Suspense: The Card Game [Prototype F]

The wait is over! After a long period of private playtesting and development (basically since PAX East), here's the next prototype for Suspense: The Card Game. You can download the PDF from the following link:

SUSPENSE: THE CARD GAME [PROTOTYPE F]

This is my 13-card brain-burning deduction game where you're trying to figure out the secret victory condition while also trying to meet it. Trade information, bluff your way out of a jam, and overcome the fickle whims of fate!



This little game has gone through many revisions and rethemes over the past few months, but I'm pretty settled on this silly B-movie motif. I hope you dig it, too. I had a lot of fun coming up with those classic era movie taglines.

With just 13 cards, plus a few reference cards, this is a perfect back-pocket game to bring out while you're waiting in line at a convention. Give it a shot and tell me what you think!

More Playtest Findings from PAX

While I was at PAX East, I playtested three other prototypes currently in various stages of development.

Princess Bride Drafting Game has been long in development, but finally hitting a breakthrough now that it has departed from strictly simulating the Battle of Wits. It's now a drafting game in which players bid for milestones and landmarks to complete their personal quests while also trying to bluff their opponents into drinking poison. It's a drafting game where you're not just bidding for resources, but also turn order on the next draft and how many resources you'll get to draw. Most feedback was positive and I hope to formalize this prototype into something more pitchable soon.

• Retheme the cards slightly so that there are more main character options, including the villains of the story.
• Make the secondary characters in the deck landmark locations.
• Give the main characters unique abilities, like The Man in Black's immunity to poison, or Fizzik's great strength.

Belle of the Ball was a hit again. I got many play requests from people who had heard of the game from this blog. I also got a few thanks for non-violent/non-colonial theme. I tried out several new cards that generally followed the model of the "bad cheese" card, negating scores for certain interests in a scoring group. I also added several new Belle cards that scored you points based on other players' behavior, such as when they paid bribes, accepted bribes, invited lords or ladies or played Belle cards. On top of all this, I also tested the new two-lane format. It went swimmingly, offering far more substantial choice on each turn, preventing bribe-hoarding, and making a more satisfying experience overall.

• Come up with evocative names for the new Belle cards along with new diagrams that can more easily be recognized from a distance.
• Make the heraldry more subtle so it doesn't distract as much.
• Remove underlapping border around the interest icons so they have less interference with their silhouettes.

Suspense: The Card Game probably got the most play overall, simply because of its small footprint. The pitch really drew in the core gamer demographic: "Deduce the victory condition while also trying to meet it." I'm exploring ways to expand the game to four or five players, which might be difficult. I'm thinking about another set of six cards with red numbers, each victory condition based on highest/lowest black/white sum in play/hand. The problem of course is that 13 cards elegantly creates one possible outlier in an even deal, adding anymore makes things a little more messy. I'll figure it out though.

• Explore expanding the game to four or five players.
• Instead of waiting until the end of the round to introduce the "Fold" option, state it up front so players always have it available.
• Explore a gambling variant based on Wits & Wagers' wagering chips. (Score points equal to your wager chips x stars on the winning card.)

GamerChris has an early review of Suspense, Koi Pond and Unpub Mini at Atomic Empire

UPDATE: Koi Pond: A Coy Card Game is now available on DriveThruCards!

Chris Norwood was kind enough to play prototypes of Suspense: the Card Game and Koi Pond Card Game and include previews on his most recent podcast ep. He also spends some time talking about the Unpub Mini event I ran two weeks ago.

Suspense gets previewed at 10:03
The Unpub section is explained at 32:39

• 36:14     - Roman Conquest
• 39:22     - Duck Blind
• 41:57     - Dorobo
• 41:57     - Acute Care

Koi Pond (nee Coy Pond) gets mentioned at 45:26

Give it a listen!

More Exclamation Cards for Suspense

I was fortunate enough to play Suspense a few more times with southern gentleman gamer Jonathan Bolding. Together we brainstormed a handful of new exclamation cards to add to the basic Suspense deck for further replay value. In the base game, you just shuffle the whole deck and deal it out to each player until only the thirteenth card is left as the secret card. Out of the thirteen cards, only one isn't a number: the exclamation, which currently says "Lowest Sum of Numbers in Play."

With some simple permutations, we came up with a bunch of different exclamation cards.

• Lowest Sum of Numbers in Play
• Lowest Sum of Numbers in Hand
• Highest Sum of Numbers in Play
• Highest Sum of Numbers in Hand
• Lowest Black Sum of Numbers in Play
• Lowest Black Sum of Numbers in Hand
• Highest Black Sum of Numbers in Play
• Highest Black Sum of Numbers in Hand
• Lowest White Sum of Numbers in Play
• Lowest White Sum of Numbers in Hand
• Highest White Sum of Numbers in Play
• Highest White Sum of Numbers in Hand
• Fewest Cards in Play
• Fewest Cards in Hand
• Most Cards in Play
• Most Cards in Hand
• Sum in Play Closest to 6 without being over
• Sum in Hand Closest to 6 without being over
• Sum in Play Closest to 6 without being under
• Sum in Hand Closest to 6 without being under

That's twenty different cards total. Now, one of the appeals of Suspense as a microgame is that it doesn't have a lot of cards. There is almost a fetishistic appeal in that minimalism.

If I were reluctant to add 20 cards to this deck, I'd just add one card that has all of these permutations listed on it. I'd remove the victory condition from the exclamation card so it's just a blank placeholder. Then before each round, you roll a d20 to determine what the exclamation card represents this round.

But I'm not that reluctant to add more cards to the deck. In production terms, the cost-difference between a thirteen card game and a thirty-two card game is pretty slim. We'll see how that turns out!

Suspense: The Card Game

2–3 Players • Ages 10+ • 10–15 Minutes

Prototype D
» Download Rules PDF
» Download Print-and-Play Cards


SUSPENSE: THE CARD GAME is a contest of wits, deduction, and cunning!  The deck has six white numbered cards 1–6, six black numbered cards 1–6, and one "!" card which is considered a zero. Each card also displays a unique victory condition.

The game is played in a series of matches. Each match is comprised of a series of turns.

In the first match, the youngest player is the dealer. To start each match, the dealer shuffles the cards and evenly deals them out to the players face-down. Players keep cards in hand hidden from other players.

Dealing the cards evenly should leave behind one extra card. The dealer places this secret card face-down in the middle of the play area.

DEALER’S PRIVILEGE
Only the dealer may look at the secret card.

HOW TO PLAY
Each player takes turns, starting with the dealer, clockwise around the play area. On your first turn of a match, you MUST choose one card from your hand and play it face-up in front of you, visible to everyone.

On subsequent turns, do one of the following:

• Play: Choose one card from your hand and play it face-up in front of you, visible to everyone. This card is now said to be in play.
• Pass: Skip your turn. Note: You are still in the game.

Keep all the cards you have in play visible.

END OF MATCH
The match ends if either of the following occurs:

• The sum of the face-up numbers is 15 or higher (in a 2-player game) or 20 or higher (in a 3-player game).
• All players choose to pass. In other words, no one wishes to play any more cards.

Now each player, starting with the dealer, may choose to do the following:

• Fold: If you believe that you will not win this match, declare that you fold. Keep your hand of cards hidden.

The dealer then reveals the secret card and all players reveal their hands.

• The player who meets the secret card’s revealed victory condition wins 2 points. In a tie, both players win 1 point.
• A player who folded and does not meet the revealed victory condition win 1 point.
• A player who folded and meets the victory condition gets 0 points.
• A player who did not fold and does not meet the victory condition gets 0 points.

The match is now complete. The player to the dealer’s left becomes the new dealer for the next match.

END OF GAME
When a player has 6 points, she wins! If two players reach 6 points in the same match, they both win!

TIPS FOR EXPERIENCED PLAYERS
The game is a process of elimination. For example, when a card is played that says “Highest number in play,” you know the highest number in play will NOT win the match because it can’t also be the secret card.

1 and 6 in play or in hand are most likely to win any match. It’s an unfortunate circumstance if you have neither, but not insurmountable. If you deduce that the winning card is in someone’s hand, you can potentially bluff your opponent well enough that they bring it into play instead, thus giving you a better chance to win.

Watch the dealer’s choices for clues. If the dealer folds, she does not believe she has the card in play or in hand that would win the match, which may mean you do and probably should not fold.



EDITING: Will Hindmarch

PLAYTESTING: Chip Beauvais, Kevin Brusky, Kenneth Coble, Bryan Fischer, Matt Fowler, Darrell Louder, Ryan Macklin, Levi Middleton, Chris Norwood, T.C. Petty, Megan Raley, Brad Smoley

The Magic Trick of In-Person Playtesting [Suspense: The Card Game]

One of the things that came to stark relief after UnPub3 is how much the designer being present at a playtest can influence reactions to that game. It's a mixed blessing. The immediacy of your feedback is great for rapid prototyping, but it's hard to decouple the feedback to your game from your presentation of the game. Take for example the Alien-themed deduction game I posted about last week. I brought it in my back pocket as an unofficial side project to Belle of the Ball.

If I saw people milling around and I had a couple minutes between tests, I would ask "Hey, want to play a 5min game?" They'd say "sure" and quickly draw a crowd. In a hushed voice, I start the magic trick.

"You're trapped on a derelict space ship with a hostile alien entity. Only one of these items will let you escape. You're trying to figure out which it will be."

I shuffle the deck and continue. "There are only 13 cards in this deck. There is a white 1 through 6, a black 1 through 6, and a gray 0. The bottom of each card lists a unique condition for escape, like 'Highest card in hand,' or 'Lowest white card in play,' and so on. They're all some combination of either highest or lowest; card in play or card in hand; and sometimes specifically a black card or white card. The only exception is the 0, which says 'Lowest sum of numbers in play' is the condition of escape. That's it, just 13 unique cards."

I fan out the whole deck face-down in my hands and turn to a bystander. "Will you please pull a card out of the deck and put it face down on the table? Thank you."

I turn to the rest of the players, pointing at the face-down card, and say, "This. This is the card that will decide who will escape. You don't know which card it is, but you know which card it isn't."

I deal the remaining 12 cards evenly to the players face down. "These are your hand of cards. Because each card is unique, you now know that the conditions listed in your hands are NOT going to lead to escape."

I give the players a moment to assess their hand. "Now, you'll take turns. On your turn, you can pass or play. If you PASS, you do nothing and the next player takes their turn. If you PLAY, you take one card out of your hand and put it on the table face-up in front of you so everyone can see it. On the first round, everyone must play. Ready? Begin."

The players are a little confused at this point, so when the first player chooses a card, I'd pause for a moment to drive home the general process of elimination that is key to playing the game.

For example, if Ted played a black 1, I'd point to it and say "Alright, Ted has revealed that the highest card in hand is NOT going to win. It's now the Sarah's turn."

Sarah plays a white 6. "Now you know the lowest card in play is probably going to win. Aw, too bad Ted, but chin up. You could still make it. There are still 9 cards to go after all!"

And so on. The game is designed so that by the end of the round, players have at least one card in hand, sometimes two. I reach for the hidden card card and say "Alright, now we find out who will escape. Iiiiiit's the lowest black card in play! Ted wins!"

This all had the appearance of a street magic act, with the final reveal being the "prestige" climax. If "the show" went well, a raucous outcry would draw in another crowd for a new round of play. Folks seemed to like the brain-burning deduction and novelty of a 13-card game. The game even placed runner-up in Bryan Fischer's microgame contest.

Despite the reception, I could already sense some mechanical bugs. I think my dramatic hustle was just hiding the game's warts. Thankfully, these were made very evident after outside playtest feedback where I wasn't present to put on a big show.

That's a lesson to me that I shouldn't get too caught up in my own hype. With that cold splash of water, I admitted to myself that the game has some big problems, but also potentially interesting solutions that keep the core novelty intact.

• The game is too random with 4 players. When you only have three cards in the first turn and you have to play one, it's really a luck of the draw that decides victory.
• Kobayashi-Maru (no-win) hands are also very possible, though they can sometimes be defeated with a clever bluff. For example, one player deduced that the hidden card rewards the highest white card in hand but he only had a white 4. As play progressed, he revealed other cards to make it seem as if a high white card in play would win. This player bluffed well enough get me else to play my white 6, so when the round ended, he won.
• It's rare that a player good at deduction is also a good bluffer. For those players, I introduced the so-called "Gandalf" option. Before the card is revealed, each player can basically say "FLY, YOU FOOLS!" and admit that they're not going to win. If their deduction is correct, they get a small consolation reward. In this manner, good detectives can still have a small second-place victory in the round if they were dealt a bad hand.
• I also introduced a kind of "traitor" role. The dealer actually knows the secret card. Players already know the dealer is the traitor. What they don't know is whether he's bluffing about the secret card. This really emulates the Alien theme from the first two movies where saboteurs are easily discovered, but reluctant to reveal what they know. Play becomes a kind of competitive interrogation.
• Having low cards refer to high victory conditions and vice versa was very brain-burning, without entirely being fun. I am trying to flip it so low cards refer to low victory conditions and high cards refer to high victory conditions. With one less cross-reference to consider, perhaps the game will be easier to grasp for newcomers.
• Regardless of these changes, it would be good for players to place their cards face-up in a numerical row in the middle of the table so everyone can see the gaps at a glance. This unfortunately hides who played which card, so the game would need to include player tokens to place on each card so ownership is clear. This elegantly removes the need for a reference chart, too.

My only apprehension at this point is the theme and how it relates to the victory conditions noted on each card. The connection between the two is pretty much non-existent, but it served as a useful hook to lure players their first game. I couldn't tell if this was just part of the magic trick.

For now, I'm posting the current build on DriveThruCards under the title Suspense: The Card Game. Look for more on that soon. I can't afford to hire artists yet, but if this game gets popular on DTC, it might build up enough for an art budget.

Maybe you'll see SPACE SUSPENSE with aliens and some slight tweaks to make it more Alien-ish. With that done, you might then see SUSPENSE JR. with those friendly animals making their return alongside simpler victory conditions. The basic elements have rich potential for re-themes. I just gotta make sure I have a healthy balance of in-person and external playtests in the future.