You can read the articles I’ve written about the development of the game here, read the latest rules here, and download a print-and-play of the cards here and here (both decks are needed to play).

• Aces and Kings have all four suits on the back
• Queens, Jacks, and Tens have three suits (one correct) on the back
• Nine through Four have two suits (one correct) on the back
• Threes and Twos have their suit on the back

This limited information about cards can open up new dimensions of gameplay in traditional games. We’ve posted rules for a series of games designed to take advantage of this deck:

• Foresight, a trick-taking game including a unique bidding system and a special way of playing cards
• Heartburn, a Hearts variant featuring a very fun scoring rule

A document with rules for all the games we’ve posted so far is available here. You can purchase your own copy from DriveThruCards, or check out the Android versions if that’s your thing.

Things evolved from that beginning, and the game took on bits of Bezique and Was Sticht? along the way, if that can be imagined. Oh, and spells, of course. After extensive playtesting, I signed the game with Foxtrot Games, where Randy Hoyt did an amazing job with taking the game to the next level.

The game is off to the printer, and will be available in summer of 2017! I’m so excited for it to get into people’s hands.

In thinking about traditional cards, I thought about games that I’ve enjoyed in the past and played a lot. Bridge and Pinochle were big parts of my high school experience, driving a lot of get togethers with my friends, and I’ll always think of those games fondly. For that matter, I met my future wife over a game of Bridge one day in college. I also used to play a fair bit of Hearts, including a variant that a friend and I called “Progressive Heart Disease” for two that we used to play over lunch in high school (not to mention Heartburn). And Cribbage was the family game growing up, which is what led me to try working on a variant of it in the first place. There are more games that I’ve played and enjoyed of course, most of them probably familiar to people reading this. But there’s one that probably is not.

At some point, one of my friends learned a card game from his mother, who picked it up from someone else, and we gave it a try. It was a relative rarity for us, a three-player trick-taking game, and rather than playing a Bridge variant that we had been playing that we’d dubbed “Falling Off Bridge”, this new game quickly became our go-to three-player game. It turns out that it wasn’t entirely novel to our group, as I did find a page describing something that’s close (especially the variant mentioned), but it’s not exactly the same, so I thought I’d spell out how we played what we called 9-2-5.

How to play

9-2-5 is played with a standard 52 card deck. Cut for seats, with the high cut becoming the dealer and the low cut sitting to their left. Deal 16 cards to each player. The dealer now declares a trump suit (or may call no-trump), picks up the remaining four card (called the kitty), discards any 4 cards, and then makes the first play. In 9-2-5, each player has a fixed contract: the dealer must make 9, the next player 2, and the last player 5. You must follow suit if possible, but are free to make any play if you cannot. Record scores for each player for how much they went under or over (negative scores are possible). The deal then rotates to the left, changing the contract each player now must make - the former dealer now must make 5, the previous 2 player is now dealer and must make 9, and the previous 5 player must now make 2.

After the first hand, things get interesting. Players who went over get to “bleed” players who went under. There’s a strict order to things, which is:

1. Deal out the 16 card hands and 4 card kitty.
2. The dealer now calls trump or no-trump.
3. Starting from the player with the current highest contract who went up last hand, they give cards to player(s) who were down equal to how far they went up. So, if I made 2 extra tricks, I’ll hand out two cards to other players - to one person or possible to both people. Those player(s) now hand back the highest card(s) from the suits that match the ones I gave them. They may end up giving the same cards back. If I gave them more than one card in the same suit, they must give me back that many cards from that suit. In short, this process cannot change the suit distribution of either hand, just the ranks. You hand out all your cards before you see any come back.
4. The other positive player from last hand, if any, also bleeds equal to the tricks they went up.
5. Finally, the dealer picks up the kitty, discards any four cards they want, and then leads the first trick.

Continue playing until someone gets to +15 or someone gets to -15, with the highest score winning. If there’s a tie, play another hand.

What makes it great

There are several differences in the way we played the game compared with the link above. The order of operations is more interesting, allowing for bigger swings in the scoring. In addition, adding in no-trump provides another option, one which can often really mess up a player who just had a big hand.

But here’s why I think this game is particularly great: the balance between the different contracts is really nifty. The 9 contract gets a ton of advantages, but even if you have a great hand, you’re going to rotate into the most difficult contract (the 5) which caps how well you’ll do. The 2 contract has a different mission: you want to try and pile enough positive points that you can rotate into 9 and then light the world up, so you can try and gain some positive momentum past 5. And the 5 player is trying to keep their head down, not get pummeled too badly, and just survive. But even if the 5 gets lit up, you’re the 2 next, which limits how much damage you can absorb.

And it’s this last point that’s particularly crucial. Since your damage in the 2 slot is capped at 2, you’re never going to be bled more than 2 cards as the dealer. Add in calling trump and pulling the kitty, and you can always turn the ship around in that slot. The ebb and flow of scores in 9-2-5 can be fascinating, with unsteady equilibriums suddenly collapsing in a rush to the finish. It’s in many ways like the pattern of one of my favorite two-player games, Roma, which can also feature that unsteady knife-edge followed by a rush to decision. All of that flows from the 9-2-5 order, instead of the 9-5-2 ordering. We also tried various other contracts, like 8-3-5, 9-3-4, 8-4-4 (terrible!), but this variation works the best.

Anyway, if you’re looking to try a three-player card game and want to try something a little different, give this one a go. And if you do, let me know what you think!

Currently KMATTS is still in very early development, but I’m going to try and document how things are going here. So far I’ve written the following articles:

• The genesis of the new design
• The initial design of the combat system
• Exploring different dice systems
• The first playtest
• Adjustments after the first playtest
• The next set of tests

I hope to get a print-and-play version up here soon, followed eventually by some kind of commercial printing.

Foresight is also an engaging trick-taking card game, using that special set of cards. The bidding system is at once familiar, a simple system of bidding how many tricks you are going to take, and different, in that you get to bid multiple times. As befits a game with as much uncertainty as Foresight features, you get to place several bets, rather than be locked down into one bid. And once play begins, part of your hand is obscured even from you. Managing your information and your crucial hole cards is a skill that is unique to playing Foresight, and it’s a fresh challenge that card players everywhere can appreciate.

Getting the Game

Foresight is available from DriveThruCards. You can get it as a PDF there, or get a printed deck of cards. A PDF of all the rules I’ve added to the site so far is available here.

Android version

Foresight is available on Android. It’s currently only solo play against the AI, but I think the AI can be pretty challenging. Check it out.

More

This is the first game published here using the Foresight deck, and we’ll be posting more. Click on the Foresight tag to find all the games.

Credits

Game Design By: Joshua Buergel

Developed By: Megan Hazen

Playtesters: Playtesters: Miranda Antonelli, Bayani C.R. Caes and the Carnegie Mellon University Gaming Club (the greatest playtesters in the world!), Lloyd Giberson, Bill Gilliland and the U.C. Davis Gaming Club, Mark and Barbara Jensen, Cory Loewen, Mike Loewen, Colleen Neddo, Justin Neddo, Michael Paisner, Paul Pendlebury, Dan Roulo, Deanna Rubin, Sheryl Weidner.

Heartburn is a new twist on an old favorite, Hearts, using that special set of cards. The game dynamic is at once familiar and surprising. You want to avoid the bad cards, but the scoring rules force you to take at least one. That dynamic tension at the heart of the game provides unique challenges for those who are used to Hearts. The addition of the Ten of Diamonds as a positive card also provides another difficult decision - do you pursue the Ten while risking taking more points?

Getting the Game

Foresight is available from DriveThruCards. You can get it as a PDF there, or get a printed deck of cards. A PDF of all the rules I’ve added to the site so far is available here.

Android version

Heartburn is available on Android. It’s currently only solo play against the AI, but I think the AI can be pretty challenging. Check it out, it’s free!

More

This is the second game published here using the Foresight deck, and we’ll be posting more. Click on the Foresight tag to find all the games.

Credits

Game Design By: Joshua Buergel

Developed By: Megan Hazen

Playtesters: Miranda Antonelli, Bayani C.R. Caes and the Carnegie Mellon University Gaming Club (the greatest playtesters in the world!), Lloyd Giberson, Bill Gilliland and the U.C. Davis Gaming Club, Mark and Barbara Jensen, Cory Loewen, Mike Loewen, Colleen Neddo, Justin Neddo, Michael Paisner, Paul Pendlebury, Dan Roulo, Deanna Rubin, Sheryl Weidner.

The Story

In Ascension at Firepeak, each player is trying to construct a pattern of creatures to be able to cast the Mighty Rite of Authority and win the game. Game play is simple, but with many options and surprising depth. Each turn, players may perform two Actions, with actions including recruiting new creatures, attacking the other players, rearranging their patterns, raiding dungeons and casting and researching spells. With nine different actions available along with a wide variety of game situations, the game is ever changing and constantly presents new situations. In addition, the spells can combine in many surprising and different ways, ensuring great replay value.

Overview of Game Mechanics

Each player has a pattern and a dungeon. The top level of the pattern is occupied by the player’s wizard card, with each wizard associated with a specific clan of creatures. The pattern builds down from there, with each card having up to two minions. If a player gets a total of ten cards in their pattern, they win the game. The dungeon is where players keep creatures they don’t want, as well as their spell components and creatures stolen from other players. Dungeons can be raided by other players, and must be guarded and used carefully.

Each creature in the game has a clan affiliation and a power rating. The power rating is compared during attack situations to the opposing creature. A die roll is added to each side. However, it’s not just that easy. A wide variety of modifiers, including spells, wizard powers, clan powers and other situations ensure that nothing is as simple as it seems. Creatures can recruit, capture, rescue, be brainwashed, be used as spell components, and otherwise abused in many ways.

More information can be found at the BoardGameGeek entry, where you can find the full rules. We also have a fantastic playmat created by one of our playtesters for Ascension, Walter O’Hara (thanks Walt!). It provides places to keep your Wizard, Dungeon, all the potential slots in your power structure (with the tiers clearly marked) and also includes summaries of the available actions. All in full color, too. Nifty!

Credits

Game Design By: Cory Loewen

Developed By: Joshua Buergel

Illustrated By: Aaron Williams

Playtesters: Chris Bromley, Bayani C.R. Caes and the Carnegie Mellon University Gaming Club, Robert Eno, Nate Fox, Bill Gilliland and the U.C. Davis Gaming Club, Megan Hazen, Ray Jankowski, Michael Keane, Alfred Lo, Michael Loewen, Dave Markley, Justin Neddo, Walter O’Hara, Heidi Osterman, Michael Paisner, Arron Pope, Katje Sabin, Nate Walker, Charlie and Sheryl Weidner, Aaron Teske and Time Warp Comics and Games.

Special thanks to all of the game industry professionals who helped us out, including (but not limited to) Tony Curtis of GMT Games, James Ernest of Cheapass Games, Dean Essig of The Gamers, and Aaron Wallach of Uncle Jed’s Game Shed.