I confess. I'm totally addicted to SteemMonsters, and the battles haven't even started yet!
It happened so quickly. One day I was still ignoring all the posts that rolled through my feed on it, and the next I thought, "Why not take a closer look?"
That's how they get you. That first "closer look."
What Is This Thing?
You may be wondering as I have what this whole SteemMonsters thing is. Basically it's a game set in a fantasy world that focuses on collectible cards.
I'll share the description of the world below, but first let me tell you why you care.
Not only can you have fun collecting the various cards, creating teams, figuring out strategies and getting to know your fellow Steemians along the way, but there is also money to be made.
The two ways I see of making money are 1) card appreciation; and 2) tournaments.
Card Appreciation - When you buy a booster pack you pay $2 in STEEM and get 5 cards. That means each card costs roughly .40. You can also go on the market and buy cards one at a time. Typically the cards are about .03-.20. The reason the packs average more is that they may include some of the "epic" or "legendary" cards that can cost considerably more when purchased individually. I bought a few packs last night for $10 total and included were 25 cards, of which a couple were epic and one was a legendary one going for about $6 on the market.
This is what the cards cost when you first get them, but as you play with them or combine them they increase in "levels" and therefore also in value. (I'll share a video below that explains this idea more.) Cards at higher levels that started at .10 can wind up at thousands of dollars! So that's one way to make money. Buy the cards dirt cheap now, play with them, then sell them later.Tournaments - Game play starts in October with one-on-one action. This will allow you to start doing #1, gaining play experience and increasing the value of your cards. But there will also be tournaments coming (once they get coded) that will have weekly prize pools of as much as $10,000, with $1,000 going to the winner of each tournament. That's real money! So if you think you'll actually be good at this game, this may be the primary way to plan to earn from it.
Note that you don't have to win to increase levels, so if you don't think you're good at games, maybe best to focus on method 1 to earning in the game. Just play often and get your levels up.
Have I enticed you to want to learn more? If so, here's an intro video I made on how to get started:
The Story
From the Kickstarter campaign page:
"The Prophecy states "that which was Splintered shall be made whole."
The world was once a whole and complete floating world where all monsters and summoners lived together with one sun and six moons, but nearly a thousand years ago there was a cataclysm and the world Splintered. Each Splinter has since been doing their best to survive and regroup. Some work to make the world whole, some believe it never was whole, and others work to keep it torn apart. Recently, a plague has been affecting monsters and summoners from all the Splinters called "The Burn".
There are 6 Splinters, each with their own sets of summoners, monsters, customs, talents, and drawbacks. There's a backstory to the land itself and we're working on a hundred+ page campaign guide to show everyone, in astonishing detail, what the world looks like in the Splinterlands.
There's music that's been crafted for this game too. When my six-year-old daughter said, "It sounds like adventure!" I knew we'd hit the mark. This helps set the stage for all the stories we tell and have yet to write.
Each and every card in the game will have custom backstories, as well. Learn how Zintar Mortalis became a summoner for the Dark Eternals when he siphoned all life around him to keep his son alive. Feel the pain of the Twisted Jester as he stalks the lands looking for Lord Rotchild who murdered his wife and children and left him for dead. Look at your child's face as they see young Talia send jets of fire from her hands to burn off the gelatinous cube threatening her pregnant mom and big sister. Feel the heat of the fire beetles endlessly carrying the sparkstone."
Come Out And Play
Or really, may be more like, 'stay in and play." I can see already I'm going to have to discipline myself not to spend too much time online with this game. I know I can get addicted to it.
It's actually a lot like my favorite board game, Dominion, which is also a game with cards featuring beings with all kinds of different abilities. The only thing that has stopped me from playing that game everyday is that you need a partner to play with and not many Americans play it, at least not ones I know. My friends like playing games like Whist and Pinochle. Pinochle!
My need for more game savvy friends aside, I think that if you like fantasy books and shows, even if you aren't normally a gamer you may really enjoy becoming a part of the SteemMonsters world.
And for those of you concerned with the idea of violence, there is also a "splinter/element" called "Life." There are healers, peace-bringers, angels, peaceful giants and such within that element. I myself am planning to play with Earth, Water and Dragons. Yes, there must be dragons!
Here are some of my favorite cards from my own collection:
Screenshot of Spirit of the Forest from my collection
Spirit of the Forest is pretty badass, isn't she? She's fast, has lots of "health" (meaning strong endurance) and has decent attack power. She can also fly and attack anyone in your opponent's lineup, not just the front guy. She's one of my few legendary cards.
Here's another favorite of mine, this one epic:
Screenshot of Naga Warrior
Naga Warrior isn't as fast as Spirit of the Forest, but she's stronger and costs less Mana to play in a battle. She also has the ability to retaliate, so if you strike her, before she goes down she gets you back. I think I'll be using her whenever I can.
Just one more...
Screenshot of Divine Healer
Divine Healer doesn't have any attack power. That's because she's a lover, not a fighter. She has the ability to heal each member of any team she is on, so that they can go on fighting.
Now if you watched the video, you know that I can't put all of these cards on a team together for a battle. That's because they are from different splinters/elements. I do have some neutral cards that can play on any team. I also have a Selenia Sky summoner card, who can mix dragons with one other element on a team. But other than that, you assemble teams within only one element for a given battle.
A Word on Alpha vs Beta
One thing I wasn't clear on at the time I made the video that I've since learned is the difference between alpha and beta cards. Alpha packs are no longer available. If you go to the SteemMonsters website you'll only be able to buy beta packs.
The cards that exist are the same between the different editions, and game play with cards from either edition is the same. There are however some important differences that don't directly affect gameplay.
For one thing, there aren't anymore Alpha cards being released, so over time they will become more scarce than Beta cards, which are still being released.
Two, it takes fewer Alpha cards to combine to go up a level than Beta. Here's a handy chart showing how many cards you need of each depending on whether you're combining common, rare, epic, legendary, and/or gold foil cards:
Thanks to 
For example, you can see that to get epic Naga Warrior up to level 2 in alpha deck it would take two cards, but in beta deck it would take 3 cards.
It also takes a greater number of battles to level up a Beta card than an Alpha one.
Note that you can't combine alpha and beta versions of the same card to level up.
So for those of you starting now you will want to either focus 100% on Beta cards (if so, be careful when buying one card at a time on the market to set your edition to beta before shopping!) OR focus on buying alpha cards one at a time, instead of getting your cards from the booster packs. You can buy a full alpha team that way on the market right now.
I think you still have to buy at least one booster STARTER pack FOR $5 to get started. but they are only $2 Those will be beta right now, but you can get all your other cards one at a time to assemble exactly the teams you want by using the Market page.
Wrap Up
Well I think that's plenty for today. I really hope you will come play. I'd love to get to share this journey with you. I think it's really going to be fun. And we'll still be earning STEEM. Just in a new, fantasy-land this time.
Resteems always appreciated