Hi guys!
I've been working on a new card game inspired by what I feel is the origin of poker card deck, and that is a medieval political simulator with suits representing the classes of feudal society. Just like Chess is a 2-player "battle simulator", imo the earliest card games were multi-player representations of medieval politics.
Anyways, I've got a whole new deck which still retains the four suits/classes and well-tested rules which combine bidding and trick taking in a pretty novel way. My playtesters seem to like it a lot and I'm building the final prototype to send off to the publishers.
The only thing I'm missing is a catchy name...
Since the goal of the game is to win the most support from all the classes/suits I thought up a story: The old governer of a province is dead and the king cannot decide on the replacement. So he sends the candidates (players) to see who can whip up the most support from the local populace.
I've got just 2 ideas with any ring to it so far... "Dauphin" (french for "heir apparent to the throne" and "Seneschal" (also french for "royal governer of a province)... But both do tend to evoke "a what?" reaction from the players...
Any idea of a nifty name? I'm stuck here!
need a name for a medieval themed card game
Not sure if you want to keep a French flavor in your game, but here we go:
Prince-Elect
Royal Claimant
Royal Tricks
Royal Bids
Prince-a-pull
Pulling Heirs
Four Feudal Francs
Dauphinal Four
Seneschallengers
Last Man Grandstanding
For the People, Buy the People
Support Your Local Heir
The French Prince of Belle L'ère
Mes Amis, Viceroy
Keeping with the French theme, what about "Apres moi, le Deluge" or "Apres le Deluge." Those kind of leapt to mind, I think they're mainstream enough that people would have an idea about what they mean. I like their connotation of chaos and struggle too, but in a Frenchy/politcal context.
Sticking with French, what about "Let them eat cake"? Maybe not closely enough related to the theme.
Since you're dealing with themes of court intrigue, influence, political opinion, maybe have court in the name:
Courtiers and Curtesies
Cutting Courtiers
Courting Disaster...
Sorry none of these are shipshape, but I hope they help.
AndyGB
I like shorter names. How about:
Successor
Regent
Something along those lines.
I tend to like short straight to the point names as well
Tributary - as in flowing support
Tribulation - as in arduous trial
My Lord! - very catchy if you link it to an in game action and drop the theme to a regional level
Courting Sovereigns - which would cover the bidding mechanic and two potential kings duking it out. You could also theme the cards with sovereigns for the pips and define the suits with juicy imagery instead of stock symbols.
Its a nice play on words - potential rulers attracting support / bidding money to acquire financial clout and influence
The cards could feature a stack of coins in the upper right of the cards - to permit viewing in a fan spread. Court cards if you have them, could be shown with icons that depict greater treasures like coin chests, seals of office or corwns.
The card imagery would depict the rank of a subject - peasant and up. If your deck matches a standard deck then you could whip up a nice looking game with 13 images per suit.
By featuring characters for all the cards you would boost the theme and you could open up other game avenues by giving each character type an ability that affects the game in some way. It could be that the scoring of the tricks attracts bonuses for certain groupings that work together to boost support.
If the game features trumps then you could add in extra cards for situations - like a flood card. These cards would grant certain characters increased value. A flood card would make peasants more valuable since they would be required to build dams. The situation cards could also be linked to the suits - a flood occurs in the heart lands, boosting the value of the heart suit peasants and so on.
Alternatively the characters could relate differently to each other. A low value card could beat a specific higher card. The tax collector can take down a lord due to bad debt and so on.
Without knowing the mechanics I cant be any more helpful .. sorry :(
For the People!
Feudal Favorite
I'm reasonably sure that a publisher would want to add a theme to the game. So I think you should consider boosting the theme a bit. If its not impolite of me to reiterate the suggestion.
If its simply a historical exercise to create a game which better represents a classical example of card playing then a theme wont really matter - and may in itself detract from the success of the enterprise.
However, if it is to be a commercial product then a theme is important. A good theme pulls players into the game and the central mechanic(s).
More importantly, from a sales perspective, a nice looking game that catches the eye has a far greater chance of attracting a customers buying interest than something with a more 'vanilla' appearance.
You dont have to actually comission artwork for the game either. Simply describing it would be enough for a submission to a publisher. Most publishers would want to use their own artwork anyway (to enable them to legally protect the appearance of the product).
If you only need to illustrate 10 number cards and some jokers the art requirements would be minimal and it would seem a shame to dismiss it.
Personally I would also go for some thematic scoring artwork or game pieces. Whether its coins or wooden crowns for anything that requires a currency transfer - or simply an attractive scoring track for each player with wooden crown marker counters.
Gamers play with their hearts, minds and hands but it is not unkown for gamers to buy with their eyes - because attractive eye candy sells.
Thanks guys! Some very interesting ideas to roll around in my head..
Nope, the french name or theme is not really neccesary, although when thinking of "high middle-ages" its France in 1300-1400 that immediately springs to my mind...
As for the action cards and stuff, the game really doesn't have any. Instead it has numerical values and four jokers/aces in their respective suits. I was gong for "themed abstract" approach to this game... just like the ancient classics such as Chess, Go and Mancala go for. Maybe the closest designer game to what I have now is Garifield's Great Dalmuti. My goal was to create a card game which is more a "card game" in what i feel was their original form than the ones played with poker cards nowadays.
I might add extra cards in an expansion though... There are ancient games using full tarot deck so there is enough room for 20 something super-unique cards later on.