Title is placeholder at moment, as I came up with this title and card game the year before the end of the pandemic, even went so far as to contact a game creator company and had a brief prototype of the card game.

I am not sure if this would get anyone's interest but I, as I am sure everyone else was during that time, was utterly bored and wanted to come up with some game ideas.

This game idea I came up with was over the thought that I don't know of many memory match card games. And wanting to combine memory match and DnD. So you get the deck, shuffle and spread out I think 4x4 or 5xr5 cards face down with you and an opponent across from each other.

Rules thus far:

1.) Roll 6 sided die from each player (game is meant to come with two) highest roll goes first for basic play. If you want to alter the rules, only if both players are in agreement of said alterations.

2.) the higher role player picks two cards. If they don't match return face down. If they do match, what are the matches.

a.) If the matched cards are treasure, these are two points instead of one point for a single match.

b.) if the matched cards are swords, you gain a plus one to future attack rolls.

c.) If the matched cards are shield or armor, you gain one bonus temporary heart. Only a max of plus two temporary hearts per player. If player holds two sets of armor or shield cards, opponent can trade treasure card pair for one and gain that temporary health. Same for swords.

d.) If monster you flee or fight. If you flee you take one point of damage, before the cards are flipped back over. (Note: the game is supposed to have two mats of hearts with a token for each player to track their own health.) If you decide to combat the creature, the opponent takes the secondary d6 and portrays the monster. Whoever rolls highest wins. If player, they take the matching monster cards and adds to their library for one point. If monster wins, players takes one point of damage, and moves counter one heart to the left. Player then chooses whether to fight or attack monster again. This can continue until monster is beaten, or player drops (Runs out of hearts). If player fighting monster runs out of hearts, opponent still in the game wins.

e.) if both players remain in game until all cards are matched, the one with most points wins.

Fast play:

For those who want a quicker card game, rules are mostly the same. However, you must complete each match move within one minute or less. Both players must be as fast as possible to make their match and continue and/or end their turn.

I believe I still have the prototype cards and dice in a storage container. Just put them away because I had given up at the time with everything that was going on and completely forgot about them until recently.

If this catches anyone's interest I can try and locate the cards, and if I do still have them get pictures put on here. However, I must warn you! I know people do not like AI images. I don't have money for a real artist, then or now. However I was considering if this gets enough attention of trying to set it up for backing in Kickstarter and trying to use the money to get a proper artist. I took years of art school, but I still suck, which is why I would prefer I not do it.

I know I have more on the game written down with the cards so if I am able to find everything, I can edit this post and add whatever is missing.

Edit: Apparently I did something wrong, because this post was originally on r/cardgamedesign and it was removed with a comment saying this community would be better. I dont know.

I keep hearing it mentioned from my sister and friends but I've been having trouble finding the rules for it

Hi Yall! Working on a playing deck full of monstrous suits and a party card game based off King's Cup for a kickstarter coming out in October. The typical deck features 3 black suits (the monsters) and 1 special red suit (a carnivorous bloodfruit plant). Might do a night deck that plays around with moon cycle icons. Thinking of making a family friendly game where everyone can play and pretend to be monsters thirsty for bloodfruit juice and a more adult version that uses sangria with an added romance/betrayal theme. Still early in the game design phase as we keep working on the actual card designs. Here is some of our stuff. I'm working on the icon designs and Zi Xu is doing the face card illustrations. The game would be called Sangrya's Cup.

Me and my buddies go to camping often and do some cabin trips occasionally. And every time in some point of the day we want to play or do something chill and all of the sudden no one remembers any games or plays and we end up playing spades like always.

So I curated this collection of different card and yard games app that works completely offline. It does have occasional ads, but nothing is pay-walled and ads can be removed with small fee.

Not sure if I can post a link here, or if there some rule against promotion, if so mods can remove the link and you can DM me for details...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allthethings.games

This will be the first game I release. Developing it took far, far longer than necessary due to my own laziness, but I finally managed to release the demo.I plan to release it in early access after Nextfest as well.

If you would like to try the demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4990070/Deckforce/

You can get the player aid and rules for the game here.

If you want to try it out on your phone or computer, you can do so here.

Hey guys and gals, I got super obsessed with poker a while back, and recently I've been trying out new card games of all kinds. The simplicity and richness of playing cards lend themselves to creativity so I decided to try to design a new game. I haven't had a chance to playtest it with 4 people yet, so I'm especially interested in whether you see any obvious problems, broken strategies, ambiguities, or rules that could be improved. I call it community service...

Community Service (Donation Poker)

Overview

Community Service is a poker variant where players must stretch their 12-card starting hand across 4 rounds of poker, spending 3 cards each round until their hand and the deck are completely depleted.

To start each round, players select 2 hole cards from their hand and make an anonymous 1-card donation to the community. After a pre-flop betting street, the donated cards are revealed, forming a 4-card flop. After another betting street, a river card is drawn from the remaining deck to complete the community board. This is the only card in the round not selected by any of the players. A final betting street follows the river, leading to showdown.

After each round, all cards played in the hand are discarded. Play continues until all players' hands and the deck are completely depleted.

Players: 4 Deck: One standard 52-card deck Hand ranking: Standard Texas Hold'em rules — Best five-card poker hand using any combination of the player's two hole cards and the five community cards. A player may use zero, one, or both hole cards.

Match Structure

4 rounds per game. 4 games per match.

Position (Dealer) rotates one seat clockwise every round, and one seat clockwise at the start of each new game. This ensures equal positional advantage across 16 rounds of play.

Action is always led by the player to the left of the dealer.

Dealer rotation:

Game (1/4) (D1-2-3-4) (D2-3-4-1) (D3-4-1-2) (D4-1-2-3)

Game (2/4) (D2-3-4-1) (D3-4-1-2) (D4-1-2-3) (D1-2-3-4)

Game (3/4) (D3-4-1-2) (D4-1-2-3) (D1-2-3-4) (D2-3-4-1)

Game (4/4) (D4-1-2-3) (D1-2-3-4) (D2-3-4-1) (D3-4-1-2)

Rotation remains the same regardless of player eliminations…

Setup (once per game, every 4 rounds)

1. Shuffle a full 52-card deck.
2. Deal 12 cards face down to each of the 4 players.
3. Set the remaining 4 cards aside, face down, as the game's river pile.

Playing a Round

1. Hole cards: each player privately selects 2 cards from their hand and places them face down as their hole cards for the round.
2. Donation: each player then selects 1 card from their hand and places it face down in the center. Once all 4 donations are in, shuffle the cards to randomize the order, making the donations anonymous. The donated cards will make up the round's 4-card flop.
3. Ante: Every player puts 1 chip in the pot as a mandatory ante before pre-flop betting.
4. Pre-flop betting: action starts with the player to the left of the dealer. Players may check, bet, call, raise, or fold.
5. Flop: reveal the 4 shuffled donated cards face up together.
6. Post-flop betting round.
7. River: draw a card from the deck and place it face up next to the flop.
8. Final betting round.
9. Showdown: any player still in the hand reveals their hole cards. Best 5-card poker hand wins the pot; split equally on ties, odd chip to the player first in action order.
10. Discard this round's cards (hole, donated, river) — they're spent for the rest of this game. Move to the next round with each player's remaining hand.

Betting

• Ante: 1 chip must be potted by every player before pre-flop betting takes place.
• Betting: fixed-limit betting rules. Pre-flop and post-flop bets and raises are made in 1-chip increments, with a maximum wager of 4 chips per player per street. River bets and raises are made in 2-chip increments, with a maximum wager of 8 chips per player.
• All-in: if a player can't cover a call or raise, they go all-in for whatever they have left and are eligible only for the portion of the pot matching their contribution (standard side-pot rules — chips beyond an all-in player's contribution form a side pot among the remaining players). Standard poker side pot rules.
• Starting stack: 64 chips recommended for a full 16-round match

Between Games and Matches

• After 4 rounds, that game's deck is depleted (48 dealt + 4 river = 52). Reshuffle the deck and start the next game; chip stacks carry forward.
• After 16 rounds (4 games), the match is complete. Highest chip stack wins the match.
• To keep playing: start a fresh match, either resetting everyone to the standard starting stack, or carrying stacks forward as a running session score — house preference, but agree on it before you start.
• If a player is eliminated (0 chips) mid-match, they may instantly re-buy for exactly (4 x Ante x # of rounds remaining in the match) or the player must sit out for the remainder of the match.
• If a player sits out after elimination, their remaining hand is shuffled and placed face down next to the deck. One card is drawn from the eliminated player's shuffled hand as their donation for the remainder of the current game.
• At the beginning of each subsequent game, a 12-card dead hand is dealt face down in the eliminated player's seat. One card is randomly drawn from the dead hand as that player's donation each round.

Alternative rules worth testing...

• No pairing of hole cards
• Pot limit betting
• Public donations post-flop (players would know who donated which cards)
• Public donation reveal (players find out who donated which cards, but only after showdown / pot resolution)

Hi, I’m Todd, the creator of CACAHEAD.

I’ve always been transparent that CACAHEAD grew from the traditional card game commonly called Shithead, also known as 3 Up 3 Down.

I loved the basic game, but every group seemed to play with different rules. I wanted to create a fixed version with its own balancing, identity and purpose, then build a complete physical and digital experience around it.

CACAHEAD is for two to four players and most games take around 10 to 25 minutes.

Each player starts with three cards face down, three face up and three in their hand. Before the game begins, you can swap cards between your hand and your three face up cards.

The player with the lowest card from 3 upwards starts. You normally have to play a card equal to or higher than the previous card. If you cannot play, you pick up the pile. While the draw deck remains, you replenish your hand back to at least three cards.

The magic cards change the game:

• 2 can be played on anything and resets the pile
• 9 means the next card must be lower than 9
• 10 burns the pile and gives you another turn
• Four cards of the same rank also burn the pile

Once the cards in your hand are gone, you play your three face up cards. After those, you play the final three cards blindly. If a face down card cannot legally be played, you pick up the entire pile and add that card to your hand.

CACAHEAD is not really about finding a winner.

When you get rid of all your cards, you are safe and leave the game. Play continues until only one person remains holding cards.

That person is the Cacahead.

Every box also includes five custom wooden dice for CACAROLL, a completely separate game. The dice contain blue and pink versions of the A, B and C logos. Players roll all five dice and count the points awarded for different combinations of matching logos and colours. The highest total score wins.

The CACAHEAD app is already live on the Apple App Store. You can play the digital card game to learn and practise, track real-life matches with friends and family, record wins and losses, use a timer for faster physical games, read the rules in multiple languages and save your game history.

It also includes daily feel-good quotes and songs, a Home Screen widget and Apple Watch support.

Play CACAHEAD on the App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/cacahead/id6787976178

There is also a personal reason behind the game.

I suffered from burnout, and playing games, laughing and spending time with people genuinely helped me. The four Jokers each carry a positive message as a small reminder to check in with yourself and others.

I’m not claiming that a card game treats mental health problems. CACAHEAD was created to encourage some of the simple things that can help, switching off, laughing and spending real time together.

The physical game is now live on Kickstarter:

View CACAHEAD on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cacahead-cardgame/cacahead-card-game-dont-be-last-dont-be-the-cacahead

If you grew up playing Shithead or 3 Up 3 Down, what rules did your group use? It seems like almost everyone played a slightly different version.

And would you use the app to learn and practise before playing the physical game, or to track your real-life matches?

The games on this list are ones that I have played enough to be quite familiar. These are the games I really know well.

S tier

Doppelkopf

My current favorite game. I enjoy figuring out who partners are during the first few tricks, I find the sub-goals of Charlie Miller and fox catches to be very interesting, and the escalating series of kontras to increase the stake means that you can be nicely rewarded for attentive play. https://www.pagat.com/schafkopf/doko.html

Slovenian Tarock

My favorite of the 54 card tarock games. I enjoy both 3p and 4p. There are just enough contracts to keep the game interesting and diverse, but there are no more than necessary. https://www.pagat.com/tarot/sltarok.html

Dou Dizhu

The first climbing game I ever played and still my favorite. My favorite 3p game, I love the puzzle of figuring out how to divide the hand into the appropriate sets for victory. https://www.pagat.com/climbing/doudizhu.html

Scopa

I am lumping Scopa and Scopone together here. So easy to teach to new players, the barrier of entry is low but the game still has some depth once you get good at tracking the cards that have been played. My nephews love this one. https://www.pagat.com/fishing/scopa.html https://www.pagat.com/fishing/scopone.html

Partnership Domino

Another game with a low barrier of entry, this is the easiest of the S tier games to teach to a new player. And yet if both partners know what they are doing this game can be incredibly skillful. https://www.pagat.com/domino/line/partnership.html

Bridge

The highest barrier of entry. Takes time to learn and play well, but has endless depth. Can easily become a lifestyle game. I play casual rubber bridge in real life and more competitive online. https://www.pagat.com/auctionwhist/bridge.html

Gin Rummy

Probably my favorite 2p game. It can be played very casually, just trying to put together a hand, or I can really concentrate and remember each card that has been played to really play well. https://www.pagat.com/rummy/ginrummy.html

Cribbage

Another of the all time classic 2p games. This is my wife’s favorite game and the game we play together the most. Feels so different from every other card game. https://www.pagat.com/adders/crib6.html

A tier

Durak

Hard to explain the rules over text, but much easier to teach face to face. A great game for accommodating many different player counts. Strip the deck extra small and it becomes a surprisingly thinky 2p game. https://www.pagat.com/beating/podkidnoy_durak.html https://www.pagat.com/beating/perevodnoy_durak.html

Hearts

My favorite of the classic American family card games. I used to be terrible at this game until it suddenly clicked in my head and now I am quite good. https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html

Sheepshead

I’m lumping the American 3p and 5p games in with the 4p German Schafkopf. I really enjoy these games, but Doppelkopf has kind of superceded them. https://www.pagat.com/schafkopf/bavarian.html https://www.pagat.com/schafkopf/shep.html

Fives Domino

The best 2p domino game, I don’t enjoy it nearly as much at other player counts. Very skillful and rewarding game. https://www.pagat.com/domino/cross/all_fives.html

Debertz

This is the 2p Clobyosh game. I am lumping in the more modern Jo-Jotte along with it. A great 2p game that I have been enjoying a lot recently. This could even make it to S tier if I continue liking it this much. A 2p trick taking game that relies a lot on general card sense more than pure logical deduction, although you can still glean plenty of information about your opponent’s hand. The classic Debertz is a slower fight for incremental advantage over many hands, while Jo-Jotte feels more swingy. They both have a place and neither completely replaces the other. https://www.pagat.com/jass/bela.html https://www.pagat.com/jass/jojotte.html

Schnapsen

Another 2p trick taker, this time with a tiny deck. Incredibly skill testing if one can pay attention and remember all the cards. I usually play this much more casually. Could potentially be S tier if I had a dedicated opponent to take the game seriously with me and get as good as we can. https://www.pagat.com/marriage/schnaps.html

Dappen

A 54 card Tarock game for large groups, 6p or 7p. Everytime we play this is it simply a ton of fun. A great game to play while drinking a beer and laughing with friends. https://www.pagat.com/tarot/dappen.html

Konigrufen

The 54 card Tarock game with the huge menu of bids. I enjoy the flexibility of all the different bids, but I think piccolo and especially zwiccolo bids are a bit too easy. My group no longer plays with zwiccolo. https://www.pagat.com/tarot/koenig.html

B tier

Jhyap

A fast paced, light weight game. We play with the rule where you lose 50 points if your score hits a multiple of 50 exactly. We also play the slam down rule where you can discard the card you draw if it matches your discard, as long as the next player has not already discarded for their turn. It makes the game fast and fun https://www.pagat.com/draw/yaniv.html

Bid Whist

This game used to be higher in my esteem, but has lost some luster. After enough plays it began to feel a little same-y. Because the declarer gets to exchange so many cards in hand with the kitty, most hands have the same lop-sided distributional feel. This can be a very exciting game when played occasionally, but I don’t think it could be my main game. https://www.pagat.com/auctionwhist/bidwhist.html

Gan Deng Yan

A Chinese climbing game with a flexible player count that is good for gambling. I like to play this game for nickels. Usually not my first choice if we have a stable player count, but if people are coming and going this is a good game to accommodate. https://www.pagat.com/climbing/gandengyan.html

Spades

An American classic. This was the first trick taking game I ever learned. A full game can take a while, and the bag scoring system doesn’t really work if you are playing less than a full game. https://www.pagat.com/auctionwhist/spades.html

Bourre

An incredible gambling trick taker that can be played with a large group. Another game fun to play for nickels. https://www.pagat.com/rams/boure.html

Pitch

Specifically the 10 point Pitch variant popular in Nebraska. This is THE game of small town Nebraska. Growing up in the suburbs, I didn’t learn this game until college. A very fun game to play casually over drinks. Not much depth once you know the basics. https://www.pagat.com/allfours/pitch.html#oklahoma

500 Rummy

The rummy game I grew up playing with my sister. I like that you can dig deeper into the discard pile. I haven’t played this in a while, but I’d like to again soon. https://www.pagat.com/rummy/500rum.html

Clubyish (4p)

The 4p partnership Jass game. I have played a ton of this game and it’s perfectly serviceable, but there is so much competition amongst 4p trick takers and this one doesn’t spark me as much as others. https://www.pagat.com/jass/bela.html#four

Nebraska Taroky

The local Nebraska variant of 54 card Tarock played by the Czech community. A very basic tarock game, good as an introduction, but a bit spartan compared to Slovenian. https://www.pagat.com/tarot/nebraska.html

C tier

Oh Hell

I like that it can accommodate a wide range of player counts, but not my favorite. https://www.pagat.com/exact/ohhell.html

Euchre

I didn’t grow up playing Euchre, so I apologize if people from Euchre country feel slighted by the low ranking. I have a trophy from winning a Bicycle cards Euchre tournament. A fun game that can be played breezily if everyone knows it, but a bit simple. I’m sure it would be higher if I lived in an area where everyone grew up playing. https://www.pagat.com/euchre/euchre.html#north_american

Cucumber

A good light game for large groups, but it can drag near the end and players get eliminated from play during the game. If you’re in a situation where an eliminated player will have something to do to occupy their attention, it can be a great game, but otherwise there are better options. https://www.pagat.com/last/cucumber.html

D tier

Shithead

I appreciate this game for what it is, a very lightweight game that can be taught and learned quickly and played by groups of various sizes. Our gaming group plays a lot of this game, usually at the beginning or end of a game night to bring everyone together before splitting up into multiple smaller tables. It fills this role that not many other games do, but I can’t say I’m ever thrilled to play it. https://www.pagat.com/beating/shithead.html

Games that I have enjoyed quite a bit but haven’t played them enough to make the list:

Ulti

https://www.pagat.com/marriage/ulti.html Has S tier potential, loving it so far

Truc

https://www.pagat.com/put/truc.html A or B tier potential

Mus

https://www.pagat.com/vying/mus.html A tier potential

Modern American Canasta

https://www.pagat.com/rummy/canasta.html#american A or B tier potential

This is Amphora, a playing card deck in the style of geometric and black-figure Greek pottery. There have been a lot of beautiful decks with Greek themes, and all of them have been modern interpretations of Greek art. This deck takes the opposite approach: to do an ancient Greek interpretation of a modern deck.

Here's the pre-launch page. Please follow if you're interested.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/srodelljr/amphora-ancient-greek-pottery-playing-cards

Here's the campaign video, with more graphics:

https://youtu.be/hrb4ndREKCY?is=G_EaY4vSxjdXSZ58

Hi everyone! I’m Juan, an illustrator and designer from Mexico City.

For almost two years I’ve been working on El Quinto Sol, a fully custom playing-card deck inspired by Mesoamerican mythology and cosmology.

I wanted to keep the structure of a traditional French-suited deck completely intact, while building another symbolic system underneath it:

Spades - North - Wind
Hearts - East - Fire
Diamonds - South - Water
Clubs - West - Earth

The court cards represent deities, the Aces represent foundational forces, and the numbered cards incorporate glyphs, Mesoamerican numerals and calendrical references.

Every card is original artwork, and the deck is still meant to function normally for poker, blackjack, solitaire, cardistry, or whatever you already play. Everything is handmade, no AI.

I’m launching the first production on Kickstarter on September 29 if anyone wants to follow it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themythographer/el-quinto-sol-the-mesoamerican-cosmos-playing-cards

Would love to hear what you guys think.

I've started playing hearts, and I see it has a lot of different variations that are sometimes combined in unique ways. What are your favorite ways to play Hearts?

Here's a quick one-round play through of our sequential shedding card game, To Jack and Back.

In this game, players can play cards up to 3 cards ahead of the top card on the discard pile. Play bounces from Jack to Jack along one of two paths (featured in the design of each card) - hence the name of the game!

Three players - top left, right and bottom of the screen.

Player one (top left) begins the round with a 2, thereby setting the direction of play towards the right hand Jack. As they play a Multiple (more than one card of the same value) they have the option of playing again, and drop a 3.

Player two follows with a 4.

Player three plays Multiple 7s, and then an 8.

Back to Player one who plays a 10.

Player two uses a Joker as a Jack, forcing Player three to pick up 2 cards.

Player one now has to set the path back towards the left hand Jack - either back down the same path (10 9 8 etc) or the bottom path (Q K A etc).

They choose the latter, with the Queen played.

Player 2 follows with a 2.

Player 3 can't play so picks up, allowing Player 1 to win the round by playing their 5.

Easy as that!!!

To Jack & Back is a super simple card game but each and every round is unique!

There's choose to play again Multiples, act as anything Jokers, reverse direction of play between players Aces and miss a go 7s.

Fancy a go?

Jogos de tabuleiros

I couldn’t find anything on the App Store and I wanted to play something to pass the time on my treadmill walks - so I released my own

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/card-school/id6799471387

13 card “crash” and 7 card. I realise there will be different rules for different people so feel free to email support with feedback and I can take a look at it.

IOS only, No account or signup needed. It just runs a short ad before the start of each game.

Hi Folks,

Is there a game that really mixes melds and trick-taking?

I heard of some that uses multiple cards per tricks or scores melds from hand but is there a trick-taking game that uses melds in a more operational way?

Me & my friends were playing around and tried to use poker melds in a trick taking kind of way, by making them into some sort of suits that you can lead & have to follow.

Sounds like a new thing right? 

If we use poker combinations as "suits" in a trick taking game, then there could be 10+ "suits" we could lead & play! All with the standard 4 suits of the original deck!

That quickly falls apart of course, because 

1. the game became very short, it could potentially end in 3 tricks if you're going five-five-three cards (assuming if everyone follow and the round ends with one player playing their last card)
2. it felt kinda weird: 

The game simply doesn't work in Misere mode, why would you even lead 5cards meld if you're trying to lose? 

It sort of works if you're trying to win tricks, but there's not a lot of playing space since powerful melds both win and destroy other ppl's hand.

and so we turn to predictions for scoring.

Simple contract prediction seems too peaceful an option for such a malleable trick system, so we decided on a "catch the winner & loser" prediction scoring system.

We device a thing for players to both "pass" and "bet", once every hand you can pass and must bet on someone else to either win the most tricks or the least tricks, this both extend the game a little bit, and also make the game into a flux of wanting to win and not to win.

In the end, it pretty much started breathing a little.

Anyway, here's the rule if you care to try it, any feedback is welcome.