belleza
- spanish for beauty

As the name states this TCG is all about beauty and most particularly that of the womanly kind. All the card sets represent beautiful women be they actresses, musicians or models. In the future we might also incorporate sets on female tv and movie characters as well as music videos by female musician. For the time being though all the numerous photoshoots, fashion editorials and beuatiful women who deserve their own sets will keep us busy enough. All suggestions for new sets are more than welcome.

:: What is this exactly?
:: Trading Card Game? I don't get it!
:: The trading post in detail
:: Levels & leveling up
:: How do I get cards?
:: Mastering
:: New card sets
:: Who are the people behind this?

WHAT IS THIS EXACTLY?
Belleza is an online trading card game (TCG for short) focusing on women both in and out of entertainment industry. The card sets range from celebrities, musicians, fashion editorials and models to women in sports.

TRADING CARD GAME? I DON'T GET IT!
I didn't get it either the first time I stumbled upon such site. It may seem silly that a bunch of people collect little digital images with photos, names and numbers on them, but it's actually a lot of fun. All you need to join a TCG is a functional e-mail address and a trading post (more details on that further down the page), which basically is the place where you store your cards. The idea is to choose a couple of sets to collect and trade the cards you receive from games, contests and as freebies with other members. It's fun and interactive and who knows you might even find a friend or two through the game.

THE TRADING POST IN DETAIL
So... you need a trading post. If you already own a domain or are hosted by some awesome person, this shouldn't be a problem to you. It's just another page or two. If however you don't have either domain or host it is the first problem you need to solve. There are bunch of free homepage providers. No one really likes Geocities because of their ads, so you might want to browse around and see if there's an ad-free option around. Clavis-Sama.Com also offers free hosting for trading posts, so you could also try your luck there.

Once you have the web space for your trading post, here's what it should include:

link back to Belleza
All the members who refer new members to the TCG are rewarded, thus it's for your own good that you link back to us :) The more new members you refer, the more free cards you get. You might want to add a note that says if you join Belleza, please say [your name here] referred you to remind people of whose name they should write down in the join form. Or you can use the new link provided with your starter pack which automatically let's me know that you have referred a member.

your level
This serves as a reminder for yourself and for me when I check on you after you've sent me a level-up form. You can choose one of the level badges to show your level or just write it down. Whenever you pass the card amount of the next level, you should change your level badge and send in the level-up form and wait for the goodies to arrive in your inbox :)

your card count vs. card worth
This is important because the levels are based on the worth of the cards you have, not the amount of them. Whenever you level-up I will check that your card worth entitles you to move on to the next level. Most of the cards in this game are worth one card, meaning that they are regular cards and can be traded to any regular card. The special cards are worth two regular cards, which means that you count them as two cards, when counting your card worth and trade them either to another special card that is worth two or to two regular cards.

trade log
This is probably the most important thing. You need to log down every card you get (and preferably where you got it) and every card you traded away. This is the only way for me to make sure that you aren't cheating. I know you probably aren't, but there are always those who like to twist the rules around. The truth is that I won't be able to check your every move and every trade in the game, but I'll do random checks every once in a while. Keeping a log might sound like a tedious task, but at least for me it also serves as a reminder for myself on what exactly I did the last time I updated my post.

the cards you have
Yeah.. Quite obvious I know. You should upload the cards you have on your own server. My domain has limited bandwidth and it will easily go over the designated limit every month if each of the members hotlink the cards and badges. So please use your own bandwidth as you are supposed to. You can divide your cards in any sections you want to, but the ones that seem to work quite well are: the cards you are collecting (won't trade away), the cards you aren't collecting (will trade) and mastered sets. Many people (like me for example) have additional categories such as: random wants, future collection or something like that. It's also very friendly for fellow players to have pending trades separated from the rest of your cards. That way you hopefully won't get double offers for a card you've already agreed to trade with someone.

your email address or trade form
This is how the other players get in contact with you and suggest a trade. It's pretty much given that you must have these on your tradepost if you want to play the game.

LEVELS & LEVELING UP
We start this TCG with 20 levels and add more of them if it comes necessary. Check out this list for the levels, card counts and what you get when you level up.

HOW DO I GET CARDS?
I've mentioned already quite a few ways to get cards, but let's recap. When you join you receive a starter pack of 7 cards. In the starter pack there are 2 cards from your set of choice regardless on the amount of cards in your chosen set (you'll be rewarded better for mastering a 15-card set though). The rest of the cards are picked totally randomly from all the sets currently in the database. After you've received your starter pack you can start to play the games. You are allowed to play games that have been updated before you joined, but you are not allowed to take any new set freebies or the current freebies prior to your join date (the date you received your starter pack). Everytime you level up or master a set you receive cards. Other ways to get cards are by donating link buttons and/or level badges, taking part in contests and checking out the forums and the freebies you might find there. Once a year you get the birthday freebies. Also every month the first 10 to comment with their suggestions for the next 10 sets on a theme I've mentioned in my post, get 10 cards from the randomizer.

MASTERING
When you have managed to collect all 15 or 8 cards of the set, you have mastered it. You should then let me know, take the master badge and wait for the goodies to arrive in your inbox. Mastering a set gets you a big reward, since it isn't easy in a TCG with lots of sets. When mastering a set with 15 cards, you will always get 2 cards of choice and 3 random cards. When mastering a set with 8 cards, you get 1 card of choice and 2 random cards. After mastering the set, you can't trade any of the cards away. If you trade away the cards your set is no longer complete and thus you haven't really mastered it.

NEW CARD SETS
We'll have a poll every other month on which topic you wish to see new card sets made for the following month and the themes that get the most votes will be the themes I'll make sets about. For example if you choose the theme black & white sets or photoshoots, I'll make sets only of different celebrities in black & white or celebrity photoshoots. Every other month I will make cards based on the requests I have received from the 10 sets - 10 freebies emails and via the set request form. This way we'll hopefully get such cards into the circulation that the majority of the members want to see and collect.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE BEHIND THIS?
Check out the staff page for more information on who is currently helping me (Menthe) out. There you can also apply for the open positions if you'd like to be part of the team behind Belleza.