Games

Untitled Card Drafting Maths Game

Overview

You are a space navigator who needs to plot star coordinates to your next destination. Your navigation computer is feeding you charts and coordinates through the data stream, but which coordinate references should you choose to get there?

This is a card game where you have to combine numbers to arrive at a target number, using some arithmetics and a hand of cards. You are competing with the other players to get the closest to the target number by using the best combination of numbers and mathematical operations. There is some luck involved, but you can gain an edge with good mental maths and a sense for picking the right cards.

Players and playing time

Components

Rules

Card values

The cards in the deck are only played for their number values. The suits do not matter. Non-numbered cards have the following values:

Rank Value
A 1 or 100 (player choice)
J 11
Q 12
K 13
Joker 0

The Ace always has value 1 in the target.

Core concepts

The aim of the game is to use three cards and arithmetical operations to get as close as possible to the target.

The following five operations are allowed:

Using your Vector Set of three cards, and these operations, you will arrive a result (your Jump Coordinates).

To calculate your result, you may only use the values of your cards, or calculated values from your cards. Operations can be in any order you decide.

Division is only allowed as long as the result is a whole number.

For exponentiation, you can only put a number to the power of another number that you already have, either from a card or the result of two cards.

Every card in the Vector Set must be used, and each card can only be used once.

The difference between the target and your result is how far away you are.

At the showdown, players take it in turns to declare their result and how far away they are. The player/s who get the closest to the target win. There may be multiple winners.

The target is 31. Your Vector Set is 7, 8, J (11).

You could go 7 + 8 = 15, then 15 + 11 = 26. You would be 5 away.

Or, you could go 11 - 7 = 4, then 4 * 8 = 32. You would now be 1 away.

At the showdown, you declare "I'm at 32; 1 away".

Setup Phase

The target is a pair of cards. The first card is in the tens place, and the second is in the ones place.

The target is dealt: 3 and 5. The target is 35 (30 + 5)

The target is dealt: Q and 5. The target is 125 (120 + 5)

The target is dealt: 5 and K. The target is 63 (50 + 13)

One card is dealt near the target. This is the Signpost Beacon. The Signpost Beacon is must use, for all players (it must be a part of the three cards in your Vector Set).

Each player is dealt four cards as a starting hand (the first Data Packet).

One player is given the Initiative token.

Draft Phase

The hand that you start with is not the hand you will end up with. From the starting hand (Data Packet), pick (save) one card. That card will stay with you, in your kept hand (the Nav Memory). Pass on the rest of the three cards to the player on the left. You will receive three cards from the player on the right (the next Data Packet).

Continue drafting cards in this way until you have drafted 4 cards. The draft ends when you receive just one card from the player on your right.

Next, select a Vector set of three cards by choosing two cards from your Nav Memory, and the Signpost Beacon, making you can use these three numbers to calculate a result that is close to the target.

The target is 44. The Signpost Beacon is 6.

In your Nav Memory, you saved 5, 6, J, Q.

You use 5 and Q (the others are not used), along with the Signpost Beacon 6, to calculate 6 * 5 + 12 = 42 (2 away).

Showdown Phase

When all players are ready, begin showdown. Starting with the player with the Initiative token, each player declares their result and how far away they are.

Players are committed to their result. If an opponent shows a better calculation, the player may not change their results, and must stick to their original result.

If a player is found to have calculated a result, they forfeit the round and are ineligible to be a winner, even if their corrected result is the closest to the target.

Resolution

The winners are the players that get the closest to the target. All other players pay every winner one chip.

Collect all of the cards, and shuffle deck to prepare for the next round.

The Initiative token goes to the next player to the left.

Players who run out of chips are eliminated. Continue play until one winner remains.

Optional Scoring

Hotshot Spacer

In the first Data Packet, you may draft a card and place it facedown on the table, in a sideways orientation, and declare it locked in. That card is now must use (you have committed to use it in your Vector Set). If you win in this round, every other player will pay you 2 chips. If you lose, you will pay other player 2 chips (regardless of who won).

Slingshot Manoeuvre

If your Vector Set are all of the same suit (including the Signpost Beacon), after calculating your Jump Coordinates, apply -2 bonus to your final distance.

Extrapolative Computation

If your Vector Set contains a sequence of three consecutive numbers, of any suit, you may add to your Vector Set a phantom number that comes before or after your sequence, to use for calculating your final Jump Coordinates.

Ace is equal to 1 for sequences.

You may extrapolate 0 from the sequence A, 2, 3. You may not extrapolate past a King.

Variants

Forced Command Override

Headquarters will issue mandatory course vectors from time to time. These must be followed.

One of the suits in the deck becomes the Override suit. Cards from the Override suit has the following properties:

You have two Override cards in your Nav Memory. You use them both, plus the Signpost Beacon, as your Vector Set

You have three Override cards in your Nav Memory. You must use all of them, plus the Signpost Beacon, as your Vector Set (four cards in all)

Select Command Override

Headquarters are issuing mandatory vectors, but your crew advise that there is only enough hyperdrive fuel to make the jump to three course vector coordinates.

This is the same rules as Forced Command Override, with the following change:

Forced Precog and Select Precog

You have a precognitive specialist on board who can see the glimpses of the future. Their navigational advice cannot be ignored.

Use a 80-card Tarot deck (56 normal cards, 22 trump cards, 2 jokers). The trump suit/Major Arcana is the Override suit.

A Tarot deck has a fourth court card: the Page. It also has numbered trump cards. With this, there are the following card value changes:

All other rules of Forced Command Override and Select Command Override apply.

Pirate Map

There is a pirate map on the black market that can be purchased for a fee. When installed on your ship's navicomputer, it shows secret smuggling routes that allow you to bypass Signpost Beacons. However, there is chance it might corrupt your navicomputer's memory! Will you take the risk for the chance to outrun your opponents?

The Pirate Map is a four-sided die. At the beginning of the game, it belongs to no player. Once the Pirate Map is purchsed, it stays with that player until it is bought by another player.

The Pirate Map can only be purchased before the deal (before the target and before the Data Packets). To purchase the Pirate Map, pay 2 chips into the pot (Bounty).

The Bounty may be recovered only by one winner. If there are multiple winners, the Bounty remains unclaimed. The current owner of the Pirate Map is ineligible to claim the Bounty.

Once you have four cards in your Nav Memory, lay our your cards facedown in a row (in any order). Roll the Pirate Map 4-sided die. Discard the card in the nth position from your Memory (that data is corrupted).

You have the Pirate Map. You have a full Nav Memory. You lay your cards out in a row, facedown. Roll the Pirate Map die: 2. Discard the second card.

The price of the Pirate Map escalates by one chip every time it is purchased. When the second player buys it from the first player, they must pay three chips into the Bounty.