112 - Dragon Poker
May. 7th, 2015 06:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captain_slinkyWe've been reading Robert Aspirin's Myth Adventures series as our bedtime stories every night and REALLY enjoying it, I'm amazed at how much of the intricate details of the story Molly is picking up on! We are officially on the last book of the series I read as a kid ("M.Y.T.H. Inc In Action") and I'm looking forward to reading the second half of the series :)
...But that's not what this post is about. It's about making a game, because that's apparently one of the only two things my brain can think about.
In the books, everyone plays a game called "Dragon Poker". It's a lot like Texas Holdem Poker, only with the addition of four new cards (Ogres, Elves, Unicorns and Dragons) and you get a total of six cards instead of just five. But what REALLY makes the game different is the encyclopedic volumes of rules involved - rules that are constantly mutating and contradicting each other. The game is not so much about having the best hand, as being able to cite enough obscure rules to make your hand better than your opponents. You may have what looks like a hand full of garbage cards, but when you consider that on Tuesdays all threes are counted as sevens and that if you're facing North then all sevens count as Ogres as long as you have at least two other Ogres in your hand, and since your opponent won the last two hands all your twos, nines and Ogres count as DRAGONS, you suddenly find yourself sitting pretty with Full Dragon - Six Dragons, one of the best possible hands!
...Unfortunately, your opponent may then remind you that there are three people wearing blue jeans at the table, which activates the Mario Rule - all threes no longer exist.
This leads to arguments of timing, does the Mario Rule or the Tuesday Rule have authority here?
Time to consult more rules!
As far as I can tell, there has never been an official release of a Dragon Poker game, mainly because the author of the books never meant for it to be a REAL game - it was just a plot device to set up a satire of the professional gambling world. Fans have come up with a few unofficial versions of the game, all using a standard deck of cards and some rules derived from the dozen-or-so that were quoted in the book, none really capture the spirit of the game though.
And so I have come up with an idea for how to make it work! It's basically a cross between Texas Holdem Poker, and Fluxx. And I'll need your help/input to get it done, in three ways:
So here's how it would work.
Two decks; "The Deck" and "Rule Book".
"The Deck" consists 70 cards - all the standard cards of a 52-card deck, ace through king, plus four new cards (Elves, Ogres, Unicorns and Dragons) in four suits (Clubs, Swords, Hearts and Gems), and two Jokers.
"The Rule Book" is 60 cards, each with a different rule.
It plays like Texas Holdem Poker with some minor differences, and a new "Rule Book" card is introduced along with each new round of bidding, so there will be six rules in play by the time a winner of the first hand is decided. The winner then chooses to remove three of the rules in play before the next hand starts, so that by the end of the second hand there will be *nine* rules in play. Fourth hand will have 12 rules, fifth will have 15, sixth will have 18, and so on and so forth. All discarded rules get shuffled back in to the deck after each hand.
Game ends when either one person has all the money, or all the rules have been played.
...But that's not what this post is about. It's about making a game, because that's apparently one of the only two things my brain can think about.
In the books, everyone plays a game called "Dragon Poker". It's a lot like Texas Holdem Poker, only with the addition of four new cards (Ogres, Elves, Unicorns and Dragons) and you get a total of six cards instead of just five. But what REALLY makes the game different is the encyclopedic volumes of rules involved - rules that are constantly mutating and contradicting each other. The game is not so much about having the best hand, as being able to cite enough obscure rules to make your hand better than your opponents. You may have what looks like a hand full of garbage cards, but when you consider that on Tuesdays all threes are counted as sevens and that if you're facing North then all sevens count as Ogres as long as you have at least two other Ogres in your hand, and since your opponent won the last two hands all your twos, nines and Ogres count as DRAGONS, you suddenly find yourself sitting pretty with Full Dragon - Six Dragons, one of the best possible hands!
...Unfortunately, your opponent may then remind you that there are three people wearing blue jeans at the table, which activates the Mario Rule - all threes no longer exist.
This leads to arguments of timing, does the Mario Rule or the Tuesday Rule have authority here?
Time to consult more rules!
As far as I can tell, there has never been an official release of a Dragon Poker game, mainly because the author of the books never meant for it to be a REAL game - it was just a plot device to set up a satire of the professional gambling world. Fans have come up with a few unofficial versions of the game, all using a standard deck of cards and some rules derived from the dozen-or-so that were quoted in the book, none really capture the spirit of the game though.
And so I have come up with an idea for how to make it work! It's basically a cross between Texas Holdem Poker, and Fluxx. And I'll need your help/input to get it done, in three ways:
- Tell me if you've ever played a game like this or heard of a game like this or figure somebody must have already done this before - I *think* this is an original idea cobbled together from other games, but is it *too similar* to other games out there?
- Help me come up with a new name for it, because I need to distance it from the original inspiration. Also, c'mon... name like Dragon Poker? That HAS to be copyrighted and trademarked somewhere!
- Help me come up with random rules. Going to need about 60 of them with colorful names such as "Gender Bender" (if there are more men at the table than women, then all queens count as kings; if there are more Women than men at the table, then all kings count as queens. If there are equal amounts, then all Jacks count as Unicorns).
So here's how it would work.
Two decks; "The Deck" and "Rule Book".
"The Deck" consists 70 cards - all the standard cards of a 52-card deck, ace through king, plus four new cards (Elves, Ogres, Unicorns and Dragons) in four suits (Clubs, Swords, Hearts and Gems), and two Jokers.
"The Rule Book" is 60 cards, each with a different rule.
It plays like Texas Holdem Poker with some minor differences, and a new "Rule Book" card is introduced along with each new round of bidding, so there will be six rules in play by the time a winner of the first hand is decided. The winner then chooses to remove three of the rules in play before the next hand starts, so that by the end of the second hand there will be *nine* rules in play. Fourth hand will have 12 rules, fifth will have 15, sixth will have 18, and so on and so forth. All discarded rules get shuffled back in to the deck after each hand.
Game ends when either one person has all the money, or all the rules have been played.
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Date: 2015-05-07 02:43 pm (UTC)Any word on the Disney reccs?
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Date: 2015-05-07 02:54 pm (UTC)Yeah, gotta hold off! Meanwhile, you saw my advice re: best price on hotel rooms right? Go ahead and do that, as well as getting your flight. I strongly suggest The Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn (http://www.anaheiminn.com/), make sure you get the right one at 1630 S. Harbor Boulevard and request a first-floor room number 170 or higher - these are the absolute closest to the park, and those extra few footsteps can really make all the difference :)
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Date: 2015-05-09 10:49 pm (UTC)