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Abstract card game : Chain-Chain

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ichbin
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Joined: 09/21/2010

Here is an abstract card game. Is it a new mechanic? I do not know.
I hope to have some feedback.
Thank you for any comment.

Game : Chain-Chain

Category : Abstract strategy
Age : 10 and up
Playing time : 15-20 minutes
Number of players : 4-5
Mechanic : Numbers, Discard

Components :

5 players : Deck of 90 cards : 10 sets of cards numbered from 1 to 9
4 players : Deck of 72 cards : 8 sets of cards numbered from 1 to 9

Goal of the game : the winner is the one who collect less cards at the end of the game

Rules of the game

The first dealer is chosen randomly.
The dealer shuffle the deck
Each player is dealt 8 cards face down one at time
The remainder of the deck is placed face down to form the stock pile
Player in turn play two cards face up showing the first card to others and placing the second over the first.
It is mandatory for players to play their first card having the same value of the second card played previously. If the following player can not play the same value then he will have to take all the piled cards and start his turn.

Example : If player A play card 1 as the first card and 6 as the second the player who follows him have to play 6 as his first card.

If a player have 2 cards with the same value as the second card previuosly played then the rotation turn change to the opposite currently in place.

Each time a player play 2 cards he has to refresh his hand by drawing 2 cards form the stock pile.

To be more clear I'm going to give an exemple
John, Tracy, Paul, Helen and Jim (clockwise turn)

John play first :

2 and 5

Tracy play

5 and 6

Paul play

6 and 9

Helen have no 9 to play so Helen have to take all the cards (2-5-5-6-6-9)

Helen play

1 and 8

Jim play

8 and 8 the rotation turn will now change

It is up to Helen to play not to John

Helen play

6 and 7

Paul play

7 and 3

Tracy has no 3 so Tracy take all the cards (1-8-8-8-6-7-7-3)

Tracy play

4 and 6

It is up to John to play and so on

End of the game

The game continue until there is no card to draw from the stock pile and all the players have played all their hands.
If the last player have 2 cards of the same value of the second card played previously then the player before him has to take all the piled cards.
If the last player can play a card having the same value of the previous second card then all the cards piled are accounted out of the game. No one will take those cards.

When the game ends the player who have less cards win the game. If 2 players or more are tied then we count the sum of the cards the one with less value is the winner.

drktron
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Joined: 07/18/2010
chain chain

seems like uno with 2 card plays and an automatic replenish to your hand. The penalty for not being able to play a card is nice and harsh, i like it. You may need to make the benefit of playing 2 of the same card better. i like the change in direction of play but maybe you could add an extra card play or extra turn.

ichbin
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Joined: 09/21/2010
Word chain-chain

I will post soon the same game but using letters.
Instead of playing the same value you play a word starting from on letter and finishing with another. The first letter have to be vowel or consonant : vowel if the second previous card is vowel and consonant if the second previous card is consonant.
Example :
Player 1 play C and D and spell the word CARD
Player 2 have to play his first letter as consonant : F and G for example spelling the word FORCING or F and E (FREE)
Player 3 have to any vowel as first letter for example A and M (ARM)
and so on
To reverse the rotation turn you have to play a reverse of the previous player :
If player 1 play D and K (DECK) and player 2 play K and D (KIND) then he reverses the rotation turn.
Or
If player 1 play C and E (CLUE) and player 2 play E and C (ELECTRIC) then he reverses the rotation turn.
I'm working on the distribution of the letters (80 letters maybe more).

ichbin
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Joined: 09/21/2010
Mistake

Sorry I did mistake cause I was working on another game.
90 cards (10 sets 1-9) for 5 players and 72 cards (8 sets 1-9) for 4 players.

ichbin
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Joined: 09/21/2010
Benefit ....

drktron wrote:
seems like uno with 2 card plays and an automatic replenish to your hand. The penalty for not being able to play a card is nice and harsh, i like it. You may need to make the benefit of playing 2 of the same card better. i like the change in direction of play but maybe you could add an extra card play or extra turn.

In fact the benefit of playing 2 of the same card is that the player (keep in mind that the game is 4 or 5 game players) have big chance not to take all cards by changing the rotation turn. I did not compute with high precision the probability that such event occurs.
If you add another rule it is going to complicate the game.

rcjames14
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Joined: 09/17/2010
Two Games Here

You have a number game... which sounds like a cross between Bullshit and Uno to me. But, the bluffing of bullshit has turned into guessing what your opponent has in his hand and playing a number he doesn't have, like Uno. But, in order for this to be an interesting game, there will have to be a way to control what's in your hand so as to have an answer to what the opponent plays. My suggestion to that effect is to make each card you collect worth it's face value. So, it's not the total number of cards you collect that matters but the value on them. You could end up with lots of 1s and 2s and still beat someone with just a few 8s and 9s in the end. I think that this will do two strategically interesting things:

1. You might voluntarily take a pile rather than play a card, even if you can. Depending upon the cost of taking the pile, it might be worth it. I'm not sure. But that is always a possibility.

2. The end value of a card will feedback into its play value. Players will have a tendency to collect high numbers in their hand to protect themselves from having to collect a pile with a high number. And, so you would be able to anticipate what other people have.

Otherwise, I fear that the game is complete chance. Do you have the number you need or not? And how on earth would I guess what you don't have? I think you want to avoid this.

I'm also concerned about the reverse dynamic. It actually seems to me that you would never want to do it even if you could. The reason for that is that the odds of having 3 of the same card is much greater than 2 of the same card. So, you would be signalling to everyone else by playing 2 cards of the same number that you don't have that number. It would be far more prudent to just pass the buck forward and save your second matching card as protection in case it comes back to you. I mean, it doesn't really matter if the person in front of you or the person behind you takes the pile, just as long as you don't. So, why give away information about what you don't have. I see the game having one optimal strategy... hold as much variety as you can. Always play a duplicate. Never reverse.

I feel like this game needs another dimension. I mean, Uno (Crazy Eights) requires you to play 1 card (rather than two), but that card has two identities: number and color. It can thus slide the state of the system to a new color or number. But, this game only has 1 dimension... so it doesn't give you very much novelty. What if you approached the game as Uno, but rather than liquidate, you collect the piles. But, you would only play one card per turn and there is some other dimension (or multiple dimensions) which would allow cards to simultaneously link to the previous card and change the environment for the next card.

The second game is a word game. If it were structured like the first game... where you closely construct words along a chain, then it would look a lot like a party game called 'ghost'. But, as you have described it, I cannot think of a game that it is similar to. I also cannot think of any reason why it is strategic. I believe that the english language has a word that begins and ends with every combination of two letters. If it does, or if it doesn't, it seems like all you would need to do to prove that you made a valid play is memorize the 26^2 words that you need. Then the game seems like either it would never end or, if that combinatory matrix is not complete, it would be completely an issue of chance.

ichbin
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Joined: 09/21/2010
Rules are not yet ready

First thank you for all your comments. I appreciate your way of analyzing games.

Rules of the second game (Word Chain Chain) are not yet ready.
I plan to use a timer. Maybe I will set a hard rule such as the first player have for each 2 letters played to spell one word the second 2 words the third 3 words and so on (the timer will follow the same scenario 1 unit, 2 units,3 units and so on...). Plus other ideas.
I'm trying to find some statistics about the starting and the ending letters in English. I have more details for the French language (statistics about the starting letters).
With regard to the fisrt game my intent was to create a game where burning the brain is not the first purpose.
I will wait for an answer after playtesting.

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