I have a story idea about a young character whose only method of paying for his dying mother's potentially-life-saving-but-not-healthcare-covered treatment, is by winning tournaments of a competitive card game. It would be a fictional TCG, with tension surrounding the main character securing reliable transport and support to attend these tournaments, and with moment-to-moment strategy around the matches themselves. My question is, how much depth in the design of this game would you expect (or prefer) to see in such a book? For people not at all familiar with Hearthstone or Magic the Gathering, would detailed explanations about the mechanics turn you off? For people who are familiar with TCGs, how much would it take you out of the story if you noticed a powerful combo/interaction between cards that isn't acknowledged in the book? And, if the book didn't go in depth with how this game worked, would there be palpable tension during the matches? Aside from, "I hope my opponent doesn't draw such-and-such card, that would suck. OH NO, THEY DREW IT.", or simply telling the reader why the main character was feeling very tense or unsure about a particular game.
I would suggest that your best way forward would be to write it with the level of detail that you are comfortable with, and accept that that will be too much for some readers and not enough for others. I had to search what TCG means so I am possibly not your target audience, but, for this reader, characters are what make good stories, not the mechanics.
I agree with Hammer. I do sort of know card games, I've played a little Hearthstone, played Pokemon when I was younger, etc. Personally, I feel like less is more in this scenario or else run the Yugioh risk of having one card game in a tournament arc span three episodes where you get so bogged down you just want the tournament to be over, despite that being the whole premise of the show. First and foremost, focus on the characters and describe the game mechanics as best you can, but don't let the game mechanics overshadow the characters.
