Playing card duel (game rules)
This is a game which is played with playing cards. It’s game-play is similar to the Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters card game’s game-play. The rules are invented by me, but I was unable to name to it so far. I appreciate your ideas.
Equipment
Two decks of playing cards (110 cards, 52+52 cards with 4 black star and 2 red star jokers), and something you can count the life points on (in case players can not remember it).
The game can be played by two players.
Beginning
We shuffle the deck and put it on the desktop face down. The two players begin with 80 life points (or whatever they agreed upon). The players decide who should be the first (by calling head or tail, or with stone-paper-scissors). The starting player draws 5 cards from the deck, followed by the next player who also draws 5 cards.
Values of the cards
Nothing unusual: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J (11), Q (12), K (13), A (14) in ascending order.
Drawing cards
Whenever a card leaves the player’s hand, he must draw one card from the deck. Players’ hands must contain 5 cards all time. If the deck is exhausted and the player cannot draw any more cards, he lose the game.
Winning conditions
You can win the game when one of the following events happen:
- The opponent cannot draw a card (rare).
- The opponent loses all his life points.
- One of the special rules that allows instant win.
Gameplay
The players playing though the following phases alternately:
Pre-summoning
The player puts cards face up from his hand in front of him so the sum of the valus of the cards summoned in this turn cannot exceed 14 (the player
The place where the player and his opponent summons the cards is referred as the
Attacking
The player’s summoned cards can attack the opponent’s summoned cards. Each summoned card of a player can attack once in a turn. To attack, chose one card from our summoned cards and one card from our opponent’s summoned cards. The two chosen card battles, then the card with the higher value wins the battle. The loser card is removed from the play. If the value of the two cards is the same, both cards are removed from the game.
If the opponent don’t have any summoned cards in front of him, he loses as many life points as the value of the attacking card. (If opponent’s life points reaches zero, the player wins the game.)
The player cannot attack in the game’s first turn, because the opponent did have an opportunity to summon and defend himself.
Post-summoning
We can summon again if the sum of the values of the summoned cards didn’t reached 14. The sum of values of the cards summoned in the turn cannot exceed 14. For example, if you summoned 8, you can summon cards whose sum or their values is not higher than 6.
Special rules
With the basic rules, the game reaches its conclusion early: who summons an ace first will beat any cards you play. So there are special rules that makes the game more playable.
Weakening
After battles the winning card can be replaced with a card from the player’s hand whose value is the difference of the values of the battling cards. Both the players can apply this rule after battles.
The winning card is removed from the game and replaced with the weaker card. This weaker card can attack again in this turn if it’s on the attacking side.
(Don’t forget to draw after this)
Example: our opponent summoned an ace (value of 14), and the player wants to defeat that card. He summons a jack (value of 11) and attacks the ace. The jack loses the battle, but the player throws in a 3, which replaces the ace. This 3 can be beaten with ease with our other summoned cards.
Other example: our opponent has a 7 and a 5 summoned. We can beat both with a single summon in the following way: summon a king (value of 13). Attack the 5, then we throw in a 8 from our hand to remove the king from play and replace it with the 8. The 8 then attacks again and beats the 7 too.
Strengthening
Since we play with 2 decks, every card has two instances in the game.
If in one of the summoning phases there is a summoned card on the field and one in the player’s hand whose suit and rank matches, the player can put the card on the summoned card to double its value. This action is not a summoning (so it’s not counted in the 14). The two cards can be used like a single card. The strengthened cards are referred as double cards.
Example: we summoned a jack of clubs (value of 11), and we have another jack of clubs in our hand. In the pre- or post-summoning phase we can put the jack of clubs on the summoned jack of clubs, doubling it’s value. So during battle it’s value is 22, not 11.
Combined attack
When the player has two or more cards summoned on the field with the same value, these cards can do a combined attack. These cards attack a single card of opponent’s simultaneously. The more cards you attack with, the stronger they are:
- 2 cards: 2 times.
- 3 cards: 4 times.
- 4 cards: 8 times.
- 5 cards: 16 times.
After the combined attack, if the attacking cards losing the battle, all attacking cards are removed from the play. The similar happens if one the players apply weakening against the combined attack cards. No combined defense possible.
Example: We already have a 7 one the field. During pre-summoning we summon two antoher 7 next to it. So we can make a combined attack with the three 7 cards, they worth 28 in this battle. This attack can beat any card or double card, including the double ace.
Beating opponent’s summoned cards with jokers
In pre- or post-summoning phases the player can beat the opponent’s summoned cards without battle by throwing in a joker.
- By throwing in a black star joker, the player can remove 1 summoned card of the opponent’s.
- By throwing in a red star joker, the player can remove exactly 2 summoned card of the opponent’s. So the red star joker cannot be used to beat 1 card only.
The joker is removed from the play after the action.
Avoiding damage with jokers
When the player don’t have a summoned card and the opponent attempts to attack it’s life points. We can stop the attack by throwing in a joker. The attacks are canceled and the opponent must enter the post-summoning phase. The used joker is removed from the play.
- By throwing in a black star joker, the attacks are just canceled.
- By throwing in a red star joker, the attacks are not just canceled but all summoned cards of the opponent which haven’t attacked yet (including the one which wanted to attack your life points) removed from play.
Counter joker
If the opponent throws in a joker, the player can negate it’s effect by throwing in joker from his hand.
- To counter a black star joker, the player must throw in a black star joker.
- To counter a red star joker, the player must throw in a red star joker or two black star jokers.
The opponent can throw in a new joker after the previous was countered. All played jokers are removed from play.
Instant win by 4 jokers
In this rule, black star jokers worth one, red star jokers worth two. So if the player have 2 red star jokers, or 4 black star jokers, or 2 black star and 1 red star jokers in his hand, it can win the game instantly by throwing them in.
The opponent can be counter this by throwing in a similar amount of jokers (4 black star, 2 red star, 2 black star or 1 red star). The countering player wins the game in this case.
