These kids couldn't afford Pokémon cards, so they designed their own game

Image: Imgur, one23abc

As a kid, Reddit user one23abc and his brother could not afford to purchase popular card games, like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokémon.

The solution: Create an entirely original game from scratch, using just a pen, some paper and a vivid imagination.

In a now enormously popular post on Reddit, one23abc shared photos of the resulting game, titled "Creature Cards". The cards — created over a decade ago — feature imagined characters and their various strengths. Sample character names: Cheese Boi and Dyson (named for the vacuum maker).

One23abc even explained the rules in a comment thread:

There are 3 types of card: creature, evolution and item. At the start of the game you start with 3 creatures, 1 evolution and 1 item. Play is divided into player turns. You can think of each turn as having five of phases; draw, item, summon, attack (or evolve), then end. Most items can only be played during the 'item' phase. However some items can be played on your opponents turn under certain conditions (think of them as 'trap' cards from yugioh)

If you do not have enough MP to attack, you have to 'struggle' (roll a die). 1 or 6 = 20 damage 2 or 5 = 10 damage 3 = 10 damage to yourself 4 = reroll

If your creature has an evolution, you may chose to evolve instead of attack. A creature has to attack at least one time before it may evolve to the next stage (creatures typically come in 1 stagers, 2 stagers, or 3 stagers, with the latter being the least common but most powerful in a deck)