I’m an unabashed fan of Print and Play versions of both published and unpublished games. Most of these handmade editions get played a couple times and are never touched again, so usually I’m better off spending the money, instead of wasting the time crafting the set. However, I am the happy owner of four commercially produced Decktets, a set of beads to match the suit colors and the book – conducted over four separate purchases.
How did that happen? About a year ago, I stumbled across this curious little deck. The art was well done and the deck had an interesting backstory. I read a few game rules, put it on my wishlist, and then dropped the subject because it seemed pricey for just a pack of cards. Over the past year the Decktet kept popping up among the people I enjoy following. So when the game Magnate had a crescendo of recommendations, I finally dragged out my markers and drew up a deck to see what the hullabaloo is about.
What took me from my DIY handdrawn deck to buying all that Decktet gear? To be honest, it wasn’t Magnate, I can see the greatness of the game but I didn’t fall in love it. Same with Jacynth or Quincunx, which are pleasant mind benders of the tableau variety that also play well solitaire. Nor the best solitaire game, Adaman, which fully utilizes all three card aspects (numbers, suits, and types).
Even though there are good games for the Decktet, the reason I fell in love with the Decktet was because it is it is a fertile playground for designing new games. There are three major reasons that makes it work – it is different, open, and closed. A deck doesn’t need to be all three for it to be the basis of a some good games, but it needs to have all three aspects for it to work as game system that is a fertile basis for new designs.
With any card game, the standard is the 52 card Poker deck with cards ranked 1-13 in four suits (one instance of each card). As Reiner Knizia has shown throughout his career, certain games could use a few extra ranks, maybe a couple more suits, and sometimes a duplicate rank here or there. But four suits times thirteen ranks has created a deck that has kept an awful lot of people entertained over the centuries. If you follow boardgamegeek.com, there are a couple other proposed non-single game specific decks out there – the Rage Deck (1-16, six suits) and the Rainbow Deck – but neither of them have been particularly intriguing because they don’t offer something fundamentally different from a poker deck. It doesn’t help that neither of them are nearly as well drawn, but more importantly, neither of them have the idiosyncratic double suited card system.
Because the 2-9 ranks in the Decktet are systematically suited in a not particularly rational fashion, the deck has a strong personality. However this personality does not exclude visitors, instead it creates limits and boundaries, which allows other people’s creativity to flourish within its confines. The poker deck had created a very nice walled garden for people who wanted card games with systematic comprehensive decks – which is why it is the de facto standard. So if you’re gonna develop a new walled garden, it needs to be something more compelling than a couple extra ranks and few extra suits.
Even though it seems counter-intuitive to combine limits with creativity, as an architect I’ve come to realize that problems are often the best tools in focusing one’s creativity. Boundaries cause problems which force you to tap your ingenuity. Without these limits, your creativity can freeze up and settle for mediocre solutions.
A prime example of too much openness is the Looney Icehouse system. If you look at the Icehouse system there are very few “pure” icehouse games. My favorite pure icehouse game is Tic Tac Doh! which requires no additional components, and does not have a defined board. Aside from that great little game, most Icehouse games include external components or has a fairly complicated ruleset to imbue complexity into the game. The proliferation of external components for that game implies that the system does intrinsically have enough structure that designers need. My lukewarm response to the Icehouse system be mainly due to my strong preference for card games over perfect information abstracts, but the elegance of the Icehouse system and beauty of the physical pyramids becomes muddled by all the other stuff you need to keep handy.
Even though the ranks of the Decktet are simple – six aces and crowns with three instances for ranks two through nine – the asymmetric combinations of suit, ranks, and card types creates a enough variety in the landscape for designers to work without constantly incorporating external elements.
However, a bounded world still needs to be large enough for exploration. Mahjong is basically a cardgame (though much richer experientially with the hard tiles). This funky three suited set with two special suits and four instances of each tile makes for a tight rummy game which deservedly has an intense following in America and in Asia. Even though there are noticeable differences between continents (if you’re familiar with one kind of Mahjong you owe it to yourself to see how nutty the other ways that people play it) all the versions are basically variations on the same rummy game. You just collect tiles into sets and score it when you fill up your hand with melds. Aside from the computer solitaire game, there hasn’t been a proliferation of alternative games that use a Mahjong set. It is just too damn perfect for this one game; it doesn’t suggest anything else. On the other hand, the Decktet is the home to some great games but it is not the perfect medium for any one type of game. It’s got some quirky boundaries and it still has some unexplored corners for people to find some games – it’s open for exploration, but not too open to be uninspiring, and it is certainly different from other decks on the market.
It wasn’t until after a game of Quincux that it struck me why I really love this deck. Playing with the Decktet brought me back into the world of being a kid wasting a summer afternoon away. The internet has been great for people who love card games, but it also made the world smaller and a little less exciting. If there is a good card game to be figured out, odds are someone has done it – and the rules right there on pagat. I love pagat.com, but I noticed that it dampened my interest in coming up with variants to card games just because I can’t shake the nagging feeling someone has already figured it out better. But that’s certainly not the case with the Decktet. The Decktet’s funky structure reinserts just enough uncertainty to reopen the world of playing with designing games. There are already a lot of very good games in on the Decktet Wiki, but who knows, you might just come up with the next one.
