Boards - Getting Started

Etiquette/Flavor/FAQs

This section covers the more flavorful/less mechanical aspects of Battle Boards that more technical questions might miss.

Is there an established setting?

Not really. The plane is called “The Arena”, with the ‘base’ plane being sparsely populated (because the original intention was to be a safe zone for planeswalker fighting - that has changed in the years the game has developed.) The plane is currently sparsely populated with a few villages (I think all the "NPCs" are human), and that it's currently early winter (and parts of the Arena are cold enough to get snow) There's no map, and the only specific locations are ones that players have come up with. It's been described as "there is what you need there to be." i.e. no one really knew or cared whether there were oceans on the Arena until someone started playing as a pirate, and decided there were seas worth sailing in.

Otherwise, it’s a virtually infinite plane that can have whatever you want on it (within reason - there’s a difference between having a chunk of the plane on fire, and having the entire plane on fire.)

If you want a more controlled space/plane/area to operate in, parallel Nyx-like dimensions are fair game.

Any restrictions or requirements on characters?

Not really. We've had robots, cats, humans, at least one angel etc. Basically, if you can planeswalk, you’ve got carte blanche. It’s recommended that you write some description of who you are regardless - this is an RPG, the more we know about your character, the better!

If you’re not a planeswalker - you would either need a way to get to the plane (e.g. Kaladesh style portals), or write some kind of backstory about living in some region of The Arena. Feel free to exploit the infinite nature of the plane for this purpose.

What's motivating characters?

That’s entirely up to you. We're all being motivated by our own characters’ motivation. For example, PWW’s character Altani is here because she knows there are planeswalkers here and wants to fight them to get stronger. Other characters are here for economic, diplomatic, and exploratory reasons. No external force of the game is motivating characters. Sometimes people will have more than one "character" using the same "stat block", because they'll be playing as both a character and an "antagonist" for that character, which makes it easier to start conflict, though there's enough stuff going on that it's easy enough to end up involved in an interesting conflict.

How should you make/judge cards?

If you're attacking, then make whatever card you want. It's usually easier if the card you make has something to do with the roleplay of the attack (I teleported away, so the card I make returns a creature to my hand), but that's a suggestion more than a rule. If you're defending, then make whatever card you want, but it should interact with the card you're being attacked by. (I'm being attacked by a creature so I'm defending with a kill spell).

The only hard rule judging follows is that it’s always out of 10 points, but it’s generally advised to form your judging criteria around the same kind you would use for a forum game. For example,

“A well balanced but boring card like Grizzly Bears would get an 8, and then I'd give more points for being interesting and take points away for being poorly made. I think of it like grading in school.”

How to make sure your character fits in?

Well, keep in mind that you’re generally playing a character in the context of Magic: The Gathering, and thus you probably want a semi-plausible character that would exist there. You certainly can make breaks from the lore (e.g. Planeswalking Angels), but your typical ‘flavor’ should be something you would convincingly accept at a tabletop roleplaying session.

If you’re going to make a silly or less plausible character, you can either go one of two routes:

1) Ground it within the typical fantasy feel and make it work. This is the route people usually take, for example, an ant character that is a Grist-style hivemind of ants, or a mostly sci-fi character that is from a plane with a different color of mana and more technologically advanced than other planes. Both of these are real character concepts that have been used by other people.

2) Own it, buy the Jester Perk (1 skill point), and be a silver border character. You should still be “tasteful” about your humor or non-fitting-ness (think about how more recent Un-Sets try to balance good mechanical design and unusual flavor), but if you have a convincing theme (e.g. Your character is a time-traveler that has cards constantly affect the next game.), you should be able to make it work.

In general, talk things out with the people you play with if you’re not sure about something, similar to Commander games. As long as you communicate what you’re doing and are willing to improve it, you should be able to make things work.

What if I want to organize a larger event using the Battle Boards System?

Generally, some kind of group thread is organized or created as demand for these events rises, and falls back to obscurity when it’s no longer needed. By default, the Tavern serves as the default thread to post on to organize group-based battle board activities, with the thread going into detail about previous types of events that have happened in the past.

At the end of the event, each player rates the event organizer (10 x number of card design rounds) ÷ number of participants, rounded off to the nearest whole number. The organizer gains that amount in Score and Valor.

It is generally recommended to award a Trophy to the winner of the event. This trophy can be purely cosmetic or have a minor effect like creating a 0/1 token each fight for free.


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