OK, I haven't tested this, and it's not very much like Carcassonne in terms of scoring, but it sure looks like fun. Anyone want to test run it for me? It probably needs a tweak.
Card-cassonne
2-4 players
COMPONENTS
2 decks cards, 7 tokens for each player
PREP
Mix the cards, place one face up on the table, and remove 11-13 other cards without looking at them (there must be an equal number in the draw deck for all players). Each player draws three cards and looks at them. Each player takes 7 tokens.
You can vary the length of the game by removing more or less cards. You can make easier or tougher game by giving players more or less tokens.
PLAY
Players take turns, in clockwise order. On your turn, a) play a card onto the board, b) place a token onto the played card, c) score completed or partially completed areas, and d) draw a card.
Playing a card: All cards played must touch orthogonally at least one other card on the table. You may place any card so that it touches only a single other card of any suit. You may place any card so that it touches only other cards of the same suit. To place a card that touches more than one card of different suits, the placed card must be numerically equal to or higher than the lowest number on any of these cards, and equal to or lower than the highest number of any of these cards.
Areas: An area is defined as a set of 1 or more cards, all of the same suit, all touching orthogonally. An area is complete if all spaces orthogonal to all cards in the area are filled by cards of the other suits. An area is partially complete if the number of empty spaces orthogonal to the cards in the area is equal to or less than the number of cards in the area.
Placing a token: You may only place a token on the card you just played. You may not place your token into an area that already contains a token. Additional tokens may become part of an area that already contains a token if two separate areas are merged through one or more placed cards.
Scoring areas: You may score any area that is partially complete. You must score any area that is complete. You score 3 points for placing the card that creates a completed area (for each completed area).
When scored, an area scores points for the players who own tokens on an area. All tokens in the area score these points (so double if you have two tokens). The score is 1 point per card in the area if the area contains 2 or fewer cards, otherwise 2 points per card in the area. All tokens that score are returned to the players (this is not optional); this is the only way to get back placed tokens. A token can be placed on a card, score, and be returned on the same turn. One area can score multiple times in a game.
At the end of the game, players score 3 points each for any tokens they have on the board that are on face cards (J, Q, K, and A).
Showing posts with label wielding the decks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wielding the decks. Show all posts
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wielding the Decks 7: Acquire
A little late, but here goes:
Acquire is a classic game of stock acquisition and mergers. It's played on a 12 by 9 board; that's near enough to 13 x 8 that we can fake it. Add some tokens and you're good to go.
Create the board as you play: use the four jokers to mark the corners of the board and adjust the exact card locations as necessary during the game. Using two decks with different colored backs, one set of cards is used for the first four rows, and the other for the second four rows. Or, you could let a player choose in which row to play (e.g. row 3 or 7) on his or her turn.
Use 26 tokens in each of 7 colors. One token is used to mark the hotel chain. The others are the stocks. Use paper and pencil to keep track of money.
Yehuda
Acquire is a classic game of stock acquisition and mergers. It's played on a 12 by 9 board; that's near enough to 13 x 8 that we can fake it. Add some tokens and you're good to go.
Create the board as you play: use the four jokers to mark the corners of the board and adjust the exact card locations as necessary during the game. Using two decks with different colored backs, one set of cards is used for the first four rows, and the other for the second four rows. Or, you could let a player choose in which row to play (e.g. row 3 or 7) on his or her turn.
Use 26 tokens in each of 7 colors. One token is used to mark the hotel chain. The others are the stocks. Use paper and pencil to keep track of money.
Yehuda
Friday, February 13, 2009
Wielding the Decks 6: No Thanks!
While No Thanks! can be exactly simulated with any set of cards with straight numerical values (such as Take 6), you can play a substantially similar game with one deck of cards and some tokens. Play with 3 to 5 players, maybe 6.
Remove the J through A of each suit, leaving 36 cards, 2 through 10 in each suit. Shuffle and remove nine cards without looking at them. Give each player 11 tokens, as usual.
To play, the starting player flips up a card and either takes it and goes again, or puts a token onto it in which case it's now the next player's turn. The next player has the same option. When you decline to take a card, you add one of your tokens onto the card. When you take a card, you take all the tokens on the card along with the card, and then go again. If you have no tokens, you must take the card when it's your turn. Continue until all cards are taken.
Club cards are worth their value in points, diamonds their value + 10, hearts +20, and spades +30. Any chain of cards is worth the lowest card in the chain. A chain is a series of cards that descends in value as a straight flush, or as a kind, or as combinations of both. E.g. 9H-8H-8D-8C-7C-6C is a valid chain. You may assign your cards as you like at the end of the game, but any card can only be assigned to a single chain, and chains cannot branch.
Tokens you have remaining are subtracted from your score, as usual. Lowest total wins the game.
Yehuda
Remove the J through A of each suit, leaving 36 cards, 2 through 10 in each suit. Shuffle and remove nine cards without looking at them. Give each player 11 tokens, as usual.
To play, the starting player flips up a card and either takes it and goes again, or puts a token onto it in which case it's now the next player's turn. The next player has the same option. When you decline to take a card, you add one of your tokens onto the card. When you take a card, you take all the tokens on the card along with the card, and then go again. If you have no tokens, you must take the card when it's your turn. Continue until all cards are taken.
Club cards are worth their value in points, diamonds their value + 10, hearts +20, and spades +30. Any chain of cards is worth the lowest card in the chain. A chain is a series of cards that descends in value as a straight flush, or as a kind, or as combinations of both. E.g. 9H-8H-8D-8C-7C-6C is a valid chain. You may assign your cards as you like at the end of the game, but any card can only be assigned to a single chain, and chains cannot branch.
Tokens you have remaining are subtracted from your score, as usual. Lowest total wins the game.
Yehuda
Friday, February 06, 2009
Wielding the Decks 5: Ra Poker
Ra is a Knizia auction game, which means simple, elegant, and practically theme-less.
Ra'a components are tiles and a bag from which to draw them. This makes it an easy and obvious candidate for replicating with cards. It's actually rather easy to build an auction game with new rules, because auction games lend themselves automatically to a certain amount of balance. You only have to avoid a situation where a single event will grant automatic victory for someone who can guarantee winning the auction.
Ra's auction works as follows: on your turn draw a tile. You can opt to start a once around auction on all open tiles, or pass. If you start an auction, you have to bid if no one else does. Then it's the next player's turn. Continue until everyone has used up their bidding cards, or the last "Ra" tile is drawn. Whenever there are 8 open tiles, an auction is forced. No one has to bid, and if no one does, the tiles are discarded. Due this three times (three rounds).
Player's bid with bidding tiles, each of which is a unique value. You have three or four with which to bid each round, and when you win a bid with one, it goes to the center and you take the one already in the center for use on the next round.
Every tile you own at the end of a round, or end of the game, is worth some combination of points, including your final bidding tiles.
Use one suit from one of the decks as the bidding cards, e.g. the clubs. Place the ace of clubs face up to prime the bidding card exchange, and distribute the remaining twelve cards in a fair fashion to the 2-4 players (see the Ra rules sheet for example).
We'll use all the other cards to form the draw deck. Aces count only for marking the ends of rounds: the first round ends after the third ace. Mix one of the aces back into the deck, and then the second round ends after the third ace again. Repeat for the third round.
Face cards are hazards. Whenever you take a face card, you have to toss out two cards of that suit and keep the hazard (unless it is the only card in the suit you have left to toss).
When it's your turn, you can skip your turn by tossing a 6 and taking any one face up card in the pool or face down from the drawn deck (if it's an ace, you lose out and scoring is triggered if it's the third one).
Now we just need to create a scoring system. Every card is worth it's face value (2-10). In addition:
- Kinds: 2-4 cards: +5/card, 5-7 cards: +10/card, 8 cards: +100
- Flush: 3-6 cards: +5/card, 7+ cards: +10/card. Flushes only score if you have at least one of the 2, 3, or 4 of the suit within the flush.
- Straight: 3-5 cards: +5/card, 6-8 cards: +10/card, 9 cards (2-10): +100
- Straight flush: 3-5 cards: +10/card, 6+ cards: +15/card
Cards can be kept single, or assigned to one of the above types; once assigned, they cannot be moved. Additional scoring:
- No 7's: -5 points; most 7's: +20 points
- Hearts: +5/heart, 0: -2 points
After every round, you keep cards in your flushes - except 2s, 3s, and 4s - up to three single tiles, and all hazards. At the end of the game:
- every JQK in one suit is worth 50 points, and every 4 hazards of the same rank and different suits are 100 points (hazard cards may count for both scoring types).
- Player with the highest set of bidding cards +20, lowest -20.
OK, I just made these up while I was typing, but they'll probably work pretty well as is. If they don't, it will be obvious that one strategy seems useless or dominant. In which case, adjust the scoring as needed to bring the problem into line.
Yehuda
Ra'a components are tiles and a bag from which to draw them. This makes it an easy and obvious candidate for replicating with cards. It's actually rather easy to build an auction game with new rules, because auction games lend themselves automatically to a certain amount of balance. You only have to avoid a situation where a single event will grant automatic victory for someone who can guarantee winning the auction.
Ra's auction works as follows: on your turn draw a tile. You can opt to start a once around auction on all open tiles, or pass. If you start an auction, you have to bid if no one else does. Then it's the next player's turn. Continue until everyone has used up their bidding cards, or the last "Ra" tile is drawn. Whenever there are 8 open tiles, an auction is forced. No one has to bid, and if no one does, the tiles are discarded. Due this three times (three rounds).
Player's bid with bidding tiles, each of which is a unique value. You have three or four with which to bid each round, and when you win a bid with one, it goes to the center and you take the one already in the center for use on the next round.
Every tile you own at the end of a round, or end of the game, is worth some combination of points, including your final bidding tiles.
Use one suit from one of the decks as the bidding cards, e.g. the clubs. Place the ace of clubs face up to prime the bidding card exchange, and distribute the remaining twelve cards in a fair fashion to the 2-4 players (see the Ra rules sheet for example).
We'll use all the other cards to form the draw deck. Aces count only for marking the ends of rounds: the first round ends after the third ace. Mix one of the aces back into the deck, and then the second round ends after the third ace again. Repeat for the third round.
Face cards are hazards. Whenever you take a face card, you have to toss out two cards of that suit and keep the hazard (unless it is the only card in the suit you have left to toss).
When it's your turn, you can skip your turn by tossing a 6 and taking any one face up card in the pool or face down from the drawn deck (if it's an ace, you lose out and scoring is triggered if it's the third one).
Now we just need to create a scoring system. Every card is worth it's face value (2-10). In addition:
- Kinds: 2-4 cards: +5/card, 5-7 cards: +10/card, 8 cards: +100
- Flush: 3-6 cards: +5/card, 7+ cards: +10/card. Flushes only score if you have at least one of the 2, 3, or 4 of the suit within the flush.
- Straight: 3-5 cards: +5/card, 6-8 cards: +10/card, 9 cards (2-10): +100
- Straight flush: 3-5 cards: +10/card, 6+ cards: +15/card
Cards can be kept single, or assigned to one of the above types; once assigned, they cannot be moved. Additional scoring:
- No 7's: -5 points; most 7's: +20 points
- Hearts: +5/heart, 0: -2 points
After every round, you keep cards in your flushes - except 2s, 3s, and 4s - up to three single tiles, and all hazards. At the end of the game:
- every JQK in one suit is worth 50 points, and every 4 hazards of the same rank and different suits are 100 points (hazard cards may count for both scoring types).
- Player with the highest set of bidding cards +20, lowest -20.
OK, I just made these up while I was typing, but they'll probably work pretty well as is. If they don't, it will be obvious that one strategy seems useless or dominant. In which case, adjust the scoring as needed to bring the problem into line.
Yehuda
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wielding the Decks 5: Abstracts
If you have two decks of cards with different backs, you can create triangular, square, or hexagonal game boards of two colors.
A Chess board should be obvious. Pick a king, queen, bishop, etc from each of the decks in two different colors; you'll have to use two different numbers for the pawns. Use the remaining cards to form the board.
Lay the board cards horizontally with space between the cards and place the "pieces" vertically onto them. If both the cards and pieces are oriented vertically, you will have a harder time picking the pieces up without also picking up the game board squares.
If your two decks do not have different backs, just leave out the white squares.
Create a hexagonal board like this:
After laying the hexes, you can play games such as Yinsh or Hex. For Yinsh, for example, each player picks five rings of one color and a pile of stones of a second color (four colors altogether).
A Chess board should be obvious. Pick a king, queen, bishop, etc from each of the decks in two different colors; you'll have to use two different numbers for the pawns. Use the remaining cards to form the board.
Lay the board cards horizontally with space between the cards and place the "pieces" vertically onto them. If both the cards and pieces are oriented vertically, you will have a harder time picking the pieces up without also picking up the game board squares.
If your two decks do not have different backs, just leave out the white squares.
Create a hexagonal board like this:
XXX XXX XXX
XXX XXX XXX XXX
XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX
XXX XXX XXX XXX
XXX XXX XXX
After laying the hexes, you can play games such as Yinsh or Hex. For Yinsh, for example, each player picks five rings of one color and a pile of stones of a second color (four colors altogether).
Friday, January 23, 2009
Wielding the Decks 3 and 4: Suited Card Games
I missed last week, so here are a few extra.
It's not that hard a stretch to take standard decks of playing cards to simulate specialized decks that are based on the same number/suit principles. What we don't want to do is a) write on every single card, or b) consult a sheet that maps every single card to some flavor text. So we will restrict ourselves to games that require a minimum of markup.
For instance, Tichu uses a 56 card deck: 53 of the usual 13 cards in 4 suits, and 4 special cards. We can use the jokers for the four special cards, but, if your two decks have different colored backs (e.g. red and blue), we don't want the two jokers from the "other" deck to stick out.
Solution: Set aside the jokers. Mix the two decks together thoroughly, and then turn face up. Now separate into two decks of cards. Each of the two decks should be randomly constructed from the two different colored card backs.
Mark (in pencil) the special cards on the four jokers and mix them into one of the decks and play. You can use occasionally take the four aces out of the deck you are using and put them into the other deck, if you want.
Another candidate is Rook. Use the four jokers as the 14's of each suit, and then take one additional card from the other deck (say, the ace of spade with a markup) to be the rook.
For five suited games, such as Lost Cities or David & Goliath (up to 4 players or so), you can mark up one additional full suit from the second deck.
Yehuda
It's not that hard a stretch to take standard decks of playing cards to simulate specialized decks that are based on the same number/suit principles. What we don't want to do is a) write on every single card, or b) consult a sheet that maps every single card to some flavor text. So we will restrict ourselves to games that require a minimum of markup.
For instance, Tichu uses a 56 card deck: 53 of the usual 13 cards in 4 suits, and 4 special cards. We can use the jokers for the four special cards, but, if your two decks have different colored backs (e.g. red and blue), we don't want the two jokers from the "other" deck to stick out.
Solution: Set aside the jokers. Mix the two decks together thoroughly, and then turn face up. Now separate into two decks of cards. Each of the two decks should be randomly constructed from the two different colored card backs.
Mark (in pencil) the special cards on the four jokers and mix them into one of the decks and play. You can use occasionally take the four aces out of the deck you are using and put them into the other deck, if you want.
Another candidate is Rook. Use the four jokers as the 14's of each suit, and then take one additional card from the other deck (say, the ace of spade with a markup) to be the rook.
For five suited games, such as Lost Cities or David & Goliath (up to 4 players or so), you can mark up one additional full suit from the second deck.
Yehuda
Friday, January 09, 2009
Wielding the Decks 2: Power Grid
This post describes how to play Power Grid with two standard decks of playing cards, some tokens, pencil and paper.
NOTE: it is assumed in this post that you know how to play Power Grid; I only describe the adaptation here. If I ever collect these posts into a book, I'll expand this one with a complete set of rules.
Power Grid was designed by Friedemann Friess, and is undoubtedly copyrighted and trademarked by him or his publishers. (Last week's game, Pit, was designed by Edgar Cayce.)
The following has not been playtested. Undoubtedly, some tweaking in the number and/or plant powers will need to occur. This can be discovered during the first play or two. Since the plants are acquired through an auction, this should not prevent the game from being playable as is, because, however good or bad a plant is, there is some price at which you hit the pain point.
How to Adapt
Remove the 10 through A from both decks (these will become the power plants). Shuffle the remaining 64 cards and deal them out in the following pattern (only the letters, not the .'s; you can use some of the extra cards to maintain the other cards' positions):
Set aside any unused cards. Each letter represents a region, each inidividual character is a city. The connections between any two diagonally adjacent cities are the sum of the price of the two cards (i.e. somewhere between 4 and 18). Any two adjacent identical cards represent a metropolis and have a connection cost of 0. Choose the correct number of regions in which to play (3 to 5).
The 10's through A's form the power plants. Clubs are oil, Diamonds are coal, Spades are garbage, and Hearts are nuclear. Prices start at 3, and ascend in order: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts, and then skips one. So:
TC = 3
TD = 4
TS = 5
TH = 6
JC = 8
JD = 9
JS = 10
JH = 11
...
The plants are as follows:
* There are two of each card (e.g. two diamond jacks). The second one of any card that shows up is marked with a token; it's the higher cost powered plant.
+ Nuclear plants require one less fuel. Nuclear plants may also be bought as green plants, adding 4 to the cost.
- Whenever two cards of the same exact rank of Clubs and Diamonds are both available, a hybrid plant may be bought for +2 cost over the coal price. Take either one of the two plants and add an unused face down card underneath it to indicate that it is a hybrid.
Starting plants: Arrange 4 10's and J's of each suit for the starting plants. Remove plants as usual according to the number of players. Mix the rest. When placing plants under the deck, place face up. When you reach the first face up plant, mix and start stage 3 as usual. Cycle plants as usual for Power Grid.
Use 4 different colored tokens to represent the four different types of fuel. Group in 3's at the bottom of the board (which has 9 cards width) to indicate prices.
Houses: use the same tokens as you used for fuel, if you're careful to keep them separated. Track money using pencil and paper. Arrange tokens at the left of the board to indicate player order. You can use the top and right of the board to keep count of number of cities, if required.
Replenish fuel supplies according to your favorite Power Grid chart, adding one additional nuclear fuel in the second and third phases. Use the usual payout chart from PG. The win conditions are as usual in PG.
Enjoy.
NOTE: it is assumed in this post that you know how to play Power Grid; I only describe the adaptation here. If I ever collect these posts into a book, I'll expand this one with a complete set of rules.
Power Grid was designed by Friedemann Friess, and is undoubtedly copyrighted and trademarked by him or his publishers. (Last week's game, Pit, was designed by Edgar Cayce.)
The following has not been playtested. Undoubtedly, some tweaking in the number and/or plant powers will need to occur. This can be discovered during the first play or two. Since the plants are acquired through an auction, this should not prevent the game from being playable as is, because, however good or bad a plant is, there is some price at which you hit the pain point.
How to Adapt
Remove the 10 through A from both decks (these will become the power plants). Shuffle the remaining 64 cards and deal them out in the following pattern (only the letters, not the .'s; you can use some of the extra cards to maintain the other cards' positions):
..A...B..
.A.A.B.B.
A.A.A.B.B
.A.E.E.B.
C.E.E.E.B
.C.E.E.D.
C.C.D.D.D
.C.C.D.D.
..C...D..
Set aside any unused cards. Each letter represents a region, each inidividual character is a city. The connections between any two diagonally adjacent cities are the sum of the price of the two cards (i.e. somewhere between 4 and 18). Any two adjacent identical cards represent a metropolis and have a connection cost of 0. Choose the correct number of regions in which to play (3 to 5).
The 10's through A's form the power plants. Clubs are oil, Diamonds are coal, Spades are garbage, and Hearts are nuclear. Prices start at 3, and ascend in order: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts, and then skips one. So:
TC = 3
TD = 4
TS = 5
TH = 6
JC = 8
JD = 9
JS = 10
JH = 11
...
The plants are as follows:
| Card | Payout | Prices |
|---|---|---|
| T | 2:1 | (3,4,5,6+) |
| J | 3:2 | (8,9,10,11+) |
| Q | 2:2 | (13,14,15,16+) |
| K | 2:3 | (18,19,20,21+) |
| A | 2:4 | (23,24,25,26+) |
| T* | 3:5 | (28,29,30,31+) |
| J* | 2:5 | (33,34,35,36+) |
| Q* | 3:6 | (38,39,40,41+) |
| K* | 2:6 | (43,44,45,46+) |
| A* | 3:7 | (48,49,50,51+) |
+ Nuclear plants require one less fuel. Nuclear plants may also be bought as green plants, adding 4 to the cost.
- Whenever two cards of the same exact rank of Clubs and Diamonds are both available, a hybrid plant may be bought for +2 cost over the coal price. Take either one of the two plants and add an unused face down card underneath it to indicate that it is a hybrid.
Starting plants: Arrange 4 10's and J's of each suit for the starting plants. Remove plants as usual according to the number of players. Mix the rest. When placing plants under the deck, place face up. When you reach the first face up plant, mix and start stage 3 as usual. Cycle plants as usual for Power Grid.
Use 4 different colored tokens to represent the four different types of fuel. Group in 3's at the bottom of the board (which has 9 cards width) to indicate prices.
Houses: use the same tokens as you used for fuel, if you're careful to keep them separated. Track money using pencil and paper. Arrange tokens at the left of the board to indicate player order. You can use the top and right of the board to keep count of number of cities, if required.
Replenish fuel supplies according to your favorite Power Grid chart, adding one additional nuclear fuel in the second and third phases. Use the usual payout chart from PG. The win conditions are as usual in PG.
Enjoy.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Wielding the Decks 1: Pit
I need a weekly project for this blog, having finished my roundup posts. So here's my new project: each week, I will teach you how to simulate a proprietary game using two decks of standard playing cards and (optionally) some counters, dice, paper, and pencil. Maybe I'll turn it into a book.
And the series shall be called: Wielding the Decks. My first game: Pit.
Pit is a wild, fast stock card trading game from 1904. Ring the bell, and each player shouts across the room, trying to corner the market in one type of goods. The Bull card is a wild card which you can use for any type of good, or double the value of a complete set. But if you get caught with it when someone else wins, you lose points. The bear has none of the benefits, and all of the drawbacks, of the bull. Even worse, you can't win the game so long as you hold the bear.
In the original game, each type of good has a point value. When someone completes his or her set, he or she gains the points of the set he completed. Play several games until someone has reached a predetermined value.
In my simulations, I generally dispense with the points (and the bull's drawback) and just play until someone wins, and that's it.
How to Play
For 5 to 13 players
Take from the two decks one rank of cards for each player. E.g. for ten players, take the 2 through J. There will be eight cards of each rank. In addition, take a black joker for the bear, and a red joker for the bull. If you're not playing with 13 players, you can use black and red aces.
Mix and deal to all players. Two players will have 1 additional card, but that's ok.
When ready, yell "Go!". Each player acts simultaneously, shouting the number of cards that they want to trade with any other player (NOT the rank of the cards, just the number of cards). Every trade must be for cards of a single rank ONLY, and all trades must be for the exact same number of cards.
There are no turns in Pit, no rounds, and no order. Players shout simultaneously as often and as frequently as they desire, trading with whomever they desire at any time. No trades are forced. If you shout a number, and no one else is shouting that number, try shouting a different number.
For instance, you can trade 1 king for 1 other card by shouting "1!", or 3 fours for 3 other cards (which must all be the same rank) by shouting "3!" You cannot trade 1 seven and 1 three for two other cards (although you can do two "1" trades instead of a "2" trade, if the other player is willing), and you cannot trade 3 sevens for 2 cards or 4 cards.
There is one exception to this: you cannot trade the bull or bear as single cards. If you want to trade them, you MUST trade them together with other cards. So you can call out "3", and trade 2 sevens and the bear for 3 cards from someone else; they must trade you back 3 cards of the same rank, or 2 cards of the same rank plus the bear (or bull).
The winner is the first to collect all 8 cards of a singe rank (those of you with 9 cards in your starting hands, be aware that you will have an extra card which doesn't matter) and shout "I won!" The bull (red joker or red ace) is a wild card (aka joker) which counts as any rank. You can win with seven cards of one rank and the bull. The bear counts as no rank; it's only effect is that you cannot win the game so long as you hold the bear; trade it away! Remember! You can't trade the bear on its own; it must be traded along with some other card or cards.
That's it. Games with up to eight players will last about a minute or two. I played with 12 and the game lasted 4 minutes.
Variants
You can play with the scoring from the original game: earn 10 points per rank of the completed set (face cards all count as 10). Double your score if you have all 8 cards AND the bull (only two players can achieve this each round). Lose 10 points if you don't win and are stuck with the bear or bull (20 if both).
Another variant you can play is with teams: a pair of players each hold 4 cards. Or, with many people, each player on a team holds 1 or 2 cards. Your team has to end up with the complete set to win. This requires not only trading, but constantly coordinating strategy and comparing holdings with your teammates.
Next week
I'm planning on tackling Power Grid. If you have a game you would like to see me cover, add a comment.
I'd also love to see your versions of Power Grid with playing cards. Send me an email if you want to try.
And the series shall be called: Wielding the Decks. My first game: Pit.
Pit is a wild, fast stock card trading game from 1904. Ring the bell, and each player shouts across the room, trying to corner the market in one type of goods. The Bull card is a wild card which you can use for any type of good, or double the value of a complete set. But if you get caught with it when someone else wins, you lose points. The bear has none of the benefits, and all of the drawbacks, of the bull. Even worse, you can't win the game so long as you hold the bear.
In the original game, each type of good has a point value. When someone completes his or her set, he or she gains the points of the set he completed. Play several games until someone has reached a predetermined value.
In my simulations, I generally dispense with the points (and the bull's drawback) and just play until someone wins, and that's it.
How to Play
For 5 to 13 players
Take from the two decks one rank of cards for each player. E.g. for ten players, take the 2 through J. There will be eight cards of each rank. In addition, take a black joker for the bear, and a red joker for the bull. If you're not playing with 13 players, you can use black and red aces.
Mix and deal to all players. Two players will have 1 additional card, but that's ok.
When ready, yell "Go!". Each player acts simultaneously, shouting the number of cards that they want to trade with any other player (NOT the rank of the cards, just the number of cards). Every trade must be for cards of a single rank ONLY, and all trades must be for the exact same number of cards.
There are no turns in Pit, no rounds, and no order. Players shout simultaneously as often and as frequently as they desire, trading with whomever they desire at any time. No trades are forced. If you shout a number, and no one else is shouting that number, try shouting a different number.
For instance, you can trade 1 king for 1 other card by shouting "1!", or 3 fours for 3 other cards (which must all be the same rank) by shouting "3!" You cannot trade 1 seven and 1 three for two other cards (although you can do two "1" trades instead of a "2" trade, if the other player is willing), and you cannot trade 3 sevens for 2 cards or 4 cards.
There is one exception to this: you cannot trade the bull or bear as single cards. If you want to trade them, you MUST trade them together with other cards. So you can call out "3", and trade 2 sevens and the bear for 3 cards from someone else; they must trade you back 3 cards of the same rank, or 2 cards of the same rank plus the bear (or bull).
The winner is the first to collect all 8 cards of a singe rank (those of you with 9 cards in your starting hands, be aware that you will have an extra card which doesn't matter) and shout "I won!" The bull (red joker or red ace) is a wild card (aka joker) which counts as any rank. You can win with seven cards of one rank and the bull. The bear counts as no rank; it's only effect is that you cannot win the game so long as you hold the bear; trade it away! Remember! You can't trade the bear on its own; it must be traded along with some other card or cards.
That's it. Games with up to eight players will last about a minute or two. I played with 12 and the game lasted 4 minutes.
Variants
You can play with the scoring from the original game: earn 10 points per rank of the completed set (face cards all count as 10). Double your score if you have all 8 cards AND the bull (only two players can achieve this each round). Lose 10 points if you don't win and are stuck with the bear or bull (20 if both).
Another variant you can play is with teams: a pair of players each hold 4 cards. Or, with many people, each player on a team holds 1 or 2 cards. Your team has to end up with the complete set to win. This requires not only trading, but constantly coordinating strategy and comparing holdings with your teammates.
Next week
I'm planning on tackling Power Grid. If you have a game you would like to see me cover, add a comment.
I'd also love to see your versions of Power Grid with playing cards. Send me an email if you want to try.
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