Hello,
I'm trying to find existing card games to reference that have no restrictions on how many cards a player can play each turn, instead having natural reasons players wouldn't want to play everything every turn.
I'm looking for non-deck builders specifically.
I'd greatly appreciate any recommendations.
Thank you!
That's fairly vague..
Depends in part on what you mean by "card game", "play a card", and "deck builder". I mean, I have a card game in development that's one-on-one in the style of M:tG, but it isn't a deck builder. It would fall into your list (see my blog entries). But in my game you can't play many cards because they require a resource, and that's limited. So maybe by "deck-builder" that's what you're referring to.
Exploding Kittens. There you go :) Play as much as you want each turn, no restrictions, no resources.
You absolutely hold cards back, waiting for a good time to play them.
But you can't reference to it.
All I can do is describe it to you.
Players may hold up to 7 cards.
To play a card, an equal or higher cost should be paid by sacrificing another card.
It is possible to play 6 cards this way.
And thus emptying the entire hand.
Cards can be played any time. Depending on the situation, which one is best. Sometimes, simply to make a victory, more absolute. Example: Saving 12 soldiers instead of just 4 is a big difference.
An alternate version is to have no limit on the amount of cards that a player may hold. But this leads to down time due to players thinking too much.
In an early iteration of my "Scavengers" card game, my intention was to allow players to play as many cards as possible or at least as many as they wanted, up until they exhausted their hand of cards. Through playtesting, I realized that with the addition of so many "play +1 card" and "draw 1 card" bonuses to the cards in the game, it wasn't so much about scoring points at specific times, as it was about how to optimally arrange how you played the cards in your hand as time went on.
Also, I reiterate X3M's concerns about player down-time, not just because they'll want to optimally play the cards in their hand, but also because whenever a player draws an additional card, they potentially have another option to consider.
Of course, playtesting will bear this out. I suggest you put your game together as quickly as possible and do something with the prototype ASAP, even a solo playtest. You'll definitely make some useful observations.
Evolution:The Beginning has a system like the one you describe.You often want to save your cards for later turns when you need them,but you still wish you had more cards on other turns.
My contribution here would be Bloody Inn, a unique engine builder. The cards themselves are resources since you are bribing people (putting them into your hand to make them assistants), and discarding the amount required to play a separate card (using your assistants and letting them go).
The natural reason you don't want to play everything is because the cards serve multiple purposes, and you are able to take two of four actions that use the cards. Depending on the action, you can take back a discarded card used if its "specialty" was that action. Or, you simply save the card(s) for later use.
My other suggestion is Star Realms, but you said you weren't interested in deck builders.
Also, you didn't mention a hand limit so I am assuming games with hand limits are fair game for recommendations.
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Thanks Jay,
I've left the request vague as Im not looking for specific types of gameplay, but perhaps it was too vague.
I'm searching for any card game that has no resource system and no limit to how many cards you can play in your turn. Ideally with mechanics that discourage but don't prevent players from playing any or all of their cards during their turn.
I mentioned deck builders specifically because most that I've played allow you to play your entire hand every turn and there's little reason not to. They have the deck building aspect as a virtual resource ramp up.
I'll take a look at exploding kittens. Do you ever find holding cards back in that game to be valuable? Or do you usually play your entire hand each turn?