test my card game

[phillip1882]

so i recently made a card game and would like your input.
take a standard deck of cards, and two dice.
remove the aces.
place a 4x4 block of cards for three players.
if a card horizontally or vertically adjacent to
another card differs by 1 then they are considered connected.
jacks count as 11, and queens 12
player 1 roll the dice, and if he has a card in his block equal to the roll,
he may swap that card with any adjacent card, or a card in the same position of the other two players blocks.
if he rolls a value he doesn't have if he has a king he may use that for swap.
the goal of the game is to be the first player to connect all cards.
there cannot be any isolated cards or connections for victory.

[EdLee]

Hi phillip, Congrats.

place a 4x4 block of cards for three players.

So, each player has their own 4x4 set... and the coordinates of each card are relative to each owner (?)^(*)
How was the game play for two, and four or more players?

he may swap that card with any adjacent card

Rookwise-adjacent only? Are diagonals adjacent?

or a card in the same position of the other two players blocks.

See question^(*).

if he rolls a value he doesn't have if he has a king he may use that for swap.

Does this mean the player can either swap the king with a rookwise adjacent card, or with another player's card at the same coordinates?
Are you allowed to "pass" -- by swapping a king with another king, or just passing?
(Even if strategically this makes no sense.)

Thanks.

[phillip1882]

So, each player has their own 4x4 set... and the coordinates of each card are relative to each owner ?

yes.

How was the game play for two, and four or more players?

strictly 3.

Rookwise-adjacent only?

yes.

Does this mean the player can either swap the king with a rookwise adjacent card, or with another player's card at the same coordinates?

yes.

Are you allowed to "pass" -- by swapping a king with another king, or just passing?

ah i forgot about that, yes you can pass your turn.

[phillip1882]

one thing i forgot kings count as both 13 and 1. that is they connect to 2 and queen.

[phillip1882]

i'm thinking of calling the game quad connect.

[EdLee]

one thing i forgot kings count as both 13 and 1. that is they connect to 2 and queen.

haven't tried the game yet, but this feels like the king is too powerful.

[jlt]

If all players start with even cards (i.e. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, queen) then no connection is possible so no player can win.

[tj86430]

If all players start with even cards (i.e. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, queen) then no connection is possible so no player can win.

That would be a strange deck of cards indeed (4x4x3=48, number of even cards in the deck is 24).

If I haven't miscounted, all cards (aces were removed) will be on the table.

[jlt]

Sorry I misread, I thought each player had 4 cards...

BTW, I don't think that the king is too powerful. If I am not mistaken, the probability that no card has the same value as the dice is (44 choose 16)/(48 choose 16)=18%, so the king about as mobile as the "7" which is allowed to move with probability 1/6=17%. The "7" is connected to the "6" and the "5" which are easy to move, whereas the king is connected to the queen and the "2" which are difficult to move.

Still, I wonder if most games wouldn't finish with a draw. Chains are easily disrupted.

[EdLee]

jlt, thanks.

[phillip1882]

yeah, it might be a good idea to have a max number of turns,
so the game doesn't drag on too long.
i'd say after 64 complete cycles through the players,
if no one has victory it goes to the player with the most connections.

[phillip1882]

any tried it yet?