ORDALIA Beta Testing

ORDALIA GAME SYSTEM MANUAL

Introduction

Ordalia Game System is a card-based combat game system, which is very well suited for roleplaying. While the general mechanics of the game stay the same, the game itself can be contextualized in many different settings and backgrounds, each one with its specific cards and character types.

Using Ordalia Game System, players match their roleplaying characters in combat playing cards against each other. In Ordalia there are two combat card types:

Maneuver cards, representing actions and moves the Character makes during the round. These can be Attack or Defense cards of various types, or Special cards representing unusual/special actions like casting spells, concentrating, staying on guard and so on;
Event cards, representing special abilities or unexpected events that can suddenly alter the outcome of a combat round. These cards represent the use of some Skill by a Character, boosting his/her own capabilities or affecting the opponent causing some additional effect. Event cards are available according to the Character Levels in specific Skills, and can have a wide range of effects like boosting attack or defense, healing and more.

Each card has different strengths and weaknesses. Ordalia game system matches the cards played to determine the outcome of the combat round. As of the current version, all combat events and results are text emoted, so there is no lag playing Ordalia due to graphic animations.

At the moment, Ordalia can be played only while logged in Second Life (trademark by Linden Labs), and it is set mainly in fantasy roleplaying settings. However, other ways to play the game and new game settings are in developement, so stay tuned for new ways to enjoy the game!

It is important to note that combat is run in an abstract way by playing cards, so no movement is needed by the SL Avatars. On the contrary, it is important that the characters engaged in combat remain in shouting range (i.e. 40 meters), to allow communication between the HUDs for the game to work properly.

To play an Ordalia character, a player has to register to Ordalia website in order to activate his or her account, and has to create a character choosing an Archetype among the ones available in the website. The Ordalia playing HUD is available for free in Second Life. It is also possible to test the game with no need to register to website, using a free demo character HUD.
Note: a player has to register to Ordalia using his Second Life avatar's name, otherwise the game won't be able to associate the Ordalia character to the avatar wearing the game HUD.