Card mage slumdog deckbu.., p.41
Card Mage: Slumdog Deckbuilder, page 41
And, yes, it was deliberately misleading; a cheap attempt to draw you in and get you to read further… but it isn’t entirely untrue either.
I love games. I love roleplaying games, I love computer games, I love board games, and, yes, I do indeed love card games.
But I don’t like collectible card games.
Not a true statement either, but we’re getting closer to the heart of it.
I remember buying a pack of Star Wars cards when they first came out. It was cool to look at the handful of cards in the packet, but I was painfully aware I had nowhere near enough to consider playing a game, and even if I was able to buy enough packs to get a full deck, and even though I had next to zero clue about meta gaming at that point in my life, I could tell the cards I had were miles off belonging in a GOOD deck.
It was a similar story when I got my hands on a Pokemon starter deck. An entire box filled with enough cards to play a game straight away? It felt like I’d leapt over a hurdle, and that the collectible card game world was finally open to me. My local Pokemon opponents soon corrected my mistake, however - there was no chance my ‘beginners’ deck could stand up against their more carefully constructed sets.
Even as an adult playing Hearthstone on my mobile phone, I would have to drop hundreds of pounds to collect all the cards in each expansion - three a year - to be flexible enough to build decks on the fly, to react to the ever-shifting meta, instead of scraping all my dust together to form one deck per expansion, and hoping I could squeeze out more wins than losses with it.
I’ve never minded the ‘collectible’ aspect of these card games. Some of my best childhood memories are of collecting and swapping pieces of plastic - hello Pogs and Monster in my Pocket. Designing a game is hard work, and the art produced for TCCs is consistently glorious; I’ve never expected games of this quality to be free. But I can’t rationalise dropping a few hundred quid on a virtual card game that will go out of date in a few months when something like Gloomhaven is competing for the attention of my wallet.
As a child, I felt I existed in a kind of TCC poverty.
And so the Domstadt Slums were born.
Further Reading
If you’ve read my other stories before, thank you for heading on this journey with me as I try something different!
If you are new, welcome to the team! You will have already seen that I’ve got a little bonus for members of my Readers Group - artist Werner Fismer is helping put together Pep’s Card Guide, which is going to build up over the next few months, and is exclusive to those of you who receive my author newsletter - head over HERE to make sure you don’t miss out on the stats and the doodles!
My biggest champion in getting Card Mage out into the world has been my good friend Phil Tucker, who has quickly become a legend in the Progression Fantasy genre. He seems to be bringing out a new novel every other month at the moment, but as far as I’m concerned Phil’s signature work remains Bastion, his epic tale about Scorio, a warrior reincarnated in the lowest level of hell.
Deckbuilding is an even newer genre of storytelling than Progression Fantasy, but if you want more of these types of stories, some modern classics have already arrived; Jake’s Magical Market is the tale of a shop assistant, and how collecting a deck of magical cards helps him deal with the end of the world.
There are plenty of places online you can find recommendations for stories that involve gaming, but one of my favourites (and a very active community) can be found in the LitRPG Books Facebook group - well worth your time to check it out.
If you’ve taken the time to read this far, thank you! Please consider having a look at my other fantasy stories, and if you enjoyed Card Mage:Slumdog Deckbuilder, please consider leaving a review on Amazon - this has a huge impact on encouraging other readers to take a look at my story.
I look forward to diving back into the City of Cards with you soon for Card Mage: Tournament Topdecker.
Until then, take care,
Benedict
July 2023
Acknowledgements
I find myself becoming increasingly more panicked when writing this section of the book; I’m aware how many hands and minds have helped to get Card Mage out into the world, and am fearful I am going to forget somebody very important here.
First and foremost, thank you to my family for your continuing support in my writing career. Adele, my wife, and always my first reader - thank you for being understanding when I creep out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to attack the keyboard before everyone else wakes! Darcy and Finn; you’re getting close to the age when you’re going to be able to read these stories yourselves, and I hope they live up to your expectations.
To my editors, Alida and Scott - thank you for using your skills to shape this story into something being worth other people’s time.
To the ever-growing team of artists working on Card Mage stuff; to Antti and Jenny for your already-iconic covers, to Denis for the card art you continue to blow me away with, and to Werner for taking on the role of Pep, my favourite card geek.
To my trusted friends who took an early look at Card Mage, my beta readers who weren’t afraid to let me know where things weren’t quite working: Biggus, Craig, Kathryn, Timy, Filip, John, and my brother Mark.
To those ‘safe hands’ who were the last to look at the book before it went public, to spot the small mistakes my tired eyes missed: Lisa, Adawia, Johnny, Ágnes, Sidra, Jacinta, and Dad!
Finally, a huge ‘thank you’ to the following heroes who trusted me enough to back Card Mage on Kickstarter, taking a chance on the story before it had made its way properly into the world, and giving me the final push I needed to make this book possible:
Chirag Asnani, Dyrk Ashton, Scott M. Williams, Will Ford, Jacinta Downey, NightScribe, Ed McCutchan, Phil Tucker, Liam McBey, Johnny DePaola, Emma Adams, Niki Cairney, Jon Auerbach, Alex S. Bradshaw, LordTBR - FanFiAddict, Dean Witte-Crowell, Steven Peiper, Nathan Towns, Lauren McKee, Lisa Maughan, Gareth Evans, Melody Hawkins, Jordan Freind, Ben Stilphen, Scott Price, Nathan K., Hope Terrell, Joakim Siegers, Andrew Wilson, Grumpy, Quentin Foster, Andy Peloquin, Kyle Cataldo, Rod Cressey, Aerie Elizabeth, Daniel Bergquist, Matti Viren, Davidnh, Ultra Bithalver, John Idlor, John Iadanza, Caethes Faron, S. Meredith, Erin Frisby, Adam Holcombe, Jason van Basten, Sylvia L. Foil, Tom Bookbeard, Andi Mars, BJM, Ophelia M., Ryan Newfield, Nicolas D, Andrew Wooten, Claudia Sehling, Desta, Marcos Ramirez, René Schultze, Filip Magnus, Kev Hodge, Dan Sandqvist, KaiLun R. Grant, Clayton Taylor, Michel Werthmann, Mathew "Bubba Moose" Adams, Kristian Handberg, Adam G., none, Brad & Bentley Searing, Jussi Ahonen, Adam Nemo, Lilly and Delilah Dorossian, Elijah Martinez, Samantha Landström, Adrianne, Virginia McClain, Charlotte Drover, Nancy Richey, Maxime Majeau, Sam Workman, Andrew Konicki, Andrew Cobble, Eddie Joo, Jesica Kula, Dylan Humphreys, Jacob Tashoff, Christopher Cobb, S Naomi Scott, Scott Hartup, Tate L. Harris, Mathieu Lefebvre, Joshua Callahan, Brian Becker, Karen M, Robert Brown, Justin Aaron Gross, E.M. Middel, Mihir W., Travis Brannan, Kepi, Ben Galley, HiuGregg, Sarah L. Stevenson, Lark Cunningham, Andrew Hou, Alex Wrigglesworth, John F., Mariëlle Ooms-Voges, Quinn Giguiere, Oscar Saucedo Diaz, Michael R. Miller, Erik S, Trudie Skies, Glenn Curtis, JP Camin-Calixto, Brandon Stone, Erik Van Norstrand, Austin Hoffey, Rowena Andrews, Dillon Bloodworth, Dmytro Kocherhan, Carolyn Smith, Dennis Mader, Galen W. Miller, Tyler Russell, Léo Ferlin-Sutton, Belinda McDonald, Andrew Wainwright, Jose Javier Soriano Sempere, Andrew Kossek, Alen Dubinovic, Heathyr Fields, Jarek Benson, Dale A Russell, SeanBeansBabyMum, Paul Everingham, JR Lonergan, Sidra Karim, Dennis Newman, Ziri Vier, Nate Craig, Maria Owens, Franz Ong, Tyler Hengels, Andy McGehee, Harvey Constable, Adam Evans, Tim Hayes, The Best Father-in-law, Steffen Nyeland, Brendan Klumpp, Anthony Lewis, Harro van der Klauw, James D. Wilson, Osmo Korhonen, Paul Diaz, Leslie B, Jonathan Reilly, Emmanuel MAHE, Christiana Laudie, Jayson Barrand, J.A. Andrews, Cindy Patterson, Russell S. Ahlstrom, Alex G, Ashley W, gearhead, Rome Family, Aaron Furr, Marc Pino, Kat Allman, McMoogle, None, Johnny Parker, Lahman Marcel, Pietari, Yusuke Takumi, Thorne Stooksbury, Kevin Brady, Jennifer Stebing, Jacob Magnusson, Joshua Helfferich, Michael Yeh, E Clark, Caleb Barley, Brice_T, Has Ahmed, Daniel E Roberts, CMT, Sarah Phillips, Winter Sage Dorr, Carl Ferlay, Melanie B., Michaela Seifert, Justin Arnett, Boussole, Bruce B Cramer, Tylor Hennen, Anil Kadam, Christian Holt, Cristov Russell, Alix "Tinkerpaw" Blix, Mattias Söderholm, Peter, Alyssa Emmert, Nicolas Lobotsky, Estefania Zuniga, Michael Kappel, Brian Erbe, Michael Yousef, Matt Soucy, Kevin Knight, Kasey Wolfe, AMY ZIMLINGHAUS, Michael M, Ernie Ridley, Chris Corke, Daniel Obregon, Nishad Rahman, Kieran Holt, Gawin, Megyn “Crimson” MacDougall, Joshua McGinnis, Brian Familo, Kevin C., Babeling, Michael J. Sullivan, author, Nickolas Crisco, Jack Baer, Massimo Crivaro, Brian Healy, Ben Kirkwood, Pemry Janes, Clarissa Gosling, Micahel Moon, Phoebe and Amber Morgan, Jan Birch, Blair Riddle, Casey, Braden P Davis, Tao Wong, Elizabeth Gorman, Wolfe, Tyler Bland, Brian Monaghan, Kevin Forbes, Tenille Desjarlais, Brian M. Schmidt, Ronnie Civella, Caleb Sorenson, Clinton Boxley, Robert Barnes, Finch "PHOBIA" Murphy, Jamie Dockendorff, Corvus_Null, André Laude, Eric Henson, Ari Heraut, Orko Sarkar, Maciej Piwoda, Charger, Stephen P Robinson, Ryan H., A Wanderbot Fan, Arild Tvedt, Quail, Emily Boydston, Alexandre Goncalves, Steffen, Duyen Hua, Amanda B., Alex Barron, Mike F., Agnès Metanomski, Wes Baker, Brian Kelly, Xavier Walker, Whitney Jordan, Gareth Wolff, Liam Spurgeon, César Magiolino, Jessica M Fee, Gregory Tausch, Patrick Couch, Donovan L, QueenTiamat, Scotti Thomson, Emily TenBrink, Treyton J., OwainB, Doogolas, Janito V. F. Filho, Jonathan Hamm, C.W. Houston, Alex L., Victoria Johnsen.
Benedict Patrick, Card Mage: Slumdog Deckbuilder
