Vases, Crates, Barrels and Sacks: Breaking Down the Yspahan Board into a Card Deck

Persian vasesI've been mulling over the Yspahan game board in the back of my head the past few days. It occurred to me that each market is essentially a permutation combining two independent sets of variables: Suit and Color. The more common a color in a suit, the more difficult it is to make a complete set, the more valuable that set is. So there is an interesting set of correlations here. Being more common is actually more valuable, because Yspahan only awards points for complete sets.

Value of Suit and Color permutation, divided by number of spaces.

In the graphic above, I divided the total value of all markets in a permutation by the number of markets in that permutation. For example, two yellow vase markets are worth 6 points in total. Thus, each individual market is worth 3. In some cases, this resulted in awkward fractions, noted in red. I rounded these to whole integers, so that some markets within a single permutation would be worth more than others. That resulted in the values noted below.

Value of Suit and Color permutation, divided by number of spaces, rounded.

I was curious about the individual values of a suit as a whole, regardless of color. I divided the total values of each suit by the number of markets in that suit and came up the following results. I distributed point values as evenly as possible, with high values favoring the more common colors. Interesting to note: Sack and Barrel are both worth 21 points in total, their main difference being rarity.

Value of Suit, divided by its number of spaces, rounded.

What if we broke down the values across colors regardless of their suit? For the purposes of this breakdown, I considered orange to be pink. I assume the orange vase permutation is a unique color to highlight its high value, but for our purposes it follows the pattern of rarity established by all the other pink markets. (In other words, pink is usually the most common color in a suit.) I distributed those points as evenly as possible, with each suit getting at least one high value market and the more common suit getting first dibs.

Value of Color, divided by its number of spaces, rounded.

Sometimes it's useful to reverse-engineer a successful design. Exploring its various permutations can help you discover how another designer solved certain problems. It can also lead you to interesting ideas of your own. In my case, this gives me an idea for a deck of cards.



This is a spreadsheet for a deck of 54 cards. Each row represents a single card and its individual point value. Each card has a suit and a color. When played as a set of matching suits and/or colors, their value increases as noted. I also added six wild cards to round out the deck. Try playing Go Fish with this deck! When the deck runs out, the player with the most points wins? You could also use points as a resource towards a more strategic Euro victory condition, like Ticket to Ride. Maybe a memory game?

Anyhoo... This is what I do for fun sometimes. Have you ever reverse-engineered a game like this, or am I just weird?

Comments

  1. Keith J DaviesJuly 6, 2012 at 4:43 PM

    Not Go Fish, I think, but Rummy could be a good choice.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results that ar
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link
Read more