I sat home and plotted around with a deck of cards, and found myself with a new(?) game an hour later. Sometimes it's funny.
Here's the idea of the game and the rules. Would be fun if any of you tried it and pointed out good and bad and if the game is anything.
The idea:
There's a big financial crises, and everybody tries to get as much value as possible from all the banks and financial institutes. Clubs (in swedish "klöver", is a synonym for cash) is always worth something, but the other three suits is more risky. One of them is going to give you losses, and will the high-profiled assets (the ranked cards) give you the rocket effect you so much need?
The rules:
I've made some quick tests with 2-4 players, and I don't know if more players can play. Try for yourself!
In the middle of the table, five card is placed face down in a pentagon, star or whatever form you like. On top of each of these cards, put down four cards face up. The total cards in the banks should be 25.
Now, player A takes the rest of the deck and puts three cards between him and player B (the next in order). Card one and three will be face up, and the middle card face down. Player A then have the choice of picking ONE of the three cards, and giving the two other to player B.
When selecting a card, these aspects are to be considered:
- Any card that has the same value as one of the five bankcards (the ones on top in each bank deck), can collect the bank card. A jack picks a jack, and a five picks a five. If there are more cards in the bank area that can be picked, then pick'em. No adding of cards (Jack+2=King) cannot be done. If there's a jack below the jack you just picked, then pick it!
-Cards is good to get. Every player starts with no cards, and will get some during the game.
-Points is scored like this:
- - Clubs 1-10 are worth 1p. Ranked clubs (J-A) are worth 2p.
- - At the end, the banks will show which suit gives losses and if ranked cards are valuable. If so, the ranked cards (any suit but the loss-filled) will give 3p each. Any card in the loss-filled suit will count minus 1p.
- - Any ranked card in the loss-filled suit will not give any points, but will be thrown in "the rest". After all plus and minus-cards have been counted, the player checks "the rest" to see if there's any 3-or-more-straights (8-9-10, 3-4-5-6). For each 3-card-straight, 1p is added, for each 4-card-straight, 2p is added and so on.
- - And last, the player with most cards in "the rest" is given 1p.
So, that was the point-system. Whew.
Back to the action. If player A at the beginning of the game has put down 3-hidden-8, and the five bank decks show 3-3-J-8-10, the best option would be to pick the 3 and so collecting the two 3's in the bank. However, if the 8 in the bank is a club, it could be worth taking it. The risky player could go for the hidden and see how it matches.
Any card that a player picks and collects, gets into the players pile and will be counted at the end of the round.
As there are 25 cards in the banks at the beginning, 27 are left for play. This gives nine (9 x 3 cards) rounds of choosing. After player A has chosen his card, collect what could be collected, player B takes the two others and ALSO collects what could be collected. Then player B puts down three cards between him (or her) and player C, and the game goes on until all 27 cards has been put out.
If a bank pile/deck has no cards left but the bottom that is face down, no money or valuables are left in that bank and the options to collect cards are a bit smaller.
When the 27 cards are gone, discard all face up bank cards that are left. Turn the five face down bank cards. These will show if the ranked cards are valuable, and which suit is the loss-filled.
The suit that shows most of the five cards is the losing. If there happens to be a situation like two spades, two hearts and a diamond, the order "reverses" and the diamond is the losing suit. Elsewhere, the suit with most card is the losing. If there should be most clubs in the deck, ignore them and see what's left. If there should be three clubs, a spade and a heart, both the spade and heart gives losses. Remember, it's a financial crises.
Also, if there are two or more ranked cards, the ranked cards in the players piles will be valuable, else not.
Each player counts, scores and the game goes on to next round. In a four-player game, the player who starts will also end, and therefore, the last three card will be placed hidden-shown-hidden, to make the decision a little harder.
Scorecounting-example:
Player A has only got nine cards. Clubs 4-Q, spades 3-10-K, hearts 9-Q and diamonds 8 and 9. The bank has decided that ranked cards are valuable and that hearts is filled with losses.
The player gets:
3p for the king of spades, 2 p for a ranked club, 1 p for unranked club, and minus 1p for the 9 of hearts.
The queen of spades doesn't get any points. (It should have been 3p as a ranked card, but are terminated by its suit.)
The rest of the cards (spades 3 and 10, diamonds 8 and 9) gives a 3-card-straight and is worth 1p.
Total points: 6p.
I'm sorry for my crappy explanation, but if you find your way through it, please give it a try and tell me what you think. I will also try to respond to questions.
