Game Design Showdown April 2005 Challenge - Little People

Entry #1 -- Secret Garden
by Kreitler

Secret Garden
Overview
In Secret Garden, players try to earn the most points by planting desirable flowers in their gardens and keeping undesirable ones out. Each player assumes the role of a magical gardener -- Elf, Sprite, Pixie, Gnome, Brownie, or Faerie. He plants and harvests "good" flowers in his garden, and tries to plant less desirable ones in the gardens of other players.

Quick Rules Summary
Number of players: 2-6
Object: collect sets to get the highest score.
Equipment:
"Little People" cards (1 each of Elf, Sprite, Pixie, Gnome, Brownie, Faerie)
"Garden Board" (6)
"flower cards" (72, in 6 suits (lily, rose, etc), each suit contains 3 cards of value 1, 3 of value 2, 3 of value 3, and 3 of value 4).

Players select a "little people" card and keep it hidden until the end of the game.

Players take a "garden board" and place it before them.

Players take turns playing "flower cards" onto the garden boards. In his turn, a player first replenishes his hand from either the draw pile or his garden board, then plays cards onto his or other players' garden boards. Hand limit is 4 for 2 players, 5 for 3 or 4 players, and 6 for 5 or 6 players.

If any of his plays results in a set of three like flowers on any board, the board's owner immediately scores the set. If two or three of the flower card values match, the set is worth that much (example: 1, 1, 4 = 1 point) . If no values match, the set is worth the middle value (example: 2, 3, 4 = 3 points). Once scored, sets are removed from the garden boards and placed next to the owning player.

Play continues until a player takes the last flower card from the draw pile and completes his turn.

At the end of the game, all players reveal their hidden "little people" cards and tally their final scores. Each race of little person (Sprite, Pixie, Gnome, Elf, Brownie, and Faerie) prefers one suit and dislikes one suit. Sets of the preferred suit count double. Sets of the disliked suit count negative. All other suits add at face value.

--------- That's it, you're done, unless you're really interested in rules details ---------

Game Setup:

Each player draws a "Little People" card to determine his race. Players keep these hidden until game end.
Each player grabs a "Garden Board", with space for 6 cards.
One player shuffles the "flower card" deck and deals a full hand (4 cards for two players, 5 cards for three or four, or 6 cards for five or six) to the other players.

Game Play

The dealer starts, and play proceeds clockwise.
On his turn, a player first replenishes his hand from the draw pile, cards in his garden, or both.
After replenishing, a player can play as many cards as he likes, one at a time, up to the hand limit. He may play them into his or any other garden (a garden holds at most 6 cards).
If, after any played card, a garden holds three flowers cards of the same suit, the player who owns the garden must claim the "set" (i.e., remove it from his garden and score it).
Play continues in this fashion until the player who empties the draw pile ends his turn.

Scoring

Players score sets as they are formed.
A group of 3 like flower cards comprises a set.
Each flower card has a value, 1-4.
If two or three of the values match, the set takes that value (ex: 1,1,4 = 1 and 3, 3, 3 = 3).
If none of the values match, the set takes the middle value (ex: 1, 2, 3 = 2).

Final Scoring

At the end of the game, players reveal their "little people" cards and compute their final scores.
Each gardner has his favorite and least favorite types of flower.
Sets of the "favorite" group are worth double value.
Sets of the "least favorite" group score negative points.
Add all of a player's set values to arrive at his final score.

Flower preferences

Elves like orchids and dislike lillies
Gnomes like violets and dislike sunflowers
Sprites like roses and dislike tulips
Pixies like sunflowers and dislike roses
Brownies like lillies and dislike violets.
Faeries like tulips and dislike orchids.

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Entry #3 -- Little People in a blender...
by Gogolski

Little People in a blender...

***** The Players:

2 to 4 players

***** Components:

--- Little People Gold Coins (= LPGC).
/=> 40 x 1 LPGC

--- Little People Race Cards (= LPRC).
/=> 1 card of every 6 of the Little People Races. (Faeries, Pixies, Nixies, Imps, Kobolts and Gnomes.)

--- Little People Family Cards (= LPFC).
/=> 3 mommy cards of every 6 of the Little People Races.
/=> 3 daddy cards of every 6 of the Little People Races.
/=> 3 sister cards of every 6 of the Little People Races.
/=> 3 brother cards of every 6 of the Little People Races.

--- Little People Screens (= LPS).

--- Pen and Paper.

***** The Time:

+/- 60 to 90 minutes (Depending on the number of players.)

***** Summary:

Six races of "little people" live together in a rather chaotic harmony. Every race has it's own speciality of 'pranking' and 'joking' and doing really evil things. They steal eachother's money; they swap babys and kidknap people.

They get totally mixed up and nobody knows how to pull them appart!

The players score points by trying to collect the little people of their own secret race and by trying to discover what race the other players are collecting.

***** The Setup:

At the start of the game, the races that play along are chosen.
Fairies always play along.
Pixies never play along when playing with two players.
2 players => 4 races. (Pixies + any race but Faeries are out.)
3 players => 5 races. (Any race but Faeries is out.)
4 players => 6 races.

Put the Little People Race Cards (= LPRC) of the races that play along face down on the table and shove them around a bit. Starting with the shortest player, each player selects a card that will represent his secret race. This is kept secret. The two other LPRCs are put aside without looking at them.

Shuffle the Little People Family Cards (LPFC) of the races that play along. This forms the BLENDER.
Each player is dealt 5 cards. The top two cards of the Blender are put open on the table. Starting with the shortest player, each player in turn selects one open card. The open card is replaced by the topcard from the Blender. Then every player draws a second one. These are the seven cards to start playing with.

Each player is also given 7 Little People Gold Coins (LPGC). The players put those behind their Little People Screens (LPS).

***** The Rules:

The shortest player starts.

I. A player must chose one of the following actions:
--[1]-- Play one LPFC.
--[2]-- Play two LPFCs.
--[3]-- Buy one LPFC for 3 LPGC.
--[4]-- Buy two LPFCs for 5 LPGC.
--[5]-- Buy one LPFC for 4 LPGC and then play one LPFC.
--[6]-- Sell two LPFCs of the same race for extra LPGCs.

Playing Little People Family Cards:

Each race has a speciality, when a card of a certain race is played, you put it face up on the discard-deck.

=> Faeries:
- If you play a Faerie-card, you may choose 5 cards from another player and look at them, then you return the cards to that player.
- If you play two Faerie-cards, you first receive one LPGC, and then you may look at ALL the cards of one player. This counts as playing two cards.

=> Pixies:
- If you play a Pixie-card, you first receive one LPGC, and then choose two other players than yourself. You take two cards from each of them blindly; you look at those four cards and swap one of those two cards from each player.
- If you play two Pixie-cards, you first receive three LPGCs, and then choose two other players than yourself. You take five cards from each of them blindly; you look at those ten cards and swap two of those five cards from each player. This counts as playing two cards.

=> Nixies:
- If you play a Nixie-card, you first receive one LPGC, and then you draw two cards blindly from another player. You look at those cards and take one and give that player a card with another race from yourself in return.
- If you play two Nixie-cards, you first receive three LPGCs, and then you draw five cards blindly from another player. You look at those cards and take two cards and give that player two cards with another race from yourself in return. This counts as playing two cards.

=> Imps:
- You always play Imp-cards two at a time. If you play two Imp-cards, you first receive one LPGC, and then you choose a player and you take four of his cards blindly and you may steal one of those four. The other cards are returned to that player. This counts as playing two cards.

=> Kobolts:
- If you play a Kobolt-card, you choose a player and you take two of his cards blindly and you may steal one of those two. The other card is returned to that player. The attacked player then draws a card from the two open cards next to the Blender.
- If you play two Kobolt-cards, you first receive one LPGC, and then you draw five cards blindly from 1 player and steal two. The attacked player then takes one card from the two open cards next to the Blender, the top card is turned around and that player takes a second card from the two open cards.

=> Gnomes:
- If you play a Gnome-card, you get 4 LPGC of any player you choose. If that player has less than 4 LPGC, he gives all he has. You put the LPGC behind your Little People Screen.
- If you play two Gnome-cards, you first receive one LPGC, and then you choose two players to receive 4 LPGCs from. (...or all they have left, if they have less than four LPGCs.)

Buying Little People Family Cards:

If you choose to buy one LPFC, you pay 3 LPGC and you may select one of the two open cards or the top card of the Blender or the top-card of the Discard-deck.

If you choose to buy two LPFCs, you pay 5 LPGC and you may select two LPFCs from the two open cards or the top card of the Blender or the top-card of the Discard-deck.

If you choose to buy one LPFC and play a card, you pay 4 LPGC and you may select one of the two open cards or the top card of the Blender or the top-card of the Discard-deck. Then you play any of your cards.

Selling Little People Family Cards:

If you choose to sell two LPFCs from the same race (not Gnome-cards), you put them on the Discard-deck and get 7 LPGC in return. You put the LPGC behind your Little People Screen.

If you choose to sell two LPFCs from different races, you put them on the Discard-deck and get 4 LPGC in return. You put the LPGC behind your Little People Screen.

If you choose to sell two Gnome-cards, you put them on the Discard-deck and get 12 LPGC in return. You put the LPGC behind your Little People Screen.

II. Blocking an action:

Some actions of players can be blocked by the player who is attacked. Pixie-cards and Gnome-cards can not be blocked.

To block an action, a player must discard a card of the same race he is attacked with and pay the attacking player 1 LPGC for every card that was needed for the action.

Examples:

- A player plays a Nixie-card and chooses a player to swap cards with. That player discards a Nixie-card and pays the player 1 LPGC. The attacking/blocked player puts it behind his LPS.

- A player plays two Kobolt-cards and chooses a player to draw 5 cards from. That player discards a Kobolt-card and pays the attacking player 2 LPGCs. The attacking/blocked player puts them behind his LPS.

III. The player draws a card.

After the selected action is played, the player draws a card from the Blender. You may not choose the open cards or the Discard deck to draw from. This ends the turn of the player.

IV. Ending round one:

If all the cards from the Blender are drawn, round one ends. Each player may now choose to put a family aside (if he has one) or not. A family consists of a Mommy-, Daddy-, Sister- and Brother-card of the same race.
A player puts them face down before his LPS, so other players can see who has put down a family, without knowing which family. The four cards that are put down are safe in round two, they can not be stolen or looked at.

V. Playing and ending round two:

The discard-deck is then shuffled to form a new Blender. If needed, one or two cards are put open next to the Blender to have two open cards. The players continue turns starting with the player after the one that ended round one. . The game ends when all cards of the Blender are drawn again. Now it's time to collect points.

VI. Collecting points:

After round two each player must make a guess which race the other player(s) are collecting. They do this secretly behind their LPS. This may give you extra points if you got it right or may cost you points if you got it wrong. You have to make a guess for each other player. Then every player shows his secret race and his LPGCs. Each player then gets points as follows:

- You get 1 point for every LPFC of your own secret race that you managed to collect.

-You get 2 bonus points for every family of your own secret race that you managed to collect.

- You get 1 bonus-point for every family from another race than your own you collected.

- If you guessed right what race another player was collecting, you get 2 bonus-points plus 1 point for every card of that race you posses, plus a bonus-point if you collected a family of that race.

- If you guessed wrong what race another player was collecting, you get 2 penalty-points plus 1 penalty-point for every card of that race you posses, plus a penalty-point if you collected a family of that race. Penalty-points are substracted from your point total.

- The player with the most LPGCs gets 3 bonus-points.
If there is a tie, the player with the most cards in hand gets the bonus.
If there is still a tie, the player with the most cards of his race gets the bonus.
If there is still a tie, the player with the most families gets the bonus.
If there is still a tie, nobody gets the bonus.

=> The player with the highest score wins. Negative scores are possible!
==> If there is a tie, the player with the most cards of his race wins the game.
===> If there is still a tie, the player with the most cards in his hands wins the game.
====> If there is still a tie, the player with the most LPGC wins the game.
=====> If there is still a tie, the player with the most families wins the game.
======> If there is still a tie, the game is a tie and all tied players win the game

***** Tips & Tricks:

- At the start of the game, faerie cards are near useless. Near the end of round one -look at the Blender to see when it is near- it's a strong move to play Faerie-cards, to see who collected which race.

- Most cards that are played in the first round, will be in the Blender in the second round. All appart from those that are bought from the Discard-deck.

- Keep track of your thoughts of what player plays what race on a piece of paper behind your LPS.

- Combos of two cards from the same race let you look at more cards from other players. You also receive one LPGC for each played combo!

- Don't forget the option to Block actions from another player.

- Gnome cards at the end of the game may give you lots of LPGCs which are nice for the 3 bonus-points.

Have Fun!

Entry #5 -- Little Treasures
by Pt314

Little Treasures

You start out with a deck of about 85 cards. There are 5 main 'suits' of cards, represented by a little item that would be found of worth to little house people (like 'Borrowers') such as buttons, coins, candy, string, bottlecaps, and some wild lint cards.

Every treasure type has 12 cards with 1 of the item on it, 3 cards with 3 of the item on it, and 1 card with 5 of the item on it (except for the wild lint where there are 3 cards with 1 item, and 2 with 2 lints).

The deck is shuffled, then the top half of the deck is removed from play, in order to make the items have different amounts, and thus different values based on their rarety. This is the unknown mechanic for the game, the rarity of the cards are an unknown until the end of the game. The rarity and thus the value must be estimated by the players, by how much they see of them in the game.

Everybody is dealt 5 cards from the deck (after the top half has been taken away). Someone is chosen to go first, and play goes in an agreed order.

At the beginning of a turn a player puts out cards that they are willing to trade. The other players then make their offers with cards they have. Everyone can see the cards up for trade. A player may make as many trades as they want per turn, and other players can increase what they are willing to trade in an auction mechanic, the person trading doesn't have to make a trade if they wish to.

At the end of a players turn they draw a card from the deck (if there are cards left in the deck), and 'bank' a card from their hand. Banked cards are face up so everyone can see it, and can no longer be used for trading.

Once all of the cards are banked the scoring session starts. Each player chooses cards they wish to remove (in order to increase the rarity) from their bank all at once. This is done by the players setting aside a certain amount of their bank facedown, then everyone reveals what is left in their bank.

The more rare an item is (The total amount of that item in the game) the more it is worth, based on a predetermined chart. The wild cards can be chosen to count as any other item during scoring. The total points of all of the players banks are added up, and whoever has the most points wins the game.

*Stratagies
#1: Trade less valuble items for more valuble items as the game progresses, estimating the value by the frequency it is seen.

#2: Horde items in your hand not showing them to anybody in order to make the item appear more valuble.

#3: Get as much of a certain item as you can so you can influence its worth at the end of the game the most. (If you have a monopoly you can remove all of them except for a few in order to gain the most points from them.)

*Scoring Chart
(total amount, individual worth, total worth)
(17+, 5, 85-115)
(16, 10, 160)
(15, 20, 300)
(14, 30, 420)
(13, 40, 520)
(12, 50, 600)
(11, 60, 660)
(10, 75, 750)
(9, 100, 900)
(8, 125, 1000)
(7, 170, 1190)
(6, 200, 1200)
(5, 250, 1250)
(4, 300, 1200)
(3, 400, 1200)
(2, 550, 1100)
(1, 1000, 1000)

Entry #7 -- Midsummer Night's Dream
by sedjtroll

Midsummer Night's Dream

In this game you are a playful Satyr, vying for the attention of a Nymph, a Sylph, a Fawn, and a Fairy on a strange and magical Midsummer night. But your opponents are doing the same! Play your cards right and you might score the mythical ladies of your dreams. Plan poorly and you'll go home emptyhanded.

Contents:
* Deck of Dream cards depicting various mythical creatures such as Fairies, Sylphs, Nymphs, and Fawns.
* 2 six-sided dice

Setup:
Shuffle the Dream deck and deal 4 cards to each player. You can look at your cards, but don't reveal them! Place the Dream deck within reach of all players and decide who will play first. Give that player the dice.

Turns:
Card Drawing:
Begin your turn by rolling the dice. If the result is less then the number of cards in your hand, then there is a scoring round. Otherwise (or after scoring), draw cards from the deck equal to the result of the roll. Choose one of those cards and place it face down in front of you in a hidden pile.

Card Distribution:
As long as there are more cards left than the number of players, choose one of those cards and put it in your hand and pass the rest to the player on your left. That player does the same, and so on until the cards get back to you (or are all taken by players). If there are still enough cards to go around, repeat this process. When there are too few cards left tto go around, put the rest face up in the center of the table. Note: each player will have added the same number of cards to their hand during that process.

Card Play:
After the card distribution, you may play any number of cards down to the table, so long as they're all of the same suit. You may not play cards such that you have the same number of cards in a suit as another player. Cards played in front of you are played in piles, or sets, sorted by "suit" (color/type - each type of mythical creature has it's own color).

Scoring Rounds:
A scoring round occurs when the roll result is lower than the number of cards in your hand. All players MAY reveal ALL of their hidden cards and add them to their sets, but turn them sideways to indicate that they were from the hidden pile. The player with the most cards in each suit discards those cards and collects the corresponding cards from the pot. These cards count toward your score at the end of the game. In the case of a tie, the tied player with fewer sideways cards (from the hidden pile) gets the cards from the pot.

Game End:
The game is over when the draw deck is exhausted and a player is required to draw cards from it. At this point, all players immediately count the cards they've won from the pot in each suit. Your final score is your score in the suit in which you've collected the fewest cards. Highest final score wins. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most cards left in their hidden pile is the winner.

Entry #9 -- Die Wichtelmänner
by Mark Goadrich (ensor) and Brett Myers (disclamer)

Die Wichtelmänner
a card game for 3-5 players

Overview

In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Die Wichtelmänner" (or The Shoemaker and the Elves), there once was a poor village shoemaker who left materials on his workbench one night. He awoke the next morning to find a beautiful pair of shoes, which could only have been made by elves. This became a pattern of leaving out raw materials and awaking to completed shoes, until he was a rich shoemaker and no longer needed the elves to succeed. (Presumably the elves were tired by then anyway, and they happily resumed their nightly forest party routine.)

For this game, each player is a shoemaker, leaving out materials and having shoes made by elves each round. But we all know elves are only in fairy tales... the real story is that it was the shoemaker's neighbor (also a shoemaker) who sneaked in at night and assembled the materials into shoes. And that neighbor's neighbor sneaked into his house to make shoes, and so on, creating a cycle of "elves" all the way back to the initial shoemaker. Through their secret generosity, all the shoemakers in the village will become successful, and the villagers will finally have shoes to wear.

The game consists of rounds, with players alternately being a Shoemaker (leaving out materials) and being an Elf (making shoes for your neighbor) until no more shoes can be made. Players will score points for both the shoes they make for their neighbor as an Elf and the shoes made for them by their neighbor Elf. Each player also has a hidden preference for one material type, and bonus points are awarded at the end of the game for all of their shoes which include this material.

Components

96 cards, consisting of

90 Material cards
15 of each Material type:
Leather, Wood, Cotton, Nails, Laces, Glue within Material type, 5 each of Quality

poor = 0, adequate = 1 and fine = 2
6 Shoemaker Preference cards

one for each Material type

Initial Setup

Players sit in a circle around a table. Each player will have two roles, Shoemaker and Elf. They will be be the Shoemaker for the Elf on their right, and the Elf for the Shoemaker on their left.

For 5 players, use the full 90 card Material deck. For 4 players, use a 72 card Material deck, by removing one of each card type (Material x Quality). For 3 players, use 54 cards by removing two of each card type (Material x Quality).

Shuffle the Material deck and deal 18 face-down cards to each player. This is each player's initial stock of Material.

Shuffle the 6 Shoemaker Preference cards. Deal one card face-down to each player and place the rest face-down to the side.

Rules

There will be at most 5 rounds of the game, where each round consists of a Shoemaker phase followed by an Elf phase.

Shoemaker Phase

Each player chooses 4 Material cards from their hand; these will be the materials set out that night. All players simultaneously pass these 4 chosen materials to the player on their right (their Elf).

Elf Phase

Using the Materials cards in their hand, plus those just given to them by the player on their left (the Shoemaker), all players must create a Shoe. A Shoe consists of three different types of Material cards. For instance, a player can use 1 Leather card, 1 Nails card and 1 Laces card to create a shoe. The quality of Material is used for scoring, only the Material type itself matters when making a shoe, so all three Material cards could be the same quality as long as they are different Materials. Once all players' shoes are ready, the shoes are revealed simultaneously and placed in-between the player and their left-hand neighbor. Repeat the Shoemaker and Elf phases until one of the two following end-game conditions occurs.

Ending the Game

If either of these conditions are true, the game is over:

1) During an Elf phase, if a player cannot make a shoe with the Materials in their hand, the game is over. They must display their hand to the other players; no shoes will be made by any players this round.

2) During a Shoemaker phase, if a player does not have 4 cards to pass to their right, the game is over. This only should occur after 5 shoes have been made for each Shoemaker. Each player will have 3 cards of leftover Materials, which are now discarded.

Final Scoring

When the game is over, each player scores both for the shoes on their left (made by them as an Elf) and the shoes on their right (made for them by an Elf). Poor material is worth 0 points, adequate is worth 1 point, and fine is worth 2 point. Sum both sets of Material cards to get a player's initial shoe score.

Bonus points are awarded as follows: For each piece of Material in the shoes on a player's left which matches their Shoemaker Preference card, score an additional 3 points, irrespective of the quality. For each piece of Material in shoes on a player's right which matches their Shoemaker Preference card, score an additional 6 points, irrespective of the quality.

The player with the highest total points wins. If there is a tie, the tied player with the highest bonus shoe score wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player with the highest initial shoe score wins. If there is still a tie, all tied players share the win.

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Entry #11 -- Battle Imps: Sins and Smackdowns
by Nando

Battle Imps: Sins and Smackdowns
{Admin Note: these two reference/credit lines were originally included by the designer, but I did not show them on the presentation for voting, in order to retain anonymity}
The Battle Imps idea starts here: http://www.gamewyrd.com/imps/
The idea for collecting sins is credited to my friend Jeff Brimley.

The One-Liner
Each player controls a Battle Imp competing to be the most successful at encouraging potential sinners to commit sinful acts.

Setting Up
The Sins and Skills
A deck of cards represents each Battle Imp's skills in enticement and combat. Each card has 3 parts on its face:

1 of "Seven Deadly Sins" (Pride, Lust, Anger, Sloth, Envy, Greed, and Gluttony). 1 of "Five Battle Imp Traits and Skills" (Guts, Dodgin', Backstabbing, Smackdown, and Magic Mojo).
1 of Three Point Values (1,2, and 3).

The Sinners
Each imp is exclusively assigned a number of sinners and each sinner has a particular weakness which the imp is required to exploit. The sinners are represented by cards dealt from the deck and that card's Deadly Sin is the sinner's weakness. Battle Traits and Point Value are ignored. These "sinner" cards are kept face-down and unexamined in a stack nearby except for the two topmost sinners. The first top card is the "current sinner" for which exploits (sets) are scored. The second top card is the "next sinner" who is revealed for strategic purposes only. (Might hand-pick these cards to guarantee that all players will score each type of sin. Might just use some sort of sinner tile that has the sins on them. Or might replace it all with a 1d8 as mentioned below. I like the forward planning you can do with the cards and tiles though.)

During each round, the imp tries to "work on" the current sinner by playing "his" Deadly Sin against him.

The Battle Imps
A player's hand represents all the skills of his Battle Imp. At the beginning of each round, the imp "trains" in the various skills. The skills are then used to act against rival imps and assigned sinners.

Gameplay
Training
Players draw cards. Probably a refresh to a hand size limit.

Working
Players play cards face-down to their Working area. Only the cards showing (and played as) the Current Sinner's Deadly Sin will score, and only if those cards remain in the Working area until the end of the round. Cards would probably score by quantity in set with a bonus for bigger sets, so 1 VP for 1, 3 for 2, 5 for 3, etc. Card Point Values would probably be ignored for scoring (but used for satisfying damage in battle).
(Also, to open up scoring a little, probably also want to have an 8-sided die that all players can play off of. The die would have a side for each Deadly Sin and one side for "anything goes" or "one of each". The die would only get rolled at the beginning of the round.)

A successful attack against an imp implies the defending imp takes damage and therefore has less time and energy to devote to his sinner. That situation is represented by removing Work cards. A successful attacker chooses cards to remove, one at a time and unexamined, until the total Point Value of removed cards meets or exceeds the damage due.

Two Battle Traits can also be played as Work: Guts and Backstabbing. Guts is a "double-or-nothing" play, doubling the score if it remains to the end of the round or taking with it all other Work cards at the time of its removal during the round. Backstabbing is used as a "backfire" or sabotage against imps who have successfully attacked another imp.

Battling
The active player's imp may attack other players' imps. Doing so requires wagering a Guts card, and may be repeated as long as the Guts hold out. A successful attack yields damage to the defender, but a failed attack yields the loss of the Guts card.

The attacker plays any number of one type of Trait/Skill, either Magic Mojo or Smackdown (and probably Backstabbing, too). The defender may dodge (play Dodge Trait cards), counter (play Traits cards of the same type as the attacker), or Submit (play nothing). The total point values of the cards are compared for each side. More points wins or defender wins in a tie.
(Magic Mojo might have an optional type of damage: stealing Work cards. Maybe to play down immediately as Work for the attacker, or maybe to be taken into the attacker's hand, or maybe both.)

Damage due is calculated as the attacking points minus the defending points. Work cards are removed until the total value of the chosen Work cards meets or exceeds the damage due. If no Work cards are in play, the damage is taken from prior Victory Points (probably recorded on a track).

All attack, defense, and damage cards are discarded.

Scoring
At the end of the round, players adjust their scores (probably on a track) for qualifying Work cards remaining in play.

The Current Sinner and all Work is discarded after scoring.

The Next Sinner becomes the Current Sinner and a new Next Sinner is revealed. The game ends when the last sinner is discarded. The winner will have the most points after all rounds.

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Entry #13 -- A Little War
by btaggart

A Little War

Overview:
The Fey Folk of the Isles have had it with each other! The Gnomes are obviously stubborn, unreasonable and pigheaded, while the Leprechauns are selfish, egotistical pranksters. Negotiations have failed.

Each race of Fey Folk are constructing a weapon with which to finally rid the Isles of those annoying interlopers. The first group to succeed will, naturally (or unnaturally) win!

Contents:
Two decks of cards:
• The Gnome Deck contains ten (10) Gnomic Invention (Weapon) cards, 26 Gemstone (Help) cards, and 26 Rockslide (Hinder) cards.
• The Leprechaun Deck contains ten (10) Wish (Weapon) cards, 26 Lucky Charms (Help) cards, and 26 Blarney (Hinder) cards.

Players: 2

Setup:
One player gets the Gnome deck, the other gets the Leprechaun deck.
Each player does the following:
1. Remove the ten (10) Weapon cards and shuffle the remaining cards (Help and Hinder cards are shuffled together).
2. Deal six cards in a row in front of you, FACE DOWN.
3. Place the remaining cards to the side of the face-down row as the draw pile. As cards are discarded, they will go on the other side of the row.
4. Pick up any two cards from the face-down row. This is your hand.
5. Choose (however you wish) one of the weapon cards. This is your goal. Place it FACE UP in front of your face-down row, so your opponent can see it. Leave room for the other cards that will be placed around it.
6. Your cards should look like this:

Now decide who goes first.

Cards:
There are three kinds of cards:
1. Weapons. Build a Weapon and finally get rid of the selfish, no-good… Anyway, your Weapon will need various components. Most of them can be found in your Help cards, but some of them are only found in your opponent’s Help cards.
2. Help. Help cards are things that help you (go figure). Many of these are components for your Weapon. But watch out! They are also components for your opponent’s Weapon. The rest of the Help cards can do various nice things like prevent or undo an enemy Hinder card.
3. Hinder. Hinder cards will hurt your enemy. For example, they can steal components from your enemy’s Weapon, or cause her to discard cards from her Weapon or hand.

Winning:
To win, finish your Weapon. It’s that simple. Get to work!

Play:
Each turn follows these steps:
1. Draw one of your four face-down cards.
2. You may now play one (1) of the cards in your hand. This is done by placing the card face up in front of you.
3. If this is a Hinder card, your opponent may have a Help card to use, or vice versa. He’s allowed to do that.
4. If your opponent can’t do anything about it (or chooses not to), follow the instructions on the card. Components will be placed face up around your Weapon.
5. Deal back up to four cards in your face-down row. Remember to deal them face down. If your draw pile is empty, reshuffle the discard pile.

[Unfortunately, I didn't have time to come up with sample cards, but use your imagination, and think of funny things.]