I Raise You

These are two ideas that are both about “raising the bet/challenge”, but otherwise quite different.

I raise you II

THEME: You’re all merchants on a busy bazaar. You’re trying to trade your own goods, any way you can, for some newer and more valuable goods.

Card/Chip Game: you’re constantly raising bets. There are no turns, anyone can jump in or plunk the next bet on the table. Once nobody wants to raise the bet, the round is over and whoever wins gets the spoils.

Repeat until somebody is out of money / one player remains.

Motivated by this idea of great moments of bluff or betrayal. Or somebody thinks they made an unbeatable bet, and then you come with “Well! I raise you …” Make the cards/items/bets using ridiculous terms or theme, to make it even funnier.

The value of the things, and how they combine, needs to constantly shift for this to be even funnier. Like, playing outrageous combos—on your own or with another player—completely changes the game.

Gameplay

Feels like this should be on a timer.

Rounds would be like this:

The start player gives an opening bet and starts the timer
From now on, everyone can throw new bets on the table
When you do so, however, tap the timer to reset it.
When the timer runs out, the round is over. The last bet played wins.

I need to add an easy “tap to reset” setting to my timer tool.

Scoring

IDEA 1: I feel like there should be some bluffing and some “money” aspect.

Everybody starts with the same amount of money.

You can enhance your bets by adding money. (It’s like worth 4x as much as regular bets. But this means that you lose that money if somebody overthrows you.)

Similarly, part of the “spoils” of each turn is hidden. (So it might be much lower or higher than you expected.)

IDEA 2: Players need to work together a lot. The highest or most outrageous bets come from combining cards across multiple players. If that one wins, all the players that participated divide the winnings across each other.

An outline:

Combos that are terribly hard to get on your own
The “2”-card needs to be played by two different players to be worth its value. The “3”-card by three different players, etcetera.
- Although this is a nice idea, it would forbid 4+ cards for most groups. Instead, each card has a value and a cooperation value?
But if any combo/card is played by all players, it immediately loses its value. (They all negate each other.)

We’d need some simple rule that allows crazy situations. Low cards can suddenly overtake high ones. Cards mean a lot when they come in pairs, or straits, or combined with some other specific card. They mean nothing in other situations.

I raise you III

A social, improvisation game.

Players hold random word cards. A random task card is also drawn.

On your turn, you must play a card from your hand and explain why it is better suited for this task.

Once done, people discuss whether you were right or not. Points go to the player who played the last card—the unbeatable one.

How to make it slightly more of a “game”? Perhaps make the size of the improvement a point of contention. Or do voting through ratings:

Each player has cards -1 to 9
After each turn, they play a face-down card with their opinion of someone’s story
They only win if the sum of their score is greater than the previous score.
(Add some smart side-effects to this. If somebody does <something>, they may also tie, or actually want to be lower. A way to prevent people scoring the first player too high.)

No, this is the idea! This voting goes in secret all round. We only reveal scores at the end.

(And maybe some special actions allow you to gain “favor”, or get back some of your score cards, or look at your own score prematurely, and all those things.)

(Idea: there’s one “dwarf card”. If exactly one is inside your score, you actually win by having the lowest score. If there are more, they count for -1 each.)

These are two ideas that are both about "raising the bet/challenge", but otherwise quite different. ## I raise you II **THEME:** You're all merchants on a busy bazaar. You're trying to trade your own goods, any way you can, for some newer and more valuable goods. **Card/Chip Game:** you're constantly raising bets. There are no turns, anyone can jump in or plunk the next bet on the table. Once nobody wants to raise the bet, the round is over and whoever wins gets the spoils. Repeat until somebody is out of money / one player remains. Motivated by this idea of great moments of bluff or betrayal. Or somebody thinks they made an unbeatable bet, and then you come with "Well! I raise you ..." Make the cards/items/bets using ridiculous terms or theme, to make it even funnier. The *value* of the things, and how they combine, needs to constantly *shift* for this to be even funnier. Like, playing outrageous combos---on your own or with another player---completely changes the game. ### Gameplay Feels like this should be on a **timer**. Rounds would be like this: - The start player gives an opening bet and starts the timer - From now on, everyone can throw new bets on the table - When you do so, however, tap the timer to reset it. - When the timer **runs out**, the round is over. The last bet played wins. *I need to add an easy "tap to reset" setting to my timer tool.* ### Scoring **IDEA 1:** I feel like there should be some bluffing and some "money" aspect. Everybody starts with the same amount of money. You can *enhance* your bets by adding money. (It's like worth 4x as much as regular bets. But this means that you *lose* that money if somebody overthrows you.) Similarly, part of the "spoils" of each turn is hidden. (So it might be much lower or higher than you expected.) **IDEA 2:** Players need to **work together** a lot. The highest or most outrageous bets come from **combining** cards across multiple players. If that one wins, *all the players* that participated divide the winnings across each other. An outline: - Combos that are terribly hard to get on your own - The "2"-card needs to be played by two different players to be worth its value. The "3"-card by three different players, etcetera. - Although this is a nice idea, it would forbid 4+ cards for most groups. Instead, each card has a **value** and a **cooperation value**? - But if any combo/card is played by *all players*, it immediately loses its value. (They all negate each other.) We'd need some simple rule that allows crazy situations. Low cards can suddenly overtake high ones. Cards mean a lot when they come in pairs, or straits, or combined with some other specific card. They mean nothing in other situations. ## I raise you III A **social, improvisation game.** Players hold random word cards. A random **task card** is also drawn. On your turn, you must play a card from your hand and explain why it is *better* suited for this task. Once done, people discuss whether you were right or not. Points go to the player who played the last card---the unbeatable one. *How to make it slightly more of a "game"?* Perhaps make the *size* of the improvement a point of contention. Or do voting through ratings: - Each player has cards -1 to 9 - After each turn, they play a face-down card with their opinion of someone's story - They only win if the sum of their score is *greater than* the previous score. - (Add some smart side-effects to this. If somebody does \<something>, they may also tie, or actually want to be *lower*. A way to prevent people scoring the first player too high.) **No, this is the idea!** This voting goes in *secret* all round. We only reveal scores at the end. (And maybe some special actions allow you to gain "favor", or get back some of your score cards, or *look* at your own score prematurely, and all those things.) (Idea: there's one "dwarf card". If exactly one is inside your score, you actually win by having the *lowest* score. If there are more, they count for -1 each.)