BATTLE CARD GAME WITH HIDDEN ITEM CARDS

Abstract

A method and apparatus for playing a fighting card game with hidden items is provided for. A method and apparatus of playing a related fighting game that does not hide the items is also provided for. The apparatus includes a game board having a plurality of slots for placing fighter cards, where each slot has an attack zone indicator and a defense zone indicator. Battles are won by which fighting card has a higher designated battle value, which is a function of the fighter cards initial value, modified by one or more item cards, and/or the special abilities of fighter cards.

Claims

1. A method of playing a battle card game with hidden item cards, the battle card game with hidden item cards having a game board, having at least two discarded fighter card areas, at least two item deck areas, at least two fighter card deck areas, at least two fighter card placement areas, each fighter card placement area comprising a plurality of slots for one fighter card to be placed, wherein each slot has an attack indicator zone and a defense indicator zone, a first deck of fighter cards, comprising a plurality of fighter cards, each fighter card having an attack value, a defense value, and a class type, a second deck of item cards, comprising a plurality of item cards, comprising the steps of: two or more players participating in one or more rounds, each round comprising the steps of: each player taking an equal amount of fighter cards from the first deck; each player drawing an amount of fighter cards from their taken fighters cards in the previous step, wherein the amount of drawn fighter cards corresponds to an amount of slots for fighter card placement; each player taking an equal amount of item cards from the second deck; each player drawing at least one item card from their taken item cards in the previous step; determining by the two or more players which player goes first; playing at least one battle round by each player, the battle round comprising the steps of: each player placing their respective drawn fighter cards into one of their designated slots in either an attack position or a defense position; each player selectively and secretly placing at least one of their drawn item cards beneath the placed fighter card; repeating the previous two steps until each player has placed drawn fighter cards on each of their designated slots; choosing by one player, which placed fighter card shall engage in battle with one of another player's placed fighter card, where the winning fighter card is the fighter card with a higher designated battle value, wherein the designated battle value is determined by taking an initial value and modifying it based on any placed item on the game board that applies to the initial value; placing the losing fighting card in one of the discarded fighter areas; and repeating the above steps until one of the players has won a predetermined amount of battles, wherein said player is the winner of the round.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of items cards is selected from the group consisting of: equipment cards, attack/defense altering cards, and field cards.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the attack position is defined by the placed fighter card covering the defense indicator zone and wherein the defense position is defined by the placed fighter card covering the attack indicator zone.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each player chooses their drawn fighter cards after reviewing the entirety of their taken fighter cards.

5. A method of determining which player goes first in a card game utilizing a die and a deck of specialized cards, each specialized card having a result side containing information and an informationless rear side, the deck of specialized cards comprising a positive-result class of cards, a negative-result class of cards, and a neutral-result class of cards, the prevalence of each class of the specialized cards being in a fixed ratio, comprising the steps of: distributing the deck of specialized cards on a surface with the rear side of each card facing up; rolling the die to determine which player selects first; and individually selecting one specialized card by each player, starting with the determined first player, until the positive-result class card or the negative-result class card is selected by one of the players.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of: deeming the first player to select the positive-result class card to be the player who goes first.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of: deeming the last player to not select the negative-result class card to be the player who goes first.

8. A battle card game with hidden item cards, comprising: a game board, having at least two discarded fighter card areas, at least two item deck areas, at least two fighter card deck areas, at least two field card placement areas, at least two fighter card placement areas, each fighter card placement area comprising a plurality of slots for fighter cards to be placed, wherein each slot has an attack indicator zone and a defense indicator zone; a first deck of fighter cards, comprising a plurality of fighter cards, each fighter card having an attack value, a defense value, and a class type; a second deck of item cards comprising a plurality of item cards; and a third deck of sudden death cards.

9. The battle card game with hidden item cards of claim 8, the game board further comprising a top surface and at least one ridge extending outwardly from the top surface.

10. The battle card game with hidden item cards of claim 9, further comprising a plurality of round-win indicators, wherein the game board further comprises at least one round win indicator area.

11. The battle card game with hidden item cards of claim 8, further comprising a multi-sided die having an even number of sides, wherein half of the sides indicate a first result and half of the sides indicate a second result.

12. The battle card game with hidden item cards of claim 9, wherein the fighter cards further comprise a special ability.

13. A method of playing a fighting card game, the fighting card game having a game board, having at least two discarded fighter card areas, one item deck area, at least two fighter card deck areas, at least two field card placement areas, at least two fighter card placement areas, each fighter card placement area comprising a slot for a fighter card to be placed, a first deck of fighter cards, comprising a plurality of fighter cards, each fighter card having an attack value, an attack position, a defense value, a defense position and a class type, a second deck of item cards, comprising a plurality of item cards, comprising the steps of: shuffling and splitting the first deck of fighter cards into a plurality of even portions; shuffling the second deck of item cards and placing the second deck as a stack in between the two or more players; shuffling the third deck of sudden death cards and individually placing each card in the third deck of sudden death cards face down; two or more players participating in two waves, the first wave comprising the steps of: determining which player goes first, and said first player selecting one of the even portions of fighter cards; selecting the other portions of fighter cards by the other players; each player selecting two item cards from the second deck of item cards; each player drawing one fighter card from their portion of fighter cards; declaring by each player whether their fighter card is going to be placed in an attack position or a defense position; placing by each player, their drawn fighter card face up; engaging in a battle between each player's placed fighter card, where the winner of the battle is the card with a higher designated battle value, wherein the designated battle value is determined by taking an initial value and modifying the initial value based on any placed item card on the game board that applies to the initial value; placing the losing fighter card in its player's discarded fighter card area; setting aside the winning fighter card; repeating the previous six steps until each player has exhausted their portion of fighter cards: the second wave comprising the steps of: each player taking their winning fighter cards, shuffling them, and placing them face down; each player selecting two item cards from the second deck of item cards; each player drawing one fighter card from their portion of fighter cards; declaring by each player whether their fighter card is going to be placed in the attack position or the defense position; placing by each player, their drawn fighter card face up; engaging in a battle between each player's placed fighter card, where the winner of the battle is the card with a higher designated battle value, wherein the designated battle value is determined by taking an initial value and modifying it based on any placed item cards on the game board that applies to the initial value; placing the losing fighter card in its player's discarded fighter card area; placing the winning fighter card in its player's slot for the winning fighter card to be placed; and repeating the previous eight steps until each player has exhausted their portion of fighter cards, where the last player with remaining fighter cards is the winner.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of determining which player goes first is determined by selectively picking up cards form the third deck of sudden death cards.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising each player selectively and alternately playing item cards during the one or more battles.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0024] In the drawings, like elements are depicted by like reference numerals. The drawings are briefly described as follows.

[0025] FIG. 1 is flow chart showing an embodiment of the method of playing a fighting card game with hidden items in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0026] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an embodiment of the game board in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0027] The present disclosure now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show various example embodiments. However, the present disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the example embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these example embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure is thorough, complete, and fully conveys the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0028] FIG. 1 illustrates a flow chart showing an embodiment of the method of playing the fighting card game with hidden item cards in accordance with the present disclosure. This embodiment of the method 100 begins with step 102. There, each player will take an equal amount of fighter cards from a shared fighter card deck to act as a reserve of fighter cards to draw from. Preferably, the entirety of this shared deck will be distributed amongst the players giving each player an equal amount of fighter cards to draw from. However, when there is a number of players that is not a multiple of the amount of fighter cards in the shared deck, any remaining cards are not distributed and are not part of the game. By using a shared deck, it maintains relative balance in the strength of the fighters, while allowing the element of chance to provide some benefit to a given player. Specifically, not all fighter cards are equal in strength, so one player may be distributed a disproportionate amount of strong fighter cards in one game, while in a following game may be distributed a disproportionate amount of weak fighter cards. This randomization helps add parity to the strength of each player's pool of fighter cards, as one player cannot use superior monetary resources to purchase superior cards.

[0029] In step 104, each player will place their pool of distributed/drawn fighter cards onto their respective fighter card placement area on a game board. By placing the fighting cards directly on the game board, any impropriety with altering the order that fighter cards get drawn can be avoided. In step 106, a similar distribution of item cards occurs. That is, each player will draw an equal amount of item cards from a shared deck of item cards to serve as their pool of item cards. This allows for the pseudo-random distribution of item cards and allows for the element of chance to play some role in a players' success, without providing an undue benefit. In step 108, each player places their distributed/drawn item cards onto a designated place on top of the game board, again to help prevent against any improprieties surrounding the order of item cards.

[0030] In step 110, the players determine which player goes first. This can be achieved in a number of different ways. In one embodiment, the players roshambo to see who goes first. In other embodiments, there is a die where one or more sides of said die indicates a player (Player 1, Player 2, etc.) When the die is rolled the player who is indicated by the top-facing side will go first. Preferably, there is an equal distribution of various player indicators on the die. In yet another embodiment, the players engage in a small sudden-death minigame to determine who goes first. This minigame begins by one of the players rolling to see who selects first. Once the first selector has been determined, that player chooses from a number of face-down sudden-death cards. The sudden-death cards are broken up into three categories: positive-result class cards, neutral-result class cards, and negative-result class cards. Preferably, the number of neutral-result class cards is greater than the sum of the positive-result class cards and the negative-result class cards. There must be an equal amount of positive-result class cards and negative-result class cards. When a player chooses a positive-result class card, that player wins the sudden death and all other players lose. When a player chooses a negative-result class card, that player loses the sudden death. If a player chooses a neutral-result class card, that player survives the round and the next player chooses a face-down card. This is repeated until there is only one player remaining and that player is the winner of the sudden death round. In some embodiments, the winner of the sudden death round gets their choice of which pile of distributed fighter cards they want to play with. In other embodiments the winner of the sudden death round gets to go first in step 120, which is further discussed below.

[0031] After the player to go first has been selected, the method proceeds to step 112. There, each player draws their hand of fighter cards for the round from their respective pool of fighter cards, distributed in step 102, where the size of their hand correlates to the number of available fighter card placement slots. Preferably, each player will also draw their hand of item cards in this step. Preferably, a complete hand consists of five fighter cards and two item cards for the first round and five fighter cards and one item card for subsequent rounds. Once each player has obtained their hand for the round, each player then places one of their fighter cards in either an attack position or a defense position in each of the fighter card's respective slots in step 114.

[0032] In step 116, which can be performed simultaneously with step 114, each player selectively chooses an item card to associate with the placed fighter card. It is an aspect of the game in accordance with the present disclosure to attempt to secretly place the item card under the fighter cards when they are placed face-down. When the fighter cards do battle in step 122, being able to reveal an item card that was kept secret will offer the player a significant competitive advantage, making the skill of secretly placing an item card an important element. It should be noted that in a preferred embodiment of the game, item cards have a subset of equipment cards. In embodiments where equipment cards are utilized, only these cards can be placed beneath a fighter card. After a fighter card, and optionally an item card, is placed within a fighting slot, the method proceeds to step 118, where it is checked whether each player has filled all of their fighter card slots with a fighter card and optionally an accompanying item card. If all of the slots are full, the method proceeds to step 120. If not, steps 114 and 116 are repeated until all of the fighter card slots are full. In embodiments where field-type item cards are present, the method optionally allows for players to reveal these field cards prior to step 120 being performed, and the modifiers contained on said field card will apply to the battle in step 122.

[0033] In step 120, one player chooses a fighter card to do battle with another player's fighter card. In embodiments where the winner of the sudden death rounds gets to choose their pile or portion of the distributed fighter cards, the loser of that sudden death round gets to go first in step 120. After a player selects the fighter cards that will participate in the battle, the battle itself occurs in step 122. The battle begins by each player simultaneously flipping over their fighter card and revealing any hidden items cards contained underneath. Battles are won by the fighter card with the highest designated battle value. A fighter card's designated battle value is a product of multiple variables. The first step in determining a fighter card's designated battle value is to view the fighter card's initial battle value. If the fighter card was placed in the attack position, the initial battle value is that fighter card's attack value. If the fighter card was placed in the defense position, that fighter card's initial battle value is its defense value. After the initial battle value has been obtained, it is modified by any item cards causing an effect on said fighter card. This includes any equipment cards in embodiments that employ equipment cards and includes any relevant field cards in embodiments that employ field cards. After adjustments to the fighter card's battle value have been made for any item cards, any active special abilities of either fighter card in the battle are taken into account, further adjusting the battle value. After special abilities are accounted for, the fighter card's designated battle value has been determined. This process is repeated for the other fighter card in the battle and the winner of the battle is the fighter card with the highest designated battle value. The losing fighter card is placed in its owner's discarded fighter area and is removed from play. The winning fighter shall remain on the battle field until the end of the round.

[0034] In the event of a tie between fighters, a sudden death round is initiated in order to settle the tie. This sudden death round is similar to the sudden death round that occurs at the beginning of the game: the sudden death round begins by one of the players spinning a die to see who selects first. Once the first selector has been determined, that player chooses from a number of face-down sudden-death cards. The sudden-death cards are broken up into three categories: positive-result class cards, neutral-result class cards, and negative-result class cards. Preferably, the number of neutral-result class cards is greater than the sum of the positive-result class cards and the negative-result class cards. There must be an equal amount of positive-result class cards and negative-result class cards. When a player chooses a positive-result class card, that player wins the sudden death and all other players lose. When a player chooses a negative-result class card, that player loses the sudden death. If a player chooses a neutral-result class card, that player survives the round and the next player chooses a face-down card. This is repeated until there is only one player remaining and that player is the winner of the sudden death round.

[0035] After the battle has ended, the method proceeds to step 124 where it checks to see if any player has won a majority of the battles to determine the winner of a round. In a preferred embodiment, a round consists of a number of fighter card battles until one player has won a majority of the fighter card battles, based on the available amount of fighter card slots. If so, the method proceeds to step 126 as that player who has won the majority of battles wins that round. If not, steps 120 and 122 are repeated, however, the players alternate who selects the fighter cards to do battle in step 120. If a predetermined amount of rounds is selected for the game, the method checks to see if a player has won a majority of rounds in step 126. If a player has won a majority of the rounds, that player wins the game in step 128.

[0036] Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic view of an embodiment of the game board in accordance with the present invention is shown. Here, a game board 200 is provided and includes a fighter card placement area 202, a round-win indicator area 208, a field card placement area 206, a discarded fighter area 212, an item card placement area 214, and a fighter card deck placement area 216. It is important to note that while in this embodiment, the game board 200 is configured for two players, other embodiments of the game board 200 exist for other number of players. It is also important to note that various embodiments exist where the fighter card placement area 202, the round-win indicator area 208, the field card placement area 206, the discarded fighter area 212, the item card placement area 214, and the fighter card deck placement area 216 are arranged differently on the game board 200. That is, their position relative to each other is not absolute across various embodiments. There must be at least two players. Further, while the embodiment of the game board 200 is described in the context of a physical game board, the present disclosure contemplates that the game board 200 could exist in various electronic media. Additionally, the method of playing the fighting card game with hidden items 100 could be performed over the internet.

[0037] The fighter card placement area 202 has a number of components and is comprised of a plurality of slots 204 that are sized to correspond to the size of the fighter cards in accordance with the present invention. Each of the slots 204 includes an attack indicator zone 204A and a defense indicator zone 204D. A fighter card is placed covering the attack indicator zone 204A to be placed in the defense position, as the defense indicator zone 204D is exposed when the attack indicator zone 204A is covered. Conversely, a fighter card is placed covering the defense indicator zone 204D to be placed in the attack position, as the attack indicator zone 204A is exposed when the defense indicator zone 204D is covered. The round-win indicator area 208 is comprised of a plurality of round-win indicator zones 210. Tokens may be placed on one of the round-win indicator zones to indicate which player won a given round. Note that while five of the round-win indicator zones 210 are shown, more or less than five rounds may be played in succession.

[0038] The field card placement area 206 is used in embodiments where field cards are used as a subclass or subset of item cards. There, when players declare what, if any, field cards they are playing, the field cards are placed in the field card placement area 206. In many embodiments, field cards placed in the field card placement area 206 are discarded at the end of a round. After players are given their portion of the shared deck of fighter cards, that portion is placed in the fighting card deck placement area 216. Hands are drawn from this pile. Further, after players are given their portion of the shared deck of item cards, that portion is placed in the item deck area 214. Fighter cards who lose a battle are placed in the discarded fighter area 212.

[0039] In a preferred embodiment, a fighter card includes a title, a graphic image, an attack value, a defense value, and a special ability. Note that many embodiments of the fighter card do not include the special ability. Further, in many various embodiments of the fighter card that do have special abilities, they are unique or substantially unique abilities. The attack value and defense value of various embodiments of the fighter card will be different, as an important aspect of the game is that not all fighter cards are of the same strength. In various embodiments fighter cards can have class-types, preferably where each color is in a one-to-one relationship with a given class.

[0040] The present disclosure contemplates a variety of types of item cards. One type is an equipment item card. The equipment item card is to be secretly placed under a fighter card when being placed in the fighter card placement area 202. The equipment card will alter the attack value or the defense value of the fighter card or will provide some other benefit to the equipped fighter card. This equipment item card does not need to be played secretly but playing it in a non-secret manner will be very prejudicial against the player as their opponent will know that the fighter card is receiving some benefit. Another type of item card is an attack/defense value altering item card. The attack/defense value altering item card is a type of field card and does not attach to any particular fighter card. Yet another type of item card is a rules-changing item card. The rules-changing item card is a type of field card and is also not attached to a particular fighter card. Further, the rules-changing item cards do not affect the attack value or defense value, but instead provide some other type of benefit to the player who played it.

[0041] In a preferred embodiment, players will play the game with no items and whether a fighter card will win in battle will depend on the class type of each fighter card. In that embodiment if two fighter cards are the same color, a sudden-death match is played to resolve the tie.

[0042] Other embodiments of the method in accordance with the present disclosure exist as well. One such embodiment is called a levels showdown. In this embodiment the field cards are separated from the rest of the item cards provided to the players and are placed face-down. Each round, one of these field cards is revealed and both players will be affected by the field card's effects. Preferably, players will alternate who selects the field card to be used in a given round.

[0043] Yet another embodiment of the method in accordance with the present disclosure is called a tournament showdown. In this embodiment, the fighter cards and item cards are distributed evenly between each player. For each round, each player draws two item cards and one fighter card. Simultaneously, each player indicates whether they will be playing the fighter card in the attack or defense position, and then will simultaneously reveal their card. Once each fighter card has been revealed, the players have the opportunity to power up their fighter card using one of their drawn item cards. After determining each fighters cards designated battle value and using that value to determine a winner, the losing card is removed from play and the winning card is set aside, face-up. This process is repeated, drawing an additional item card each 5.sup.th round. When a player has exhausted their fighter card deck, that player's winning fighter cards are shuffled and used as that player's new fighter card deck. This is continued until one player has no more fighter cards to use and loses the game. Item cards used on a losing fighter card are removed from play.

[0044] In another preferred embodiment, no items are used and the players place their fighter cards in any position without seeing the other fighter cards.

[0045] Additional embodiments of the game board in accordance with the present disclosure exist where a plurality of fastening mechanisms are incorporated into the board and are configured to removably secure a fighter card in an attack position or a defense position within the fighter card placement slot. Such fastening mechanisms can include magnets, sleeves, hook-and-loop fasteners, and the like.

[0046] In a highly preferred embodiment, players draw all of their distributed fighter cards and select which fighters are played in a round from their full roster.

[0047] In another preferred embodiment, multiple players are placed on a team and take turns battling each round.

[0048] In yet another preferred embodiment, a draw during a battle causes a sudden death match to be played. In many preferred embodiments, a fighter card's special ability resolves before any played item cards.

[0049] It is understood that when an element is referred hereinabove as being on another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may be present therebetween. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being directly on another element, there are no intervening elements present.

[0050] Moreover, any components or materials can be formed from a same, structurally continuous piece or separately fabricated and connected.

[0051] It is further understood that, although ordinal terms, such as, first, second, and third, are used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer and/or section from another element, component, region, layer and/or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer and/or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer and/or section without departing from the teachings herein.

[0052] Features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment can be used with another embodiment and such variations come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0053] Spatially relative terms, such as beneath, below, lower, above, upper and the like, are used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It is understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as below or beneath other elements or features would then be oriented above the other elements or features. Thus, the example term below can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device can be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.

[0054] Example embodiments are described herein with reference to cross section illustrations that are schematic illustrations of idealized embodiments. As such, variations from the shapes of the illustrations, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected. Thus, example embodiments described herein should not be construed as limited to the particular shapes of regions as illustrated herein, but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing. For example, a region illustrated or described as flat may, typically, have rough and/or nonlinear features. Moreover, sharp angles that are illustrated may be rounded. Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures are schematic in nature and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the precise shape of a region and are not intended to limit the scope of the present claims.

[0055] As the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and various embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

[0056] This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined in the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.

[0057] In conclusion, herein is presented a fighting card game with hidden item cards. The disclosure is illustrated by example in the drawing figures, and throughout the written description. It should be understood that numerous variations are possible while adhering to the inventive concept. Such variations are contemplated as being a part of the present disclosure.