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Game #65: Popularity Contest by theicemage

4 replies [Last post]
Mon, 03/07/2005 - 14:13
Anonymous

I promised that the next game I posted would be less complex, and I think this fits the bill.

Popularity Contest is a game of high school (or college?) popularity for three to six players. By playing Relationship cards, you are trying to align yourself with the popular kids each year.

To play, you'll need two decks of cards, preferably with different back designs. Some poker chips help. I've uploaded the rules here:

PopCRulesPage

There is a Word document and an RTF file of the rules, and the same for a sample game.

One of the open questions from the brief playtesting we did of this was what range of values to use for the relationship card point values. 1-6 or so might make it easier to tally, yet still give the players a sense that their influence made a difference.

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Mon, 03/07/2005 - 15:08
#1
Brykovian
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Game #65: Popularity Contest by theicemage

Hi Brett ... Interesting collection of mechanics here. :)

First, do the rules contradict themselves on the value of the facecards? In the "What the Cards Mean" section, it states: "Jacks count as 11, Queens are 12, Kings are 13 and Aces are 1." While in the "Playing the Game" section, it says, "Each card is its face value, and J, Q and K are worth 10. Aces are worth 1 point." Just need that clarified.

If I understand it right, you will end up with a single unused card remaining in your hand at the end of each round -- is that right? If so, it's nice that you do have a choice to make for what card you leave yourself. However, it might make the previous choice(s) a bit more tense if you realize that you'll have to give yourself the "left over" card at the end. Have you played it both ways?

Also, if I understand it right, as you move through each round, you'll have a better idea as to what the players immediately to your left will be getting. Not sure if this gives an advantage or not -- you'd probably be likely to pick the same card from your hand no matter how well you know the score that player will end up with.

Any reason for capping this game at 6? I suppose you run out of relationship cards after 7, but couldn't you just add a second deck? I'm guessing this game would be more fun with 5 or 6 than it would be with 3 ... what number have you played it with so far?

Thanks for sharing this one! ;-)

-Bryk

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Mon, 03/07/2005 - 15:24
#2
Anonymous
Game #65: Popularity Contest by theicemage

Brykovian wrote:
First, do the rules contradict themselves on the value of the facecards? In the "What the Cards Mean" section, it states: "Jacks count as 11, Queens are 12, Kings are 13 and Aces are 1." While in the "Playing the Game" section, it says, "Each card is its face value, and J, Q and K are worth 10. Aces are worth 1 point." Just need that clarified.

Yep, they sure do. I went with a straight 10 points after a bit of testing, just to help make the math easier. Thanks for catching that one.

Quote:
If I understand it right, you will end up with a single unused card remaining in your hand at the end of each round -- is that right?

Yes. I haven't thought about how it would play if you had to just leave yourself whatever you had remaining. I'll have to give that a whirl.

Quote:
Also, if I understand it right, as you move through each round, you'll have a better idea as to what the players immediately to your left will be getting.

Absolutely. Sometimes, you can even do something about it. ;-)

Quote:
Any reason for capping this game at 6?

Ran out of cards. A 6-player game would use 42 cards. 7-player would use 56. It's not much more than a single deck for 7 players. If I went with 2 decks (104 cards), that would be able to support up to 9 players.

Without any rules changes, the down side to having more people is two-fold - one, the cards you play both earlier and later would be meaningless, and the math would get much more complex.

This could be alleviated by capping the number of card-plays to 4 or so. With a 4-card cap in place, one deck would be able to support 10 players, and two decks would be able to support 20 players.

On the other hand, if there were a 4-card cap in place, and you were playing a 6-player game, and you draw 5 or 6 as your targets (assuming you're player 1), that means you have no way to directly influence the values of the people you're hoping to see be the highest or lowest. You'd have to try to indirectly influence this, but the game being what it is, that'd be pretty difficult.

Quote:
I'm guessing this game would be more fun with 5 or 6 than it would be with 3 ... what number have you played it with so far?

Three and four. Well, technically, one, three and four, but my own solitaire playtests hardly count. ;-)

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Mon, 03/07/2005 - 15:37
#3
Brykovian
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Re: Game #65: Popularity Contest by theicemage

theicemage wrote:
One of the open questions from the brief playtesting we did of this was what range of values to use for the relationship card point values. 1-6 or so might make it easier to tally, yet still give the players a sense that their influence made a difference.

I forgot to comment on this. I'm thinking that the number value on the cards (and all face cards being 10) would be fine. If you do something to cut down the different values (say Ace,2,3 = 1 ... 4,5,6 = 2 ... 7,8,9 = 3 ... face cards = 5), then players would have to do a conversion before adding the points, which may just be harder than simply adding bigger numbers.

That's my opinion anyway.

-Bryk

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Mon, 03/14/2005 - 14:26
#4
Anonymous
Game #65: Popularity Contest by theicemage

Did I go to the other extreme? Not enough mechanics to make comments on? That would just be humorous. I'll find a middle ground some day. :-)

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