I've never been into trading card games, as I believe they are a total commercial rip-off. Buy to win. After playing this one, I see the strategic appeal, however. The player takes part as a wild card participant in an intergalactic tournament. Nobody would bet a dime on him. Round by round, he challenges opponents and with that, the status quo of the ruling society (or something…).
Each card played has a specific effects and the effects add up per turn. Some harming your opponent, some boosting yourself – until you finally (hopefully) gain the upper hand to certain victory.
On planet Allansia, our hero travels across the Northern Borderlands without meeting a single soul. Until one night, he is wakened from his sleep only to witness the final words of a dying dwarf called Bigleg. His mission to take a legendary weapon of war to Gillibran, the king of dwarves, at the edge of Darkwood, failed. It has been stolen in an ambush. Without this weapon, the dwarf kingdom of Stonebridge is in danger from warmongering trolls. Bigleg promises our nameless hero great riches if he can find the war hammer again and bring it to its rightful owner. Then he dies right under our eyes.
Good humour takes proper setup and precise timing: Leading up to and delivering a punchline is an art form of its own which is harder to master than most people tend to believe. Yet it is one of the most important skills that separates the amateur jokester from the true comedian. Of course this is also what makes or brakes any video game that tries to make its audience laugh and it is especially the adventure game genre that has a tradition of delivering prime examples to both the best and the worst in comedy. One of the former is Alias 'The Magpie', a piece of interactive fiction telling the story of a hilarious art heist in a masterful way.
