Hello, Not 100% sure this is the first category for this thread, so if this doesn't belong in Research mods please move this. Anyway, as part of world-building for a fantasy world I have started work on a card game design, and I wanted to know if anyone had thoughts on the viability or enjoyability of it. Sort of sampling how people react to it as evidence on whether the design works. It's called Auberdine. It's a trick taking game, like Five-Hundred, Contact Bridge or Tarot. It's played with a deck of sixty cards in four suits. The suits are Woods, Eagles, Fountains, and Pyres. The first ten in each suit, which have shared counterparts across the suits, are referred to as "the run" and are broadly similar to the standard French Playing Cards you see in the West, except that these are named like "face" cards. The run goes from 0 to 9, in order Fool (0), Sword (1), Page (2), Knight (3), Lady (4), Lord (5), Temple (6), Spirit (7), Magician (8), and Emperor (9). The Fool despite being the lowest becomes the highest when played out-of-suit, including beating the higher cards called "The Airs" or "Essentia", but only if you have nothing in the trump suit. The Airs are unique to each suit, and go in descending order with 1 as the highest (thereby making the highest card in-trump for a suit the 1 Air). In Woods, they are Regrowth (5), the Pixies (4), the Harvest (3), the Hermit (2), and the Giant (1). In Eagles, they are Starlight (5), the Winds (4), the Watchful One (3), Ascension (2), and the Aether (1). In Fountains, they are the Scales (5), the Ghosts (4), War (3), the Fortune-Teller (2), and Eternity (1). In Pyres, they are Illusion (5), the Portal (4), the Shapechanger (3), Conquest (2), and the Dragon (1). Auberdine may accommodate two to five players, and most games are played with four or five. Players form teams of two if the number of players is even. Each player is dealt a random hand of ten cards face down, and the remaining ten are placed in a separate pile, also face down, called the “calendar” or “stack”. If the number of players is less than five, a spare hand or “ghost hand” is dealt for each vacant spot. Before the game commences, players may offer to trade hands with another not on their team. Players on the same team may ask to see each other’s cards during their turns. Traditional games are played with ten tricks in line with the calendar, if there are ghost hands some players may choose to keep playing using these as additional calendars, but traditionally there is only one calendar (known as “single calendar” vs “ghost calendars”). Each trick, the top card of the calendar is drawn to determine the trump suit of the trick (turn). The first player of the first turn is traditionally whoever is clockwise from the dealing player (the next game that player deals and the next player plays first and so on). During that turn, the other players must play to the suit of the card that player, and only cards from that suit (or the trumps which, if different, beat it) can win the trick. Whoever wins the trick initiates the second one, and so on. The player with the highest value card wins the trick, so a Page is beaten by a Knight, unless a trump, and any of the airs will beat the run. The player or team with the most tricks at the end wins the round. It is common practise to bet on either the outcome in general or more daringly on oneself winning a specific number; the higher the number the more ambitious the bet.
I'm one of those people who has to play it for it to completely make sense, but what you have here sounds perfectly feasible. It also sounds fun, like if played with the right people, it could be competitive and raucous but in a good way.
I've played a fair bit of contract bridge, and sometimes rubber bridge, but I like the sound of contact. Is that in case your partner bids ACOL whilst you were using five card majors? Or because they got the wrong number of aces in response to your blackwood opener? (c: Your game sounds completely plausible (although I am the same as @Dogberry -- I would need to play a few hands really to get it. It's a lot of detail though. I hope you're not going to put all that in the narrative?? In my (comic fantasy) I do a sort of Terry Pratchett thing* and just have a couple of people sitting in a bar with a deck of cards playing blind man's finger. I have no idea of the rules, but I wasn't playing it. *His was cripple Mr Onion.
Competitive and raucous is definitely good, since this version of the game was invented by soldiers and its use in gaming, though now popular, is associated with tavern gambling. @Hammer I wouldn't mention all of this necessarily, but some of the rules will be mentioned when it is seen being played, and the general exposure to the game will imply or allow readers to infer other aspects. That's my idea anyway. There may also be an appendix explanation of the rules or something.
I think an appendix would work - you could then just use snippets like "Bob smirked as Elaine laid the knight of wood" so that those who wanted to could find out why Bob was smirking. Your decks of cards might also make a lucrative little sideline if the book flies!
Contact bridge is when your opponents are playing ACOL but you're playing Zar. That, I have discovered, leads to fights
