Sunday 8 February 2015

Card Game: Lux

This is a card game that I thought of quite a while ago, when my friends and I were bored and had nothing to do. We played it as a 3-player game last time but I think it's better with 4 players.

What you need: a deck of poker cards.

Players: 3-6 players, but 4 is, in my opinion, the optimal number.

How to play:
Firstly, distribute the cards equally to players' hand. In this case, a player will have 13 cards on their hands. The game is divided into rounds and each round is divided into turns.


For every round:
1. Each player will put 5 cards from their hand face-down in front of them. These are set cards.
2. For every turn, all players must choose a cards from his/her set cards to be flipped face-up simultaneously and be revealed to all players.
3. After all the players flipped their chosen cards, a player can declare an attack. An attack can be declared by choosing another player to attack. When an attack is declared, the attacking and attacked players must reveal all of their set cards and count their card points. The player with higher card points wins the round, and he gets a score equals the number of set cards he has face-down before the attack. Then, all set cards will be placed in the middle face-down as a deck. Note that a player cannot declare an attack if his/her revealed cards has the lowest attack points. Description of card points can be found below.
4. In the event that no attack has been declared before the last set cards are revealed, for the next turn all player reveal their last set cards, and the player with the lowest card points wins the round. When a player wins this way, he/she gets 5 score. End the round.
5. Start a new round with new set cards from the players' remaining hand cards. Note that for this example, after the second round the players will only have 3 cards in their hands. In this case, they cannot have another round and will have to end the game. The player with the most score wins.

Note:
1. Card Points: there are a number of ways the card points can be counted.  Royale: the cards' face value are their card points, meaning the cards 2-10 will have card points equal to the number on the cards, while Jack have 11 attack points, Queen with 12, King with 13 and Ace with 14. Stratege: the cards 2-10 and Jack have 1 card point, Queen with 2, King with 3 and Ace with 4.
2. In the event that an attack is declared, and it turned out that the card points are equal, the all players not participating in the attack get 1 score. The same applies for a draw during the final turn, with two players having lowest card points.
2. Number of set cards for each round can be changed depending on the number of players. A game of 4 players can also be done with 3 rounds of 4 set cards instead of 2 rounds of 5. In this case, the score that a player will get when he/she wins at the final turn (with lowest attack points) gets a score equal to the number of set cards, in this case 4 instead of 5. You can also play with two decks of poker cards instead of one to lengthen the game, having more rounds in each.
3. I was thinking of having the remaining cards (the three unused cards) to be discarded at the start of the game instead of at the end. These discarded cards can be seen by all players, and serve to give information as to what cards will not be played, although it is an advantage only for those who take the game seriously.

This game is mainly about bluffs, and a bit of luck. You can try to lure your enemies into attacking by having one or two small cards to be revealed while have other cards to be strong ones like King and Queen.You can also put all your strong cards as set cards for the first round, and risk losing the second one (not to mention you may be lured as well). You can have moderate cards like 8 and 9 revealed, with other small cards so that when the final set card is revealed, you get the most score that one can get in a round. Or you may be unlucky to have all small cards, but no one attacks you as they think you are luring them, and raise victorious instead. How well do you think you know your friends/enemies? Could you outsmart them?

That's the gist of the game. Any feedback is appreciated.


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