The HFoG Buyer's Guide
Card Games
Looking for a game that you can carry with you where ever you go? A
game you could take on a plane or toss in a purse? Then you're
probably looking for a card game!
Here are a few of my favorite card games.
No Thanks! (Rio Grande Games - 2004)
If there is one card game that should be in everybody's collection
then it would have to be Thorston Gimmler's masterpiece: No Thanks!
This game is so incredibly simple that it can be taught in about 30 seconds and
it's so quick that it can be played in around fifteen minutes.
The premise is simple: each turn you either give up a chip (worth a point) or take a card.
Because all the cards are worth negative points, no one wants a card; but
because you only have so many chips, sooner or later you're
going to have to give in and take one.
The trick is to decide when to give in and take the inevitable loss.
It's a brilliant, simple game that can be played anywhere by anyone.
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Coloretto (Rio Grande Games - 2003)
Coloretto is a deceptively simple card game that's designed for
adults but also works very well with children. Each card is really
just a color. Players collect colors trying to build sets. The
bigger the set, the more its point value. The trick is that only
three colors count towards your score, the others count against it,
so you need to be careful about which colors you take. That can be
very challenging because the other players are trying to make sure
that you have to take colors you don't want.
This isn't really a kids game but it does work very well with
children for a couple of reasons. First of all, there's no reading
or math (except in scoring) required. But more importantly, the
entire game is played with all cards face up and visible. This means
that it's very easy for an experienced player to coach an
inexperienced one.
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Pink Godzilla Dev Kit (Pink Godzilla - 2006)
Pink Godzilla Dev Kit (Dev Kit for short) is a little known card game
by a brand new game designer working with a very small Seattle based publisher.
But don't let its lack of reputation put you off,
this is a great card game. It's a card game about making video games.
You have to collect components to build a successful stable of video games: weapons,
characters, Easter eggs, titles, and so on. Each card can be used as either money or components
but not both. There is enough strategy in here to appeal to the most serious gamer but
it's simple enough to play with your non-gamer friends. If you're looking
for something really unique you should give this a try. You won't be sorry.
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Citadels (Fantasy Flight Games - 2000)
In this game, players compete to build a medieval citadel composed
of eight or more province cards.
The unique thing about Citadels is that at the beginning of each
turn, players secretly choose from a set of roles. The roles
determine play order but, more importantly, each role has a unique
ability. For instance, the first role is the assassin and his
special ability is that he gets to assassinate another player
(forcing him to sit out the turn). The catch is that he doesn’t get
to choose his victim by name; he must choose by role and that means
that he's never quite sure who he's killed (if anyone).
This game is easy to learn and it works very well with a wide range
of players (from 2 to 8) of all ages. Don't make the mistake of
thinking that because this game works well with six or seven that it
won't work well with two or three. In fact, I actually think the
game works even better with two!
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Bang! (Mayfair Games - 2002)
This is another game that employs secret roles, but in this case,
the theme is a shootout from a spaghetti western. There are outlaws,
renegades, deputies and one sheriff. Players play as teams, with the
outlaws trying to kill the sheriff, the sheriff and deputies trying
to kill the outlaws, and the renegade trying to kill everybody else.
The catch is that the only role that's public knowledge is the
sheriff so the other roles must be deduced from the actions of the
players.
This game takes a little longer to learn than Citadels. Each card
has a special action and while most actions are easy to understand
there are a couple that might take some getting used to.
There are three expansions to Bang! The smaller ones, High Noon and Fistful of Cards, each add a
few additional cards that have a large effect on the game. These
might be hard to find as they've reached the end of their print run. The
larger expansion, Dodge City, is much more substantial and nearly
doubles the number of cards in the game. There is also soon to be released a
new edition that contains the original game and all of the expansion in one big
bullet-shaped package. I'd recommend that you
either start with the original game and only get the expansions when you
feel the need to spice it up or get the bullet edition when it comes out.
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Mü & More (Rio Grande Games - 1995)
If you're fond of trick taking games such as Rook, Spades, Hearts or
Bridge, then this is probably just the game for you. Mü is the basic
game in the box and it's become my favorite traditional style trick
taking game. It's played with a deck of 60 cards distributed over
five suits. This game has a near perfect bidding mechanism that's
extremely intuitive and a very clever scoring system that is very
well balanced. It plays well with up to six players and I can't
recommend it enough.
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