MOXTOBER - Bones: A Google Sheet Template for Set Skeletons!

#wotcsafe

It’s #MTGMoxtober! A month of design prompts for the Magic creatively inclined. Today is October Twelfth, which means the prompt for today is Bones

What do people think about when they think of Bones? Skeletons! And what is the scariest kind of Skeleton? Set Skeletons! 

Today, instead of designing a new Skeleton card, I’ve created a new tool for looking at and designing your own set skeletons in a Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G5E_Klct4tyHn2eKvgU_5zoCfzWpyaNWpCkkq_cSRKE/

The previous top link for “Set Skeleton Google Sheet” pointed at this template from Flying__Penguin, which this is based on. It’s really useful! However, that template was made 6 years ago for 150 card sets. The updated version reflects the feedback from Maro’s Nuts and Bolts article from last year and the larger size of modern sets, which is far more detailed that the previous version. You can copy this template to use for your own sets

I’ve also included at additional tab that uses Cube April’s brilliant Scryfall google sheets plug in to (more or less) automatically populate a set skeleton that you can view along side the skeleton template provided in the article. This helps you to see where recent sets have deviated from the skeleton in creative ways! 

This document is certainly a work in process, so please let me know how else I can improve the design or how you’re tweaking it to be more useful!

You can find me on Twitter @wobbles

or in the Beacon of Creation discord https://t.co/WXoiKIC1qf?amp=1

Or on my Tumblr where I post other small and cheap game design ideas: brokeboardgames.tumblr.com

Honk! Honk!

Tesla: Skeleton Key, or, Approaches to Team Set Design

Hello again, everyone! Over the past few weeks we've done some serious work on the set skeleton for Tesla, such as in the Filling in the Skeleton challenge, as a part of the final push to get the project closer to serious playtesting. Today, I'd like to talk about how the process of filling the skeleton has gone, some discussion of approaches to collaboratively filling the set skeleton as a team, and more.

Tesla Design Challenge 031016 — Filling in the Skeleton

Howdy all! We're nearing the weekend, and what better way to celebrate than with a Tesla design challenge? Over a the Multiverse site for Tesla, progress has been steady. We've been chipping away at the file, and now, let's make the final push to fill in the skeleton completely!

Tesla: Playtest Engineering II: Designing Cards

Hello again, everybody! I'm back from my holiday vacation, and eager to jump once more into the fray! Last time, we began a series on designing an all commons playtest, from start to finish. In the first part, we talked about the overall structure of a playtest set, and how one can use concepts like as-fan to help quickly create such a structure, using our custom collaborative set Tesla as an example. This time, we're going to learn how to quickly fill in this structure with actual cards.

Tesla: Playtest Engineering I: Structure

This article is WotC safe.

Hello again, everybody! I hope you've all been enjoying your holidays, and that you continue to do so! Now, back to business. This week, I'll be starting a three-part series on designing an all commons playtest, from start to finish. First off, we'll be discussing the overall structure of a playtest set, and how one can use concepts like as-fan to help quickly create such a structure, using our custom collaborative set Tesla as an example. (The lessons in this article are great for anyone looking to design a set, though!)