An upcoming card game based on popular webcomic Penny Arcade will play a lot like Magic: The Gathering. Except rather than casting spells or creatures, players will pull pranks and — occasionally — kick their opponents in the groin.

Fantasy Flight Games' Penny Arcade: The Card Game is a two-player, head-to-head game created with plenty of input from the self-referential webcomic's creators, illustrator Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins (aka Gabe and Tycho).

The duo have leveraged their popular, videogame-themed web comic into a small empire. On top of traditional merchandising like T-shirts and videogames, the Penny Arcade brand has expanded to include Penny Arcade Expo (a massive annual gaming convention held in Seattle) and Greenhouse, a platform for the digital distribution of games. Now they're planting a flag in the realm of table-top gaming by letting fans step into the skins of their alter egos Gabe and Tycho.

Holkins says players who opt to role-play as his alter ego, Tycho, will find themselves on the "winningest faction."

But James Hata, the designer of the new game, would probably politely disagree with Tycho's boast. In advance of this weekend's Gen Con Indy convention in Indianapolis, where Fantasy Flight will be demoing the new card game, Wired.com spoke to the gamemaker about capturing the comic strip's humor, balancing the gameplay between the Gabe and Tycho card decks, and steering clear of the addictive, collectible format that keeps so many players going back to game shops.

Wired.com: What was your approach to making Penny Arcade come to life in a card game? How do you capture humor in a two-player duel?

James Hata: I first had to come up with a rules system that was not only intuitive but also flavorful to the Penny Arcade world. This eventually became the [game's] Strength and Intellect system, where basically the majority of the cards a character can play during a turn are dictated by the amount of Strength or Intellect he has available to pay for it. This correlated well with our intrepid duo, because Tycho places a higher emphasis on Intellect and Gabe places an emphasis on Strength.

Afterwards, it became all about blending the flavor and wacky parts inspired from the comic with this system. In order to capture the humor from the comic, we used card names, art, flavor text and wackier abilities inspired from the webcomic. The guys from Penny Arcade supplied the card names, art and flavor text, and I provided the abilities and game mechanics.

Wired.com: Talk a little about what it will be like to play Penny Arcade: The Card Game. What's the closest example?

Hata: Penny Arcade is a quick, brutal and fun game. It's like combining the intensity and feel of a [collectible card game] with the accessibility and ease of use that fans have come to expect from our Silver Line Games. Penny Arcade is largely about risk management and throwing out a lot of attacks, trying to pass your opponent's defenses while keeping just enough blocks to survive your opponent's onslaught. Add in some wacky abilities into the mix, and you got the basics of Penny Arcade.

Wired.com: How much of the comic strip's trademark flavor can fans of Penny Arcade expect to find in the game? Just how bawdy will things get?

Hata: Well, we don't get as bawdy as they do in our releases. We have a 13-plus age range on the game. Div is there, and his quote is about getting drunk, but without any swearing. We do feature a certain, shall we say, aficionado of, in the Latin, Citrus sinensis. But his name is Q*bert-ized.

Wired.com: How involved were Gabe and Tycho in the creation of the game?

Hata: Gabe and Tycho provided us with card names, art and flavor text for the cards. We also sent them prototypes as the game went through its various iterations, and they offered suggestions that we adapted to our final product.

Wired.com: What's your take on how to express the attitude of Penny Arcade in a card game?

Hata: In order to properly show the attitude of Penny Arcade in such a way that fans can really enjoy, the most important thing is flavor — from card names and abilities, to art and flavor text. The overall "world" or rules system has to also support this flavor as well, or else the blending of game mechanics and flavor will feel awkward to fans.

I am confident that my game system and card abilities accurately capture the flavor of Penny Arcade, and that fans of the webcomic will really enjoy this game. The game makes playing Tycho feel like playing a genius with vast amounts of intellect and options at his disposal, and playing Gabe like ... well, playing Gabe.

This also holds true for how the two characters interact with each other: Tycho is more about the intricate combinations of cards that mess with Gabe, and Gabe is all about the straightforward kicks to the junk and the cardboard tube strikes that beat up Tycho.

Wired.com: How did this partnership between Penny Arcade and Fantasy Flight Games come to pass?

Hata: Years ago, Sabertooth Games collaborated with Penny Arcade on a very successful game. When Fantasy Flight Games acquired Sabertooth Games last year, one of the things we talked about was possibly collaborating again in order to create a Penny Arcade card game that was a fast and fun experience for fans of the webcomic. Through our talks with them, we decided to create a single box game which featured Gabe versus Tycho.

Wired.com: Is the game collectible?

Hata: All you need is in one box. This game is not collectible at all. Often, when potential players look at getting into a [collectible card game], they're concerned about how much they have to invest just to get caught up. Unless they get in on the ground floor, they can be behind other players.

We wanted to come out with a game that people would be able to pick up without having to bring a whole suitcase full of cards around, and we wanted fans of Penny Arcade who weren't necessarily [collectible card game] players to enjoy this game as well. This is in essence a classic beer-and-pretzels game. The rules are simple, the box is small and portable, and it's just plain fun.

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