http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame

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Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is a Card Battle Game developed by CD Projekt RED and based on The Witcher universe. It began as a Collectible Card Game Mini-Game within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt but had so many players Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer that it was expanded and reworked into a standalone version.

Gwent was announced at E3 2016 with a closed beta begun in October of that year. The closed beta test ended May 22, 2017 and open beta began on the 24th. It had a full released in October 2018 for Windows and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in December later that year. A standalone single-player Gwent-based RPG called Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales was released alongside the game.

The end of March 2019 saw the release of the first proper expansion, Crimson Curse, themed around vampires, bringing 101 new cards and an additional leader for each faction. A mobile release occurred in 2019, coming first to iPhone with an Android release to follow. Late 2019 the console ports were closed and all users were migrated over to their choice of PC or Mobile.

Currently Gwent is up to five expansions and is playable on Windows, Apple, and Mobile devices. It is Free-to-Play, but very kind about monetization. There are no advertisements. Most monetization is in the form of optional cosmetics such as card backs and leader skins. All cards may be obtained via regular play. There is no secondary card market: all cards can be traded for within the deck editor or found within card kegs. Even losing a game will generate a reward for having completed the game to start with.

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Gwent is, at first glance, relatively simple as card games go.

The goal of Gwent is to have more points on the field than your opponent at the end of the round. A round ends either when both players have passed or neither player has any more cards to play. The board is wiped clean of all cards at the end of each round. Games are played to best of three rounds.

The three-round structure combined with the limited resources at a player's disposal forms a duel of each player attempting to field enough units to overpower the other while at the same time, not over-commit and find themselves unable to win.

The board is divided into two rows, melee and ranged. Players are limited to playing one card per turn. On their turn, they must either play a card on their turn, discard a card from their hand (the card is not played), or else pass and forfeit playing any more cards for the remainder of the round. New cards are drawn/redrawn at the start of each round. There is a maximum hand size of ten cards per player.

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Decks are composed of a minimum of twenty-five cards. In building a deck, a player selects from one of six factionsnote Northern Realms, Monsters, Skellige, Scoia'tael, Nilfgaard, and The Syndicate and have a choice of one of six leader abilities per faction, each with a uniquely powerful ability and differing amounts of Provisions allowed to build a deck with. A suite of neutral cards also exists which may inhabit any deck. You may select any card you own for your deck as long as it matches your faction or is neutral. Your deck must stay within the provision cost set by your leader ability. You may have two copies of any valid bronze card in your deck, but only one copy for gold cards.

There are three card types: units, special cards, and artifacts. Most cards are units, which all have a single number denoting their strength which adds to the player's totals. Special cards affect units on the field or have unique effects such as allowing the drawing of new cards during a round. Artifacts work like special cards, however, they remain on the field until the round ends or they are removed by another card's effect. Cards in general have no mana or other resource cost. The exception is Syndicate cards which sometimes require Coins to use special effects. Coins are generated by syndicate cards and leader abilities.

Gwent is a fairly balanced card game with frequent updates and balance patches. There is a marked lack of random chance (almost no "coin flip" cards!) with a strong emphasis on planning and strategy.

Gwent contains examples of the following tropes:

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Advertising, Media and other Out of Game stuff

Creator Cameo: One of the Scoia'tael units, Pavko Gale, is based on and voiced by community manager Pawel Burza. He sometimes cosplays as Pavko for various media outings such as this Studio Tour . Pavko: Juiciest Juiciest leeks in town, get 'em here! Walter Veritas, a Syndicate unit, is based on game director Jason Slama.

. Deadpan Snarker: Geralt in one of the trailers as soldiers bust into the locale he and Ciri are playing in and approach her from behind. Keep in mind, he's still talking about their game. Geralt: Let me guess. She's got a dragon.

Market-Based Title: The game is known as Gwint in the original Polish, changed during the various localizations of The Witcher 3 for ease of pronunciation. In The Witcher 3, Gwent has different names in several languages. For the multiplayer game, the name was consolidated to Gwent in all regions outside of Poland.

Spin-Off: Popular demand for more of the sidequest Mini-Game from Witcher 3 led to this standalone game.

Art/Sounds in-game

Charcter/Faction Tropes

Game Mechanics