What We Can Learn From Unusual Card Games

The beauty of card games is that because they can be cheaply and easily produced, imaginative ideas can be tested, printed, produced and tried out by nearly anyone with an idea and stack of flash cards.

All it takes is to come up with an idea, design some prototype cards and use a service to print flash cards online and you have a card game. This means that people who may have otherwise been priced out of making games can bring their ideas to the masses.

Crowdfunding has helped in this regard too, with games such as Gloomhaven and Exploding Kittens making millions of pounds and becoming major successes despite (or maybe because of) unusual premises.

Here are some of the most unusual card game successes out there and what you can learn from them when making your own project.

Guillotine

Initially released to celebrate Bastille Day in 1998, Guillotine is a rather amusing and cartoonish take on the execution of nobles in Revolutionary France.

Essentially the game has three main components: a deck of Nobles, a deck of Actions and a little cardboard guillotine, and the goal of the game was to collect the heads of unpopular nobles and use actions to spare martyrs and other more popular people heading for the chopping block.

Despite its rather grim premise, its light-hearted art style, chaotic and fast-paced gameplay and unique premise are lessons to learn when tackling an unusual topic.

Munchkin/Chez Geek

Steve Jackson Games thrive on bizarre premises that lead to unusual and chaotic games, with perhaps the best examples from the company being their two most successful games: Munchkin and Chez Geek.

Munchkin, named after the derogatory term for certain types of RPG players, is a chaotic game where most of the rules are made to be broken, taking the golden rule from Magic: The Gathering (cards can override the rule book) to its logical extreme.

Many cards bend the rules, even including the winning conditions, and bartering and straight-up betrayal are openly encouraged.

Chez Geek follows a similar, odd premise, where each player has a job that determines what they can do in a turn, as well as their goals and money.

They both highlight how an interesting premise requires interesting rules and a unique interplay between the cards, the rules and the players.

Falling

Great games can be complicated and filled with unique mechanics that interlink with each other sometimes. Other times they can be quick party games about falling to the ground.

One player serves as a dealer and give cards to other people in real-time face down, which they have to play once they touch them, either on themselves or on other players. These are cards like being forced to draw an extra card, skip the draw by the dealer or have their stack split up.

It ends when one person picks up a ground card and games can sometimes last as little as 90 seconds.

This, along with other micro card games such as Exploding Kittens, show the importance of speed and creative gameplay ideas as much as a unique premise and art.

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