The Real-World Territory Card MMO

MapRaiders, the GPS trading card game

A GPS trading card game (TCG) joins two games: outside you play with your real route on the map, at home you play with your deck. MapRaiders is built around that link.

The GPS halfThe real street map in parchment style, here at Pariser Platz in Berlin.
The card halfThe card game menu: play, build decks, browse all cards.
The duelHome or away before a match. Rock paper scissors decides who may choose.

Real screenshots from the current internal test. The interface of the test build is in German.

What a GPS game is

A GPS game, also called a location-based game, uses the position of your phone as input. You move yourself, and the game reads where you are. Well-known examples of the genre are Geocaching and Pokémon GO.

Your hunting ground is the real-world map: streets, squares and parks that exist. What you do there is tied to a place, and other players see it in the same place.

What a trading card game is

In a trading card game you do not play with a fixed box of cards. You collect cards over time, choose some of them and build your own deck. Two decks then meet in a duel. A well-known example of the genre is Magic: The Gathering.

A trading card game has two parts: collecting and building between matches, and the match itself, where the order of your cards and your decisions count.

How MapRaiders joins both: Move, Claim, Collect, Build, Battle

MapRaiders is a GPS strategy game and a location-based card game on one shared map. Five steps form the loop, and each step feeds the next.

IMoveYou walk, run or cycle a lap outside. Movement is your move.
IIClaimWhen the lap closes, the enclosed area becomes your territory, from 500 square meters up. Planned: an attacker takes only the piece they walk around themselves.
IIICollectYou find cards at real places. Planned for the beta: cards for new ground that you are the first to claim on foot.
IVBuildYou build a deck of 50 cards. A commander leads it and does not count toward the 50.
VBattleDeck against deck in the arena. Each side defends five buildings, and whoever has no building left standing loses.

Planned is a closer link between the two halves: the map decides where conflicts arise; the card duel decides who makes use of them.

Who a GPS trading card game is for

For people who walk, run or cycle anyway and want their routes to count for something. For card players who like building decks and want their collection to have a story of where it came from.

As a mobile game it fits short sessions: one lap in the evening, one match on the sofa. As MMO strategy it is built for the long run: one world map for everyone, where territory changes hands and has to be looked after.

Status

In testing today, planned for the beta

MapRaiders is in an internal test. This already runs:

The world map with laps and claimed territory, plus card finds on the map.
Two spawn points, Berlin and Cairo, as fixed starting places for exploring the map from home.
The card game with deck building and matches against a bot.

This is planned:

Matches against other players in the beta. In the beta, nobody loses anything in a duel.
Cards for territory you are the first to claim on foot.
Monthly seasons with weekly missions and a commander of the month.
A simulator in the browser that needs no account.

Do you have to go outside to play MapRaiders?

Not necessarily. From home your RPG character sets out from a spawn point and conquers contested territory, and the card game runs wherever you are. New territory only comes from real laps outside.