By about round ten, something happen in a Wizard game: you feel it in the air. At that stage, the chit-chat ends; it’s no longer casual. If you see potential for five tricks, then what? What do you see when you look down at your hand? There is a potential for five tricks, yes. But … Read more
If you play Hearts (or any other card game), this is a card scoring calculator that will keep track of all your points for you. When someone doesn’t think they caught somebody’s card, it can turn in to an argument. It turns in to a long conversation where everyone else sits there waiting. With this … Read more
Most people remember a round of pitch as an argument around the kitchen table about scores and whose card was trump. How does one keep score? Pitch balances between chaotic family fun and structure of contract bridge. The bidding feels serious for thirty seconds until someone forget whether they bid three or four. And by … Read more
By the end of Red Rising, it doesn’t feel much like a board game at all. It’s more like taking an accounting test in a firefight. Hours have passed as you’ve shuffled ships around, brokered deals with politicians, and secured contract. And now everybody sits down for the hard part. Scoring in this game is … Read more
On the last hole of a round of Golf card game (and we do mean Golf), a particular kind of panic sets in. There are two decks, six friends, and a mental math problem that would more aptly appear on a calculus test. Who knocked? Did someone knock back? And what about those penalties and … Read more
When you’re playing Phase 10, you’ll get to the later stages of the game where somebody has gone out and laid down their hand for all to see. Now it’s time to sift through what’s left in your hands, slap on some penalty points, recalculate your score and not make eye contact with whoever just … Read more
Unlike most card games that end in the blink of an eye with a quick point deduction or flip of some chips, Hand and Foot end with an audit. With six pile of cards each for every person plus two decks, there’s plenty of mathematical chaos to make a spreadsheet shed tears. The score sheet … Read more
