CLUBS

My goal with this design exercise was to create a classic card game style battler that can be picked up easily and played with a regular set of cards. All you need is your basic playing card deck and this extremely dry set of rules! If you play it please let me know how it went :)

Gather

• A deck of cards
• 2 players

Object of the game

Knock out your opponents defences to attack them directly to win!

Set up

• Shuffle and deal ten cards to each player, place the rest of the cards as a draw pile in the center of the play space, discard pile next to it.
• Each player looks at their opening hand and chooses a maximum of three clubs to place face down in front of them. They can also choose to play hearts at this time.
• When everyone is ready whoever is next to the dealer clockwise goes first.

Diamonds beat spades, but spades beat clubs. Hearts heal!

Gameplay

• Player draws a card
• Players draws additional cards if applicable (see Healing section)
• After drawing players resolve any attacks on the board (see Attacking section)
  • If a player is successfully attacked when they have no clubs defending them they lose.
• After battle players can heal, defend and attack
• Turn ends when a card has been discarded to the discard pile. Players must have at least one card in their hand after discarding or they have lost.

♣️ Defending

Players place up to three clubs face down in front of them to defend. These cards can be exchanged from their hand during their turn as long as they are still face down.

If a player has no clubs in front of them and they are attacked, and they do not succeed in counter attacking, they lose.

Players can swap clubs from their hand with face down clubs on the table if they want to at any time during their turn.

♠️♦️ Attacking and Counter Attacking

Attacking is done with spades, counter attacking is done with diamonds.

Attacking player plays a spade face down in front of an opponent's defending card. When the defending player's turn begins they can play a diamond face down on the attacker's spade. At that point the diamond and the spade are flipped over and the highest card wins.

If the attacker loses the defending club remains face down.

If the attacker wins the defending club is flipped and the highest card wins. If the attacker is successful both cards are discarded. If the attacker is not successful the defending card is left facing up. Face up defending cards can not be exchanged from a players hand.

Players may attack more than once per turn if they have enough spades but only one spade may be used per target (one per club)

• NOTE: In the event of a tie the aggressor wins. Ex. A king of spades attacks a king of clubs, the king of spades is the winner and both cards are discarded.

♥️ Healing

Hearts are used to draw extra cards at the start of/during your turn. Players can have a maximum of twelve cards in their hand at any time.

Instant Heal

Players can play a heart in their hand to draw cards during their turn after any attacks are resolved. Face cards are worth five extra cards, all other cards are worth three, except the ace which is worth ten.

Healing Pools

Healing pools allows players to draw more cards every turn. Placed down face up in runs of three allows the player to draw an extra card for each run at the start of their turn.

The healing pool can be attacked following the same rules as clubs with the highest heart as the defending card to beat. Ex. a run of 2/3/4 could be beaten by a 5 of spades.

Aces are low when played in healing pool runs.

Other Rules:

Aces are high when attacking (including counter-attacks) but low defending (as clubs or hearts)

Players may discard from their cards on the table instead of their hand at the end of their turn if they want to.

Players may look at their own face down cards at any time.

Happy battling!