My actual Project, I think.

Ok, time to get this off the ground for real.

Since someone did my first choice of project, poker, last year I am going to attempt to combine at least one other non-poker game with poker. I will probably use a fair bit of last years design: Poker Simulator Design Log by Elliot Fisher. The first game I shall try to integrate will be 'Kings and Bastards'. You may know this be another name as there are many variations. It is quite different to poker, as it is a card shedding game rather than a bidding and pattern matching game. Should this prove overly simply (can't see that being the case, but you never know) I will add another game to the mix, possibly Gin Rummy. I also intend to feature wildcards, including jokers, just as soon as I can adequately fix the joker problem.

Kings & Bastards

Objective:

Dispose of all of one's cards as soon as possible and gain the title of King.

This game is for 4-6 players, using a single deck. For higher numbers of players, extra decks are added as appropriate. I am not likely to implement that feature though.

Deck:

The deck ranks like this: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,Jack,Queen,King and Ace is the highest card. The 2 card is a trump card. It plays as a single card and trumps (wins) any trick/play that has not already been trumped. It trumps single cards and sets alike. The joker functions as a single wildcard and can represent any card except the 2. It can not represent a whole set of cards, but can play as a single card in a set. Suits have no effect in this version.

Sets:

Cards can be played in singles, pairs, triples and quads. Any single/set can only be beaten by a another single/set of higher rank and the same quantity of cards. For example: a single 7 beats a single 6, but cannot be played on a pair of 6's. Similarly, triple Kings cannot be played on a pair of 4s' but beats a triple of Jacks.

Basics of Play:

For the first round a dealer is chosen and that player deals out all the cards in a clockwise direction, one at a time, starting on their left. Some players may end up with 1 less card than others, this isn't a huge problem in this game.

The player with the 3 of clubs begins with this card as a single or part of a set, placing this card/set on the table to begin the trick. Play proceeds in a clockwise direction, each player attempts to beat the last played card/set with one of a higher value (never equal) or they can choose to trump with a 2 and immediately win that trick. If a player either cannot play a card/set or chooses to skip that turn (eg: to hang onto a set or trump) then they 'pass' and do not play again until their turn comes back around.

If no other players can beat a trick/play then the player who played the last cards in the trick (ie the cards that cannot be beaten) wins that trick and starts the next one. If that player has disposed of all their cards then the next player to their left starts the next trick.

Victory:

The first player to dispose of all their cards wins the title of King and the round. They now wait out of play until all the other players dispose of their cards. The last player left gains the title of Bastard and becomes the dealer for the next round. At the start of each subsequent round the Bastard must exchange their two highest ranked cards with any two cards of the King's choice from the King's hand, before play begins.

The game has no specific end point, the rounds can be repeated as many times as desired. I will implement a scoring mechanism to record a player's number of rounds as King, but I will not add any particular limit to the number of rounds, that is something the actual players should agree on.

Coming soon to this location: Poker rules, when I get to writing them.