hckrnws

I created my own multideck a few years ago: https://randomlyunique.com/random/2023/improved-multideck/in... (SVG in link)

I use this deck all the time too - it was well worth the $25 to print it out.

Some guys made this website with instructions of how to setup/play games: https://everdeck-library.vercel.app/

I feel like they did a great job but didn't get enough visibility. It hasn't been updated in a while and has a limited selection of games, but it's a great attempt to centralize game mappings. I hope comunity embraces this or similar tools, as the huge BGG lists aren't really built for this.

They describe their website as: The Everdeck Library was developed as an alternative archiving option for the various games playable by the Everdeck. Most of the Everdeck’s game lists are available on online forums such as BGG and Reddit. The Everdeck Library takes the format of those game lists and expands upon them by providing in-depth information and interactivity from being able to filter out certain games to knowing how the Everdeck maps to the game’s cards and rules. Sifting through the Everdeck’s 120 cards for the game you’re playing is quite involved and forgetting a card or not knowing what a card does can heavily hinder gameplay experience. Tabletop games are a way to gather people around and the last thing you want is fumbling around with rules and setup.

I actually own this, but I find that, in practice, remembering the mappings is tricky for most players. Also, it's surprisingly annoying to not have rotationally symmetric cards, or needing to hold the cards in a different way.

In my multideck I mitigated this by using emojis as suits, so you can write notes on your phone. For the Everdeck you can use: ♣♠♥♦ coin, crown, moon, star (hacker news doesn't support emojis)

The emojis do show up on iOS Safari!

Those card suits in that post show up (for everyone) in HN because they are the proto-emoji ancient "Wingdings range" further encoded in the direction of HN without an emoji presentation variation selector. (Emoji presentation selector will color them, so hearts and diamonds would be more red, among other subtle distinctions in most fonts/OSes today.)

The number of "proto-emoji" that HN does not block is interesting given HN's preference to block emoji, but also illustrates some of the fun compatibility complexity of Unicode.

I would love to own this deck but I can tell I would be way too irritated when trying to actually use it. It's like an art piece dedicated to combinatorics.

Yeah :c I feel the same way. They’ve made a variant with more traditional poker deck look but the same rank/suits of the ever deck that I’m excited to try one day

Really cool deck! Anyone out there play Mu? It's an _excellent_ trick taking card game. One of the few (complex, trick-taking... I'm not counting stuff like Uno in this genre) card games that I know of that works really well with 5 or 6 players. This deck _almost_ would work for Mu, but it'd need different point values. (I keep having to rebuy new Mu games when the deck wears out so I've been contemplating other possibilities.)

Mu is awesome, one of my favorites. I especially like the "Mu and More" and "Mu and Much More" decks that have other games you can play in the box. It is a bit fiddly customizing the decks for the different games, but it is amazing how much game is in that one box. Njet was mentioned in another comment, and that is one of my go-to games when playing with non-gamers.

Mu is my favorite trick taking game of all time, but it is difficult enough that I don't get a chance to play it very often.

I went down the rabbit hole of alternative games for this deck, and saw Mü mentioned in the forums with some tips alongside a table. Hopefully that helps, though I did notice someone commented about needing to remember the point values.

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/303652/more-games-playabl...

In my multideck you can play Mu: https://diymultideck.mauri.app/games/mu-and-more-revised-edi...

Basically, you write the point values in the card and use numbers 0-11 where 1=2 and 8=9 (1s and 7s in original game). My cards are made out of plastic, so they don't break. And you get the bonus of being able to play many more games. ^o^

I'm currently looking for some board/card games to play with friends so thank you for mentioning Mu, it sounds fun!

Also I didn't know those were called trick-taking games [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-taking_game

Pagat is a wonderful source for all things card games. https://www.pagat.com - in particular https://www.pagat.com/class/trick.html which at that level is the groups of games (under the trump group is the euchre group which itself has six games)

"oh hell!" is another great trick taking game for multiple players. it's lightweight but lots of fun.

I'd also recommend the variant Wizard for this.

Similar basic game and mechanics, though there are 8 additional cards to the 52 card deck - four wizards and four fools. A wizard can be played instead of any other card, the first wizard played takes the trick. A fool can be played instead of any other card and a fool will not take the trick (unless you've got the extreme oddball situation where you've got all the cards for a trick as a fool - then the first fool played wins the trick).

One of the things about it being a 60 card deck is that it evenly plays 3, 4, 5, or 6 players.

The European edition of the game has beautiful artwork (though confusing compared to the French suited cards) that make a long mural when an entire suit is laid down end to end.

It is. I do. It is. My simple description of it is that its bridge with revealing cards for bidding and dynamic partnerships.

There is an iOS version of it - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/m%C3%BC/id351448383 (and it runs on my mini - https://imgur.com/a/eJsx4Wd )

And yea, the point values would be the problematic parts.

Incidentally, there's been a new issuing of the game: from the publisher - https://shop.czechgames.com/mu-more/ though it appears to be out of stock there, there is a reseller with the new version https://www.cardhaus.com/mu-more/

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I'd also suggest Nyet ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1107/nyet ) which is another odd deck count game (3x1, 1x[2...13]) x 4 suits. It was originally a ruleset for the Mü deck where you excluded rules from the next round ("no - not that rule" -> "Nyet")

In case no one's mentioned it yet, this reminds me of Heckadeck : https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296334/heckadeck

The Everdeck's development BGG thread is pure gold, worth a read for board game systems enthusiasts. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1867714/now-available-the-e...

It is a great project that inspired me to make another multideck based on it. https://diymultideck.mauri.app/manual

Mine is compatible with more games, has a companion website that helps you prepare games, and (in my opinion) is easier to understand.

The mystic bent limits the usability of the deck, since most people I play with, when playing games like Sheepshead try playing with more traditional decks. As well as traditional Tarot decks from Russia (OG tarot, not modern designs).

Vintage Tarot decks include more art/influence from the current ruling empire, not new-age mystic nonsense.

I think my biggest complaint with this deck is that the Os and 0s look the same in the chosen font. They are in opposite corners on the card and one should always be colored and the other black, so shouldn't be easily confused in an oriented spread or in orienting the cards, so it is mostly just an aesthetic complaint.

I’d love to see a variation on the concept that minimizes information on each card. It would of course result in a larger deck, but would reduce visual noise while playing games.

I think one colored suit symbol and one rank is the most needed. Some cards could have symbols like Uno’s “skip” card as their rank.

yeah, I agree. This is a very cool idea but the visual design of the cards needs some tightening up

I own this, works well, works great in fact for a lot of those basic "we made a game out of a normal deck of games" type games.

What is it about a good card game that is so appealing? I am not a fan of dice games at all, but give me some cards to hold, and I'm in.

Are there any good svg free deck designs out there? Like the traditional looking ones?

Unfortunately I'm already heavily invested into the Deckmaster system.

21$ deck, 27$ delivery... no

I have one. The cards are pretty well made and it's a nice deck. Decent playing cards do tend to be expensive.

Must be US-based, it’s $6.14 for the cheapest shopping for me

And then for that shipping price, takes 4-6 weeks for delivery? Or you can have it 8 days for something like $130? I don't get it.

It's not the delivery that takes that long. It's the printing. It's a print on demand item, printed in the United States. The decks don't currently exist and the current print queue is just that long. If you want to jump the queue, that will be extra.

Finally we have a deck that can support my new game Calvin Deck.

This looks complicated! The only card games I know are patience and Uno. Oh and top trumps, but not sure if that counts...

this feels like excellent foundations for a board game. fascinating!

I own a few of these- they’re lovely things but I’ve not found them easy to bring out in a group. The same author’s made a variant that loses some features to gain looking like a very standard poker deck (with just more numbers and suits) that I really like the look of

> The Everdeck is designed with a ruthless combinatorial efficiency. Beneath its minimalist pen-and-ink design lies layers of mathematical and linguistic patterns. This isn’t just a deck with haphazardly placed extra glyphs; rather, it aims to be both beautiful and practical.

This paragraph was designed as ruthless LLM slop.

I was informed that the article was written before LLMs, my apologies to the author.

That paragraph was written in 2019 which predates LLM slop. Some people just write that way.

Even if that was written with AI, it perfectly describes what the Eveedeck is. A sophisticated and meticulously crafted deck of cards.

But I agree that since LLMs it's hard to know what's truly exeptional vs AI slop.

Whats worse than AI slop? Humans misclassifying other humans' outputs as AI slop.