Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Self-Directed Evolution and Learning Curve

I had an idea for blue-green in the Overgrowth set that turns the concept of the Simic Combine on its head. In Ravnica, the Simic were focused on nurturing and manipulating the evolution of creatures and beasts and such. Green's growth combined with blue's perfectionism.

There's a fairly well-known growth trope concept of the hidden tropical paradise where life evolves on its own in unusual ways because it's isolated away from the rest of the world. I thought that would fit very well on Guthreham. Visualize a severely overgrown wild part of the plane that's so intense with wildlife that even elves stay away. There the creatures and beasts are growing and evolving on their own. And they're getting smarter ... and even gaining sentience.

They call this part of Guthreham "The Untended Cradle," and the humanoid races really have no idea what's even going on there. A deep, jungle-like region with rivers and mountains and caverns that people avoid entirely.

Mechanically, mutate would obviously play a role in creatures that "fit" here, but I also wanted to figure out ways to make it feel like the beasts themselves play a role in their own growth and evolution. They fight and get smarter ... or they die.

A couple of card concepts.



Still kind of thinking about the design space. Blue and Green is such a weird combo. They're the two colors that I think are the furthest apart mechanically. I have this idea in my head of beast creature being able to communicate with each other telepathically and essentially a hidden "society" in the wilds the two-legged races are completely unaware exists. But I am not quite sure how to represent it.

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