Dead Man’s Draw is a card game that was actually first released as a free-to-play digital app by Stardock Entertainment. It’s a simple push-your-luck game with many twists. I recall saying to myself back then, “they should make this into a physical game.” I am pleased Mayday Games did so.
The jist of the game revolves around drawing cards us much as you like. As long as none of those cards have the same suit, you can collect them into your bank. The highest of each suit is your score, when the deck runs out, whoever has the highest total wins.
However, I noticed a substantial contrast on how the game was explained by the rulebook in physical form vs the app. The contrast comes not from the mechanics but the rules presentation. Mayday Games explained in detail all 8 powers and 17 traits you can work with; however it seems it didn’t explain that you don’t have to play all of them at the same time, at least at the start, when you are still learning the game. The app introduced each suit power one level at a time.
VariablePlay’s name was inspired from the variants I make to fix games. I make these changes for balance and streamlining. The goal is to let people enjoy their games more by simplifying the game experience.
Here is VP’s take on how you should teach this game:
- Play the game first without any suits or traits. Simply allow the players to enjoy the push-your-luck aspect of the game. It takes around 10-15 minutes before the deck runs out with 4 players. In this simplest for of the game, it’s actually still very fun to play.
- Play another game, this time teach the Cannon suit. This suit, when drawn, allows you to discard the top card of any pile in an opponent’s bank.
- Keep playing more rounds, adding one to two more suits depending on the receptiveness of your players. It adds to the excitement as well as removes the confusion of trying to remember all the powers at once.
- If your players are still interested, you can add the traits.
- Side Note: There maybe a bit of shuffling involved because of one or two suits, you can alleviate this by doing a simple cut and just have them randomly pick cards facedown.
Dead Man’s Draw is a simple, cool pirate-themed game that missed a few points in its physical version. The very game itself is great and I definately recommend you check this one out. One other small issue I have is that they did not place the designer of the game on the box cover, it is mentioned at the back of the rulebook though, so kudos to Derek Paxton, Leo Li and Chris Bray for making a fun family game you can now enjoy both digitally and physically.
If you ever feel that changing a game’s rules could make it play better, do so. There’s no harm trying and if it does work, everyone involved will feel accomplished. Until next time, make your games count!
Written by: Ron Villaver
Edited by: Reg Tolentino