rambling about one of my few non-pipe-dream game ideas ahead
AKA
design document excerpt following the loosest possible definition of "design document"
lucky saviors is a card-based RPG about 3 college-age women1 who become magical girls tasked with finding and clearing out liminal space pocket dimensions, deactivating the devices within. the devices are harvesting all the good luck in the surrounding area, and as they operate, there becomes an ever-growing glut of bad luck; stubbed toes and dropped phones escalate to horrific accidents and tragedies. as such the girls must be vigilant for telltale signs of a luck harvest before it gets too bad: someone with a string of bad luck, a notable rise in car accidents in a given area, etc. once they're close enough (and the luck is bad enough) they can feel it and find where it is.
upon entering a luck harvest, the girls find themselves in a strange hallway, gradually exploring this proc-gen maze, encountering rooms with monsters to fight, cards to collect, and devices to destroy. each girl has her own deck, but the player can access all hands during one turn and play characters' cards in whatever order they see fit.
there is, to an extent, a card-matching mechanic. you must play multiple copies of some cards for them to take effect, which may be either within one character's hand or between multiple girls' hands; some multi-cards also must be played by a specific combination of 2 or all 3 characters.
additionally, combat occurs on a grid map the characters can traverse, either to engage or avoid foes. the card-based mechanics are entirely diegetic, and the player can buy packs and sometimes individual cards from vending machines in safe rooms. for simplicity's sake, card battles all happen in one of 2 or 3 sizes of room, and never in the hallways themselves.
the environments vary, though all are some form of hallways or tunnels, and potentially alleyways (i'm still up in the air on that cause i feel like it would necessitate the most assets). safe rooms where the characters can rest, buy cards, and save the game if necessary. i will say more in future posts probably maybe.
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in a world where, instead of humans, there are cute anime elfs with long pointy ears. it's not like a high fantasy tolkein lodoss slayers whatever world, tho: they have cars and office jobs and skateboarding and apartments and stuff, albeit some of which are different from our own; that they are elves is completely irrelevant to the plot. i just think anime elfs are cute and underrated, and have the creative freedom to make whatever decision i want!