Daniel Solis

I've got the rights to Trickster back in my hands! I'm considering where its future may lead.  Trickster was my first attempt at really pushing print-on-demand as a primary distributor. It was an ambitious plan back in 2015. In those days, it was a series of individual small-deck card games. The deck sizes were optimized for best margins and ease of shipping from POD. Each deck was standalone, but could be shuffled together. The core rules were the same for all of the games, but the cards in each deck had unique abilities. (I would attempt this again with the " I Can't Even " series and with the  Plume  decks.)  After releasing the fourth deck, Trickster got picked up by a publisher as a  big box edition on Kickstarter , with a new look at revised theme. Unfortunately it never really caught on in retail. I think it's really better for a small indie channel like DriveThru. I'd been waiting for the retail inventory to run low before promoting the classic de...

Howdy all! Long time no see. It's been a wildly busy couple of months since last year, most of which culminates in this new game from Action Phase Games and Indie Boards and Cards. Trickster: Champions of Time is a big polished update of my old game series Trickster which long-time followers might remember from a few years ago. The art is all new, the base game contains more hero cards, and the expansions planned introduce even more. I handled art direction and Beth Sobel did the illustrations. I'm happy to have a diverse and inclusive cast of characters from across time and space so skillfully depicted in the game. Check out the video above and help spread the word. Thank you!

As a part of general development for Trickster, I'm taking a hard look at the 3-player and 2-player modes. The basic game has a nice sweet spot with 4-6 players, but to make the game viable at retail, we need to legitimately have a "2" on the box. So here's what I've got in the lab right now. For those of you who have at least two Trickster sets, here's what you need to do. --~-- Set Up Changes Your deck will need one more hero than normal. So, eight heroes in seven different colors, for a deck of 56 cards. (For my home tests, I liked adding the Miner from Symbiosis to the Fantasy set. She's a nice complement to the Rogue and keeps the overall effects pretty easy to remember.) Deal eleven cards to each player’s hand. For Three Players: Clear an additional section of the play area called the Timeline . Set it to the opposite side of the Trash from the Deck. Deal a row of twelve cards to the Timeline face-down.  Turn the card at the front of the...

Happy new year, everyone! It's been a long time since I've done a proper sales report, which probably foreshadows the transitions from 2015. I kicked off the year knowing that I couldn't repeat the same pace I held in 2014, releasing one new game or product each month via DriveThruCards' POD service. That wasn't sustainable for the long-term, but it really yielded great rewards and I'm glad I did it. Without further ado, let's look at the numbers and break down some context. The Numbers Here are the sales numbers for each product in 2015 (in red) compared to 2014 (in blue). The good news is that every product that existed in 2014 sold more units than it did in 2015! Across the board growth is very positive. These are the gross sales numbers for each product in 2015 compared to 2014. As you can see with some small low-priced products like the Koi Pond promo cards, the sales numbers far exceed their actual dollar gross. These numbers fluctuat...

Happy October, everyone! I'm happy to announce Trickster: Monsters and Trickster: Supers are now available for playtesting! All playtesters are welcome, but I'm looking for a mix of experienced Trickster players and totally new players. Please share your feedback before October 31 2015, email gobi81 at gmail dot com or on twitter @DanielSolis . The theme for Trickster: Monsters is "Haunted Houses," which is sort of a pun. All of the effects in this set can trigger a second time if your target opponent has this character in their House already. This makes your initial choice of card during the setup particularly dangerous because you're making yourself a target. --> Download Trickster: Monsters PnP PDF here . The theme for Trickster: Supers is "Power," which is fitting! It's sort of the reverse of Monsters, because each effect in this set can trigger a second time if you have the hero in your House already. In this set, having card...

  I'm happy to say the two newest Trickster sets are now live at http://www.smartplaygames.com ! Trickster is a series of fun casual strategy card games featuring heroes from many genres and universes. You’re trying to keep those gallant chumps from meddling in your business. Lure them toward your opponents and try to keep them away from you. Whoever has the fewest heroes will be the winner! Each Trickster set is a standalone game, but you can mix heroes from different sets to customize the play to your group’s tastes. Trickster: Starship is a fast-paced and competitive set featuring the motley crew of the starship Emphasis as they explore the unknown. Art by Brian Patterson . Trickster: Symbiosis is a highly strategic set featuring characters from the biopunk setting Symbiosis by Steven Sanders . Both games are completely compatible with Trickster: Fantasy and Trickster: Tianxia . For more news on the future plans, see below. Kickstarting Trick...

Hey y'all! I've got the rulebooks for the next two Trickster sets up and ready for your perusal. It takes  a lot of eyeballs to catch the tiny typos and grammatical vagaries that creep into a rules doc even this tiny, so I appreciate your time if you can take a look. Trickster: Starship Trickster: Symbiosis As with my other self-published games, these rules are formatted to fit onto standard size playing cards. It's a trick getting rules concisely but thoroughly explained in that tiny format. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, please share! Thank you so much!

I sometimes say I  design icebergs: Tiny at the surface, but much more to discover with time. Now, I'm not always successful , but that's the goal. That's the kind of play I enjoy most. Well, it turns out I've been designing games for parents as well, at least according to some fan mail I've been getting lately. There's a particular spike in these comments for Trickster lately. Here are a few: Gareth says : "Just received Trickster: Fantasy and played it with my sons (13 and 11). A great game that's simple to learn , but allows players to make some great choices." Robert Kalajian at Purple Pawn says "I’ve played both Fantasy and Tianxia with my kids (5, 8, and 10) and they all really enjoyed them. My 5 year old took a bit more time to learn the powers, but now knows each in the Fantasy deck by the icons on the cards. The Tianxia deck is still a bit much for him, though he hasn’t given up on it yet!" Seth Ben-Ezra shared this...

First, a quick head's up: As of this post (August 4, 2015), there's only a little under two weeks left in the public playtest period for Trickster: Starship and Trickster: Symbiosis . If you will be able to send me feedback before August 15, 2015 , please email gobi81 at gmail for PnP PDFs of the two sets. Thanks so much! Now, I thought it would be fun to show a peek behind the curtain of how I develop Trickster sets. Perhaps this will be useful for anyone in the future who is looking to home-brew their own Trickster sets with their own favorite themes. More likely, I'll look back at this post in a few years when I'm completely bereft of new ideas. Either way, useful! What's the hook? When I take on a genre or universe for a Trickster set, I try to find one mechanical thing that unites that particular group of heroes. In Trickster: Tianxia, it was the idea of high-speed, hand-to-hand movement with little house augmentation. I liked the idea of thes...

Yay! Trickster: Starship and Trickster: Symbiosis are now ready for outside playtests! If you can play these new Trickster sets in the next four weeks or so, please email gobi81 at gmail dot com . For further details on Trickster, check out the tutorial video below. Trickster: Starship The theme of this set is pioneers and discovery , with art by Brian Patterson. Most of these heroes affect the visible information in the game. This set also adds a new rule, the Boldly Bonus, which only applies to heroes from this set: Boldly Bonus: If you lead with any of these heroes, you may resolve their effect twice. (The second resolution is optional.) Trickster: Symbiosis The theme for this set is growth and balance . Many heroes let you thoughtfully cultivate your House and manage your majorities. This set features heroes from Steven Sanders’ biopunk Symbosis universe. Find more about it here: http://www.studiosputnik.com/ If you want to playtest these sets, please e...

The second release for Trickster is still in development, but it will be a pair of Sci-Fi themed sets. Today, I wanted to show off Brian Patterson's new art for Trickster: Starship . This set is centered on the ragtag crew of the starship Emphasis . It's a loving mashup of the goofiest parts of Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, Firefly, and Farscape. Brian really knocked it out of the park! I'm eager to share more about Trickster: Starship as it develops!

Yay! I'm so happy and proud to present the Trickster tutorial series . I hope you dig this method of releasing producing and releasing video tutorials for the series. Share, like, and subscribe! HOW TO PLAY TRICKSTER - Introduction TRICKSTER: FANTASY    Buy it here    Read the Rules PDF    Rate and Review on BoardGameGeek TRICKSTER: TIANXIA    Buy it here    Read the Rules PDF    Rate and Review on BoardGameGeek Find more games from Smart Play Games at DriveThruCards MUSIC CREDITS: "Morocco Sting" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ "Meatball Parade" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Production Notes Each Trickster set is a standalone game, but with the option to mix-and-match heroes from different sets, so it was a ch...

They're here! Finally! Trickster is a fun pub/strategy card game that's easy to learn and quick to play for 3-7 players! Each set of Trickster cards is a standalone game featuring seven heroes from a different genre or unique setting. You can mix up heroes from different sets to customize the game for your group! Trickster: Fantasy features a Knight, Bard, Mage, and other familiar fantasy heroes. It's a good introductory set for new players, with simple effects th at sync together for a lot of fun light strategy. You can get it here: http://www.drivethrucards.com/product/148126/Trickster-Fantasy?src=newest Trickster: Tianxia features Wuxia-inspired heroes from Vigilance Press' role-playing game. It's a fast, highly competitive take on Trickster's gameplay. Good for players comfortable with a little "take that" in their game night. You can get it here: http://www.drivethrucards.com/prod…/151157/Trickster-Tianxia ...

I just ordered Trickster: Fantasy and Trickster: Tianxia proofs this weekend, so if all goes well I'll have both games ready to launch around July 1. For now, I have a BoardGameGeek page up for Trickster: Fantasy . If you've played the prototype print-and-play, I would very much appreciate your rating there!

Great news! My new card game Trickster is just about ready to go live later this month. Until then, you can find the live google doc of the rules and print-and-play files here . Good and generous friend Ruth Boyack will also be floating around Origins 2015 this week, where she'll have my prototypes on-hand to teach and play. Thanks, Ruth! Now I have to think about release schedules. Each Trickster set is meant to be a standalone game, with its own set of thematically related characters. If you have several decks, you can take characters from different decks and mix them together. I still intend to self-publish on DriveThruCards, as I have done with several of my other card games. POD has a lot of strengths, like immediate release and minimal overhead. But the biggest setback is the cost of shipping. It's a big sticker shock, especially overseas, so anything I can do to encourage impulse bulk orders is good. This is why most of my products are under $9.99 and wh...

It's crazy busy here at Smart Play Games HQ, so I only have a few bullet points before I head back to the quarry. :) Until midnight tonight, Belle of the Ball is available on MinatureMarket.com for just $10! Next month, I'll be releasing a version of Suspense on DriveThruCards featuring the art from the Brazilian FunBox edition. The Chinese edition of Kigi from Joy Pie is 381% funded so far! Trickster is almost ready to go to print, I just need your eyes on the rules doc one more time to find any errors. Please leave comments in the doc. Thank you!

As noted yesterday , the Detective's ability to simply draw a card from the deck was really not useful or desirable for a lot of playtesters. I tested out the revised ability last night: Detective Dishi Investigate: Look at two cards from an opponent’s hand. Take one into your hand. Give the other to any opponent’s hand. I may have gone overboard and replaced his undesirable ability with an overly powerful ability. It gives you a one-two punch in that it lets you draft from an opponent's hand *and* lets you take control of the game's speed. For example.... (Names below changed to protect the innocent.) Last night, Steve took a gamble by investigating Jane, who had only two cards left in her hand. Steve kept one card that gave him majority in Red. He then gave the second card to me, hoping to saddle me with an unwanted suit. This left his Jane with no cards in her hand, which ended the game. This was a risk because she had two fewer cards to worry a...

Based on input from Trickster playtests I announced the other day, I've proposed some possible revisions to cards in the Fantasy, Tianxia, and Symbiosis decks. Below is the list of possible revisions. None of these are final, but I did want to explain the reason for these changes for further discussion. Trickster: Fantasy Rogue Sneak: Move a card from your collection to an opponent's collection. Reason for change: It seemed that the Rogue's current abilities were too versatile and could do with some more focus. Trickster: Symbiosis Miner Claim: Move a card from an opponent's collection to your collection. Reason for change: This card was formerly referred to as the Archaeologist, which may still be a valid name for this revised ability. Her former card-flipping ability was sort of esoteric to explain in a deck that was already pretty out-there in terms of mechanics. Making her a counter-point to the Rogue seemed a nice complement to a more streamline...

I just updated three Trickster decks for open playtesting. These include updated card designs with revamped diagrams that will hopefully be language-neutral enough for international audiences. For the sake of clarity, I did give each card a key verb so you could say "I'm rescuing this" or "I'm restoring that." I found it makes the game much smoother when players had that kind of in-game vocabulary at a glance. Check out the live Trickster rules doc here And here are the PDFs. Feel free to print and play these with your group! Trickster: Fantasy   Trickster: Symbiosis   Trickster: Tianxia I'm eager to hear your feedback on how each works out for you. If you're feeling daring, try taking heroes from one deck and adding them to another. Thanks very much!

Trickster is an odd blend of tactical take-that, a sliver of push-your-luck, and a fondant icing of theme holding the whole thing together. I've been actively developing Trickster: Fantasy and several other Trickster decks for a while now. The core game is a very nice canvas on which to play all sorts of little mechanical effects. Creating In the development process, I brainstormed a big list of powers on this live doc . Most of those were developed in the absence of theme per se . They're mainly just shaking out the possible permutations of moving a card: from (your/opponent's/anyone's/the) (hand/collection/discard/trick/deck)  to (your/opponent's/anyone's/the) (hand/collection/discard/trick/deck) Plus some miscellaneous card effects that might be fun form a purely mechanical standpoint. This was all a very rote process without much inspiring "story" behind the powers. The strength of the Fantasy deck is that each hero's power just ...