Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #626: Magic Golden Rules

Episode Date: April 5, 2019

Magic has a number of golden rules, and today, I talk about what they are and why they're so important to design.

I'm pulling out my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the drive to work. Okay, so today we're talking about the rules. In fact, a few specific rules, exactly. What are known as the magic golden rules. So for those that might not be well versed with the rules, there are four rules that are sort of considered the backbone of how to make magic work. So I was going to walk through those golden rules today and sort of talk a little bit about why these rules are so important and why they're called the golden rules. These are things that really allow the game to function on a very basic level. So we're going to go through those today.

This is something I don't talk the rules all that often, so I thought this would be a little bit different. So the Magic Golden Rules are the very first thing in the rules. 101. The very first thing in the rules list. So there's 101.1,.2,.3,.4. And there's some subsets of the fourth one. So we're going to walk through those. So I'm both going to tell you what they are, and then I'm going to explain to you sort of why they're so important and why they are the golden rules.

Okay, so we'll start with 101.1. Whenever a card's text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies in the specific situation. The only exception is that a player can concede the game at any time. See rule 104.3. Okay, so this is the most important rule. Why it's the first one. Basically, what it's saying is, look, we're going to give you rules, but cards can override a rule. And this really is at the coach to the heart of what a trading card game is. That one of the

things that when Richard first made the game, he really believed was one of the things that when Richard first made the game he really believed was one of the reasons that a trading card game would allow him to do what he wanted is the idea that the cards themselves would carry the rules and that yeah there would be a basic set of rules but the cards could come in and say well yeah but accept that. You know a lot of what Richard had built Magic on was this idea that it was a game that breaks its own rules. And that, yeah, there's ways that things certainly work, but that there's cards that tell you they don't work that way. I know Richard was really influenced by the game called Cosmic Encounter, which came out many years ago and has been

put on many forums by many companies. But essentially the core of the game is it's a war game where you're playing aliens and you're fighting over territory. But the cool thing about it was each alien has the ability to break a rule that the other aliens can't break. They have a special ability. And then there are cards in the game that further let you override the rules. And I think Richard was really enamored by the idea of, you know, one of the neat things about a trading card game is that you want to have something,

you know, it's larger than the box, as Richard likes to call it, that, you know, you want to keep sort of reinventing what can happen. Well, one of the ways to do that is have the cards themselves tell you the rules. And with this first golden rule in place, what that means is the cards can do anything. You know, the rules give you parameters and give you a baseline, but then the cards have the ability to do whatever they need to do. And so the first rule, the first golden rule, really is just kind of laying down the essence of what a trading card game is, which is, look, we're going to give you rules, but these cards that you open up, they can do anything.

And that whenever you run into something and you figure out that, you know, like a lot of games, when you're trying to figure out what works with the cards, like, well, let me consult the rules. This game is like, no, no, no. If a card says it can do it, it can do it. The rules will not stop a card from doing something. The rules do not, I mean, there are certain elements of the rules that affect cards. But the cards pretty much say, like if the rule says you can't do thing X,

and the card goes, well, I'm going to do that. Now you can do thing X. Well, then you can do it. The card says you can. And that's a pretty exciting part of a trading card game, which is every game piece essentially has rules on it, and those rules could say anything. You know, that is something that is

like one of the things, I mean, Magic has done a lot of things where it's sort of out of the box, and this was a big part of them of really sort of reframing how you think of the rules. And how, like, the idea that the game components carry their own rules. And that those rules supersede everything is super powerful. Because what it means is when I open up a booster pack, when I'm looking at cards for the first time, anything's possible. You know?

And that's a really big part of what makes a trading card game kind of thing, is, you know, when I go open up a new pack with new cards, I don't know what to expect. Anything is possible. That, you know, that is really a big part of Magic's draw, I think, is that, you know, when we put out new sets, like one of the things that's funny is, you know, I'll tease things with the audience about upcoming sets. And one of the things that the audience has come to realize is they know what we've done. They don't know what we will do. And they can

extrapolate, you know, they can definitely look at what we've done before They don't know what we will do. And they can extrapolate. You know, they can definitely look at what we've done before. But, you know, when I tease the future, who knows what I'm teasing? We can do anything, you know. And that's a big part of what makes magic tick. It's sort of the world of potential. And the cards themselves can rewrite the rules however they want. So what's possible?

Almost anything is possible. And that open-endedness, that sort of, you know, I remember when I first started playing Magic, so those that haven't heard the story, is I got in at Alpha, but it was sold out. I got in, I bought like, what, I think I started and three boosters, got hooked, and I'm like, oh, I need more cards. They were sold out. So when beta came in, I bought two boxes of starters and two boxes of boosters, intent on the idea that I would have to be the person that got cards for my friends, because I knew that he was going to sell it immediately again. And I did sell some cards to my friends, but

I also kept a bunch for me to open. And there was a period in time where every day I would open a booster pack. One a day. I got one a day. And I really would pour over the one I opened. And it was this glorious experience because I had no frame of what could or couldn't be done.

And I would open up cards and I'm like, you could do that? And I remember that excitement. And I would open up cards and be like, you could do that? And I remember that excitement and that I always remember that when I'm designing new cards of, I love designing something where the person reading it can go, I didn't know they could do that

or I never thought they would do that. And so the first golden rule really sets that up. That's why it is, it is the backbone of what the game is. Okay, but wait. There is four Golden Rules. Let's hear about the second one. Okay, so Rule 101.2.

When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can't happen, the can't effect takes place. For example, if one reads, you may play an additional land this turn, and another reads, you can't play lands this turn, the effect that precludes you from playing lands wins. And then there's a sub thing said, adding abilities to objects is 101.2a. Adding abilities to objects and removing abilities from objects

don't fall under this rule. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about this rule. So this rule says, okay, if I let you do anything, if cards can say anything, then they're going to run the following problem is cards can contradict each other, right? One card could say you can do something, another card says you can't do something. So in order to sort of let the first rule work, okay, the cards supersede things, we have to say, well, but what happens when the cards contradict one another? And there's a lot of choices, I mean, there's two choices to be made.

One is sort of let can happen, one is say can't happen. and one is say can't happen. I believe the reason that can't won is that there's times in which when you say can't, you want something to work. In order for it to work, you have to shut things down. For example, we've tried numerous times to make spells where you can play your opponent's spells out of their hand. The problem is, if they can play spells out of their hand

and you can play spells out of your hand, at some point you run into the trouble of well, both of you want to do it. Who gets to do it? And it starts getting confusing of who has the right to do something. So what we've learned is, when we do effects like that, what we say is, you know, on your turn, for example, your opponent can't play spells out of their hand. Okay, now you can play spells out of their hand. There's no confusion.

Only you can play spells out of their hand during your turn. They can't do that. So that's an example where sometimes can't allows us to make things work. So the reason can't needs to be can is there are times in which can and can't coexisting causes confusion. That can't is an important tool that we use sometimes to make things work. So the reason that can't winning might prevent you from doing things, but it won't keep the game from working. Where can and can't fighting each other and can winning sometimes will keep us from making effects that work. That is why can't beats can. The other thing that is sort of clear is a lot of times when you make can't, the idea is you're trying to shut something down.

And so it gets a little wonky about if I say you can't do something and then some says you can do a subset of it, it also can get a little bit confusing what you can and can't do. So for ease of understanding, can't is there. so for ease of understanding can't is there now 101.2 talks about how that doesn't apply for abilities and the reason for that is

abilities come to something called layers so for example if I grant flying to something and something else takes flying away it matters what order those effects get applied in meaning if let's say there's an effect something else takes flying away, it matters what order those effects get applied in. Meaning, if, let's say there's effect A, all creatures lose flying,

and effect B, all creatures gain flying. Or better yet, all creatures lose flying, and then target creature gains flying going up in turn. That's a slightly better example. So if, versus A, A, target creature gains flying going up in turn. That's a slightly better example. So if, so versus A, A, A, target creature loses flying, B, target creature gains flying. Okay, so, if A comes first,

you know, I try to make you lose flying, and in response you try to make me gain flying, the idea is whatever effect, the way layers work is, it says, well, let's apply them the order that they were applied. And then at the end of it, something is true. So usually with last and first out, the idea essentially is, if I gain something flying,

and my opponent wants to then, you know, they can let me gain flying against flying. Now my opponent can do something to make it lose flying. Okay, well, the last thing to happen to it is it lost flying, so it doesn't have flying. And there's a bunch of different effects that happen in the game where you're trying to gain and remove things. And so basically what it's saying is, that's going to fall under layers.

Layers can get a little complicated with a lot of stuff, but for adding and losing abilities, it's pretty straightforward. It's sort of like, okay, just walk through the order things happen, and that's going to tell you where it's at. So that's why abilities are applied in a separate rule. Okay, now we get to 101.3. Any part of an instruction that's impossible to perform is ignored. In many cases, the cards will specify consequences for this. If it doesn't, there's no effect. So what it's saying is that if we tell you to do something and you can't do it, okay, just don't do it. The reason that's important is sometimes a card will tell you to do multiple

things. And what this rule says is, look, do what you can do. If the card says do A, B, and C, and A is impossible, well, don't do A, but you still do B and C. And this, one of the things that can get confusing is, well, what happens if I can't do part of something? Now, there are some exceptions to that. Things in which do do A then do B, if you don't do A, well, if then, well, you didn't do A, then you can't do B. So there's some things that are conditional. But this is saying that there are separate parts of the card.

You know, if it says do A, then, if it says do A, do B, do C, not if. If A then B, if A doesn't happen, then B doesn't happen. But do A, do B, do C, A can't happen. Okay, well, do B, do C, A can't happen. Okay, we'll do B, do C. That is important because there's a lot of components on cars sometimes and we want to make sure that whatever can happen, can happen. A lot of the golden rule is trying to deal with times where things can get wonky. You know, a lot of these are sort of meta rules, if you will, is what do I do when there's conflicting information

or what do I do when I want to do things but I can't do it all. It's trying to explain that. And this rule really is sort of saying, look, cards can do as much as they're able to do. Sometimes they can't do everything. That doesn't mean none of the card works. It just means do what you can do and what you can't do doesn't get done. This is another basic effect that's pretty important. Like a lot of the golden rules are kind of like, well, I have a card. What do I do? Well, do what the card says. Well, what if the card contradicts another card? Okay, well, here's how you figure out which wins. Okay, well, what if the card doesn't do everything? What if I can't do anything the card says I do? Well, do what you can. A lot of these are sort of saying,

we want things to work at the best of their ability, with knowing that, okay, there are going to be situations in which wonkiness can occur. And this one, the other big thing here is, sometimes we do things, and we know in the game that there can be situational things that might not happen. So this is sort of saying, hey,

do what you can. Do the best you can. Do as much as you can. And I think that's an important rule. Okay. 101.4. This is the most complicated of the 101.4. This is the most complicated of the... 101.4. This is the most complicated of the Magic Golden Rules. If multiple players

would make choices and or take actions at the same time, the active player, the player whose turn it is, makes any choices required. Then the next player in turn, in turn order, usually the player seated to the active player's left, makes any choices required,

followed by the remaining non-active players in turn order. Then the actions happen simultaneously. This rule is often referred to as the active player, non-active player, APNAP order rule. Example, a card reads each player sacrifices a creature. First the active player chooses a creature they control. Then each of the non-active players, in turn order, choose the creature they control. Then all creatures chosen this way

are sacrificed simultaneously. Okay, so this one says, I'm asking more than one player to do something. Okay, well, how do we figure out how that happens? Because how people choose things could affect others. We don't want to have something where everyone's kind of waiting to see who says something first. One of the things about rules in general is when there's confusion, state

what happens. Okay, everybody sacrifices a creature. Well, everyone has to choose what creature they're going to sacrifice. Sometimes, by the way, everybody has to do something, and people could choose the same thing. If everyone sacrifices a creature, you can only sacrifice a creature you control, so that way people can't choose the same thing.

But, there are times when you can. So the idea, essentially, is the active player, the player whose turn it is, goes first. There's a whole set of rules about the active player. But the active player goes first, and then you go, the game goes clockwise, so you go to the left. But the idea here is, it's not that it happens all at once, just you sort of make decisions in order,

and then once the decisions are all made, then it all happens at once. So like the sacrifice creature example, depending on what I choose might impact what other people choose. For example, let's say I choose a creature to sacrifice that when it dies, it's going to do one damage to all creatures. Well, other people that have a one toughness creature that know that me choosing that creature

means their creature is going to die anyway might go, oh, okay, well then I'll choose my creature's about to die anyway I'll choose that creature to sacrifice and that way, you know your decisions could impact things but the key to this rule is we take turns making decisions

but then it actually happens all at once it's not that it isn't simultaneously from a game action standpoint, but in order to determine what is happening. Okay, now there are a number of subsets of these rules, four in exact. So, 108.4a. If an effect has each player choose a card in a hidden zone,

such as their hand or library, those cards may remain face down as they're chosen. However, each player must clearly indicate which face down card they are choosing. So what that is saying is, if the information is from a hidden zone, meaning I'm choosing something and you, the opponent, don't know, I don't reveal it yet. Remember I'm saying that sometimes information might impact other people's choices? reveal it yet. Remember I'm saying that sometimes information might impact other people's choices?

Well, if what I'm choosing from itself is hidden, I don't have to reveal that until the effect happens. So let's say for example, I'm discarding a card from my hand. In this particular case, because the card in my hand is hidden information, I just put it face down saying, okay, I've chosen this card. This is the card I've chosen. It's locked me into making my choice, but my opponents don't know the choice because it came from a hidden information. So this was just saying, okay, well, how do you handle the same thing if some or all of the information is hidden?

And the answer is, oh, it stays hidden, so the information won't influence other people but you still do have to make the decision first and that might matter also, sometimes some information is hidden and some is not so for example you might make a choice to choose which one you're choosing based on information that you already know exists

okay, next 101.4b choose which one you're choosing based on information that you already know exists. Okay, next. 101.4b. A player knows the choices made by previous players when making their choices except as specified in 101.4a. Okay, so what this is saying is that whenever everyone has to make an action and choices have to be made, with the exception of what we just said, which is hidden information, you must be clear about your choices. The other players get a right to know your choices. That means that you can't hide your choice.

You can't be like, okay, I have to sacrifice a creature. Well, I've secretly written down what creature I'm sacrificing. No. Part of what this is doing is saying, look, there's open information. I'm sacrificing. No. Part of what this is doing is saying, look, there's open information. And so it's not just enough that you've declared what it is. You have to let people know what it is. Like I said, the one exception is, the rules are also always put in order. Like, the reason it's 101.4B is because you apply 101.4A

first. That's basically how the rules work. Even the rules have an orderly function about how the rules work. Go figure. The rule makers made the rules work. Okay, 101.4c. If a player would make more than one choice at the same time, the player makes the choices in the order specified. If no order is specified, the player chooses the order. Okay, so where this comes from is sometimes a card makes you do multiple things. But one of the rules is you do the things in the order

that are written on the card. So for example, that's why sometimes when cards have multiple effects, it's important in the order that we put them. Because if the second effect might care about the first effect, we want the first effect to happen first. So, for example, let's say I am choosing something. Let's say, for example, it says put a creature card in your hand onto the battlefield.

And then it says, sacrifice a creature on the battlefield. Okay, well, if I have the put a creature onto the battlefield with my hand first, I can put a creature in my hand onto the battlefield. Then, if that's the thing I most want to sacrifice, okay, then I'm free to sacrifice the creature I just put on. But if I put it in reverse and it says sacrifice the creature, then it says put a creature card from your hand on the battlefield, now I can't do that. I have to sacrifice the creature first before the second action, so it's not on the battlefield yet.

This rule matters a lot and has a big impact on how we template cards because sometimes we want the first effect to be affected by the second effect, and sometimes we don't. For example is, let's say the very thing I'm talking about. Let's say what I want to do is I'm having some flavorful thing where a card in play is turning into a card in your hand. Well then, it makes no sense that the creature, I want to sacrifice the creature first because it's turning into the thing in your hand.

On the flip side, let's say mechanically I'm making you sacrifice a creature, but I'm giving you the resource to add it to the creature. And I want you, if the weakest creature is in your hand, I want you to have the ability to sacrifice that. Then I would do it in reverse order. So depending on what I'm doing, like how functional or how flavorful it's up, I might change the order there. And this allows us to do that in a way that makes sure that it works. And so that is, like I said, a lot of the golden rules is saying we want things to happen, we know there can be confusion.

Now sometimes, for example, a card might say, sacrifice a creature and an artifact. Those are being chosen at the same time. Those are not, that's one effect. But, because it's listed as one effect, you can choose, like, let's say, I mean, you're going to pick both of them before anybody else picks anything. But you can pick them the order you want. If you want to choose your artifact first, then choose your creature. The reason that might matter is, let's say I have an artifact creature and another artifact, for example. The reason I might want to choose the artifact creature first is

that if I have to choose a creature first and all I have is an artifact creature, I'm forced to choose the artifact creature, and then the artifact, I have to choose a creature first and all I have is an artifact creature, I'm forced to choose the artifact creature and then the artifact, I have to choose my non-creature artifact. If I can choose in any order, I can choose the artifact creature as my artifact. Now when I go to choose my creature, I don't have a creature

because I've already chosen the artifact creature for my artifact. And now, okay, well, I don't have a creature so I can't do that. And so I don't have something to pick. So you being able to choose the order can matter. That's why that rule exists. Okay, the final one, 101.4d.

If a choice made by a non-active player causes the active player, or a different non-active player, earlier in the turn order to have to make a choice, app.net orders restarted for all outstanding choices. So sometimes what happens is in making a choice, it requires another choice. And so when that happens,

you sort of start over. I tried a good example of this one. Because you don't resolve the effects. But sometimes... So let's say, for example, you put a plus and plus counter on target creature. Let's say you had a creature that, when targeted, did something.

So when you put a plus and plus counter on it, it would trigger that target. I think that works. Anyway, there are cases where it happens. Basically what it's saying is, if for any reason you have to make choices again, then you just start from the beginning. You go back to the beginning. If I had something that triggered and said, all players make a decision, okay, well, mid-action, we have to resolve that.

So now you go back to Apanit Mortar and you resolve that. The reason that I wanted to talk about this AA is... I never really talked about rules, and I thought it was fun to hit something. I do think one of the things that is important when you're making the game... The reason that these rules are super important is... That you want to understand what you can and can't do. Like one of the things about making, you know, designing magic cards is I have to have a good enough understanding of the rules that I'm not making things that don't work. Now, obviously, I have editors.

I have a rules manager. I have people to consult. It's not like I'm required to understand all of this completely on my own but having a good basic understanding of cannot beats can or that the order of the effects matter or that knowing that people are going to make choices in the app-nap order those do affect how you make cards

and there's a lot of times when you're designing something, like, for example, the order mattering is a pretty big deal in card design, that when you're making multiple effects, one of the questions you always ask yourself is, will one of the effects care what the other effect is? And if so, you know, you want to usually put them in that order. Or sometimes having something, having A happen before B will cause some confusion. Oh, well, if I have B happen before A, then that will never arise

and you don't have to worry about that. Sometimes you avoid rules issues by being careful in the order you do things. And whenever you're doing group effects, understanding app-nap and understanding how that's going to impact and what the choice is made, like all that stuff really influences the

means and ways that you design cards. And so it might seem like I'm coming up with something and I'm like, oh well, what does this have to do with magic design? And the answer is it has a lot to do with magic design. I don't really talk about the rules all that much on this podcast but it's not because

they don't matter. It's not because I, as a game designer, don't need to know them. I do. I, in fact, have a decent working knowledge of the rules. I mean, I'm not, I'm no rules manager, but I understand a lot of things. Like, I was talking about layers earlier.

The reason layers matter is understanding layers impacts what you can and can't do. You know what I'm saying? That there's certain effects that literally won't work because of the way layers are layered. And so it's important for you, the people making the game, understand how the rules function just because it helps you understand what you can and can't do when you're making cards.

Now, sometimes, once again, I have, one of the things about making magic cards is sometimes I make new rules or sometimes I make cards that don't work within the rules because the rules don't deal with the things I'm doing. So it's not that the rules on some level forbid me from doing things. The very first golden rule basically is like, hey, I can do whatever I want within reason. It's like, hey, I can do whatever I want, within reason.

But it's very, very important that in a game that breaks its own rules, it's important that you understand sort of what the rules are and when and how you can break them. Because when you say a rule can break its own rules, it can, but there are certain rules it doesn't want to break. Just because I'm sort of empowered

to do anything I want doesn't actually mean that anything I want is good. And a lot of these golden rules help explain the basics of how the game works and I, the guy making the cards, want to follow those. Now the golden rules do allow me to do a lot of crazy stuff and really make up new and different things but also it gives me some limitations and teaches me sort of to be careful about when and how I'm making new things.

And so the golden rules are something which in some ways are very freeing and allow me, the game designer, to do things that I normally couldn't in most games, but also restrictive in the sense that it gives me a sense of rules I've got to be careful about and that, you know, for a game that breaks its own rules, you break a rule because there's a reason to break it. You don't break it just because you can. And, you know, part of that is understanding how the rules work and what breaking the rule will do. But when I do break a rule, the golden rule's got my back and makes sure, A, that I can

do it and, B, helps the players understand what happens and how it works. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed today's thing. A little different for me, but you know, 600 podcasts in, you got to shake it up a little bit. But anyway, I'm now at work. So that means, well, you all know what that means. It means the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic.

I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.