Notes from an exhibition - Words and Cards

 

Of words and cards. Familiar elements, extremely portable, requiring little space or even no table. No wonder they form part of so many games and are even the main, if not the only, ingredient in many. With a long history as play elements, they are still constantly reinvented, building bridges between old habits and new experiences.

Codenames. To play in two teams, combining deduction, strategy, and the knowledge of the partners. Associate ideas, give a single word as a clue to discover several in the grid, hoping the partners are on the same page. But it turns out that only some of the words correspond to our spies, others to those of the opponents, still others to innocent civilians, and one is the assassin, to be avoided at all costs. A game for everyone by Vlaada Chvátil, celebrating a decade of existence and well-deserved success.

Just One. Another variation in word guessing. There is just one team, and the aim is to get one of the players to answer correctly. The problem is that each remaining player chooses a clue word in secret, and identical clues are eliminated! What is the best strategy: to go for the obvious and risk the elimination of clues, or search for more elaborate clues, but which may need others to convey the intended meaning? A game from Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter.

Scrabble. A true classic, created by Alfred Butts in the first half of the last century. Building words, letter by letter, in a dynamic crossword puzzle. But with a scoring system that rewards the strategy of occupying the space and the quest to reach bonus squares that double or triple the score of the letter placed there or of the whole word using that space. It was played as recently as yesterday, in a true example of games accessible to players over 90!

The Crew - The quest for planet nine. A reinvention of trick-taking games in a cooperative format, with missions to complete as a team, but hindered by minimal communication. Win a trick with the lowest card? Winning certain cards in a specific sequence and by predefined players? All this, and much more, is in this game by Thomas Sing.

Arboretum. It combines the placement of tree cards to create paths of the same species in our individual arboretum, with the control of each species using the cards left in hand at the end of the game. Guaranteed dilemma: to play a card to extend the paths or keep it in hand to vie for control. An original game by Dan Cassar, with beautiful illustrations by Philippe Guérin, Chris Quilliams, and Beth Sobel.

Whales Destroying the World. Bluff is king in this game of hidden roles and unusual name, where you don't initially know the identities of allies and opponents. This was my first collaboration in the world of board games, translating the rules into Portuguese when the game was searching for funding on Kickstarter.

Magic the Gathering. It is one of the card games with an unusual notoriety status. A duel in magical worlds, using cards with their names and powers. Its mechanics promote a high level of interaction, allowing you to activate cards, attack, defend, counterattack, increase or interrupt effects, and even interrupt the interruptions themselves. Fuelled by a continuous edition of new cards and sets, it allows you to build customized decks to your own taste, knowledge, and wallet. Strategising before and during the game. Playing in tournaments. Collecting the cards. It is hard to believe Richard Garfield's idea is thirty years old!

Traditional cards. Poker. Tarot. Decks of different sizes and composition. A multitude of games for all tastes, handed down orally, collated in magazines and books, available on the internet. With regional or national variants. Fitting in a pocket. Without text, facilitating global sharing. They can even be used for magic tricks or complex hand manipulations, should you have the skills!