r/starrealms • u/crease124 • Sep 02 '26

Advice for custom card.

Hey I dont know if there are any game designers in here, hah, but Im making a custom star realms card for my friends birthday and I dont know much about the game. The idea is that the card will be all 4 factions, but have no ability of it's own. Meaning it will trigger any other faction card's interaction ability. The advice im looking for is what should the cost of this card be? I was thinking like 4-5 because its a strong ability but useless on its own. And it takes a draw.

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5

u/hagbidhsb Sep 02 '26

There is already a card like this, it’s a machine cult base called “Mech world” and costs 5 and is a level 6 outpost.

3

u/crease124 Sep 02 '26

Holy crap thank you so much for pointing that out!! I'll have to think of something better.

1

u/bigfootbjornsen56 Sep 03 '26

I've screenshot some cards that maybe you can use for inspiration.

I was thinking that maybe you can make a version that only does your suggeston about activating all ally abilities when you scrap it. Maybe it's normal ability can just be "draw a card". However, it could work like the scrap ability of Mobile Market where to goes back into your discard pile at the end of your turn after you scrap it.

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u/crease124 Sep 03 '26

Thanks so much for this definitely helps! Ill think on it today and report back with what i come up with.

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u/crease124 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

Ok so a lot of those reference cards are stations. This card is something im trying to get printed and sneak into the frontiers game box for my friend as a birthday present. So I really wanted it to be a ship so its like her ship. Plus since a station with this power and a decent cost already exists, I think a ship of that power would be a more fun addition to the cards that already exist.

The awesome thing is that these stations give me an idea for the power level, because a station is quite a nice effect, the opponent has to spend damage to remove it and if they dont you benefit from the effect multiple times. 5 cost isnt toooo much either, which makes me think that the ally to all factions is probably not an extreme power.

So what do you think if it was a 2 cost card, that gives 2 trade and the secondary power of being an ally to all factions.

My thinking being, it would be an alternative to an Explorer and I thiiink a decent chunk better than it? Which it should be since its a purchase row card.

Being a 2 trade card it would never be useless, and being the ally thing it could have a very large up side.

I doubt this is overpowered, but if it is underpowered, I could also add a trash ability that lets you draw a card?

What do you think?

Edit: ook looking at it some more, i think 2 trade isnt enough, maybe 2 trade and 2 healing

OOOOO what if it had the unique power: Set aside a card from your hand for a future turn. That would be interesting, I think not too overpowered because you would lose a card, but potentially set up a really strong combo for later. maybe 2 cards? But that sounds like it might be crazy.

Im thinking a smuggler theme for it so saving a card would be very thematic.