While checking Twitter at SPIEL ’22, I saw a tweet about a strange-looking card game, then on the publisher’s page I saw they were in Essen, and with a couple of quick notes I arranged an impromptu meeting with James Naylor of Naylor Games in which we sat on a stack of pallets to demo 21X from Leo Samson. So glamorous…
I don’t know a lot of details about the game, which will be crowdfunded at some point, but the gist is simple: 21X is an algebraic blackjack game in which you’re dealt two cards. Some cards have fixed values, others contain an N variable that equals the number of cards you have in front of you, and still others have an X variable, with you getting to choose an integer value for X that makes your card total as close to 21 as possible without going over.
If your total is 19 or lower, you can stand, and everyone else has one minute to beat your total. At any time, you can twist, that is, flip the top card from the deck into your hand. When time is up, whoever has the highest sum wins. I don’t know whether you play multiple rounds, but that seems beside the point when looking at a fun math game!
What’s the best total you can make with the three card hand at the bottom of this image — and does it even matter?
The graphics on these cards are fabulous in terms of telling the story: A heart is a positive X and a spade is a negative X (although X can itself be negative), while a diamond is a positive N and a club a negative N. Dots are fixed numerals.
• Kaya Miyano‘s card game nana was released in 2021 by Mob+ and caused a lot of excitement among fans of Japanese design who actually got their hands on a copy.
Now French publisher Cocktail Games has licensed the design for release as Trio, with the game debuting in France in January 2023 and with releases in other countries still to be announced. Here’s how to play:
On your turn, choose any single card to reveal, either the low or high card from a player’s hand (including your own) or any face-down card from the table. Then, do this again. If the two cards show the same number, continue your turn; if they do not, return the cards to where they came from and end your turn.
If you reveal three cards showing the same number, take these cards as a set in front of you. If you are the first player to collect three sets, you win — except that a player wins immediately if they collect the set of 7s or two sets that add or subtract to 7, e.g., 4s and 11s.
Mock-up cards from Cocktail Games
Trio has slight changes to the rules, with players using all cards no matter the player count. Additionally, you play in normal mode, winning with three sets or the 7s or “spicy” mode, winning with two linked sets or the 7s. Finally, Trio includes rules for playing in teams with four or six players.
I played Trio five times in one sitting, and the game is a delight. You have a memory aspect as to who has revealed which cards, and this meshes wonderfully with a deduction aspect in terms of who has not revealed cards…assuming you can keep all of that info straight.
For the team play, team members sit opposite one another and exchange one card before play begins (pulling cards from their hand and adding them below the table to hide their location), and each time an opposing team collects a set, your team can swap again.
• FORK is a quasi-trick-taking game for 2-6 players from Ta-Te Wu of Sunrise Tornado Game Studio that he plans to crowdfund in January 2023.
The game name is an acronym for Fox Owl Rabbit Kale, and those are the cards that comprise the deck. Foxes are all a wild 9, and each player starts with one fox in hand; the other cards come in four suits, with an owl at 8, rabbits at 2-7, and multiple kale in each suit at 1. On a turn, the active player names a suit, then each player must play a card of this suit, if possible, with kale being played face up and everything else face down.
Once all the cards have been played, reveal the cards, with a single fox eating an owl or rabbit (and with two or more foxes fighting amongst themselves); an on-suit owl (if not dead) eating an on-suit rabbit; an on-suit rabbit (if not dead) from high rank to low eating on-suit kale; and on-suit kale (if not eaten) being scored by whoever played it. Low-ranked rabbits can eat off-suit kale, but other off-suit cards are ignored.
Keep playing rounds until all the cards have been played or someone has collected five cards. Whoever has the most points wins.
I’ve played only one game of FORK so far, and it’s an odd one because (1) the scoring is so minimal and (2) off-suit cards are mostly useless. From the former point, I now realize that every point is precious, but I’m not exactly sure how to score more. Clearly I need to better track what’s been played, but initially I didn’t even know the composition of the deck. (I’m fine playing a game without knowing exactly what the card breakdown is.)
The second point also emphasizes the need to track what’s been played. Each player has only one fox, and the deck includes only four owls, and you want to dodge being eaten, but then you’re playing kale…which might still be eaten. Hmm. One playing is not enough to give a sense of what’s going on…
