Happy Friday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another board game design brain dump. I’m taking a break from Rustbucket Riots—which I covered in last month’s brain dump–and discuss a Blackjack Deck Building game I originally made in 2018. Seven years! Yikes! Guess I got the seven-year itch. This Blackjack Deck Builder has gone through multiple minor rule modifications and name changes. The deck, based on a standard playing card deck, doesn’t have jacks and kings, so it’s had the name No Jack and No Kings.

Play Faster

My oldest daughter had a high school friend, who will remain nameless. We’ll call her C. C loved deck building games, but she wouldn’t draw her hand at the end of each turn (allowing her to plan her next turn), and every time she drew cards into her hand, she’d act like she was reading them for the first time. This frustrated my daughter and her friends. I thought of No Jack or No Kings to fix this issue.

A quick explanation of deck building card games: each player begins with the same (or at least similar) small decks and purchase cards from a supply to add to their decks, making each deck unique.

While many starter cards in a deck building game have limited text, cards one would add to their hands could contain a heap of text. This would cause C’s turns to last three minutes or more, as she read the more complicated cards that she added to her deck. So, I took out most text. Standard playing cards have little to no text. Next, C had the issue of not drawing her hand at the end of her turn. What standard card game doesn’t require a hand? Blackjack.

The above sample card (Page of Coins) is a prototype. The end product will hopefully look a lot better. Lol.

I merged deck building with Blackjack and came up with No Jack or No Kings, and it worked. With the exception of changing the suits, the only cards that look different from a deck of standard playing cards are the face cards. C knew how to play Blackjack. Players would draw cards from the top of their decks, following the standard rules for Blackjack. If you drew over 22 points of cards, you’d bust and lose your turn. If a face card remains in play (without busting) at the end of a turn, the player can move the face card to their tableau and gain its ability. In the case of the page above, every time that player draws a coin suit card, they gain one extra money to purchase other cards. No Jack/No Kings starter decks begin with one face card from one of the four suits. Each suit has a different power.

Trouble with Asymmetry

Most players in deck building games begin with the exact same cards. Choosing to go with asymmetric powers at the onset of this game, however slight, proves difficult to balance. Brushes allow players to cull cards from their discard. Deck building experts see this as overpowered. But Diamonds and Cups have better win percentages. Diamonds allow players to manipulate decks (take cards from a discard and placing them on the bottom). If you’re good at counting cards, you can induce more 21s (or Blackjacks). Cups let players discard a drawn card and draw a new one. This is also strong.

The first page I showed, the Page of Coins, is the weakest of all four. But perception matters. Even though I’ve playtested No Jack/No Kings hundreds of times and found Cups and Diamonds win more often than not, players still “feel” more powerful with Brushes and, to a lesser extent, Coins. Granted, one of my playtest weekends was with someone at a Protospiel. He played No Jack/No Kings throughout the entire weekend (like a few dozen times), hoping to sculpt a deck of only Tens and Aces. This gamer played Brushes in each game and lost every time. Winning didn’t factor into his enjoyment. He wanted to build a near-perfect deck. So, the numbers may be a little skewed.

Does anything need to be changed? Honestly, I don’t know.

How to Win at No Jack/No Kings

I just realized we discussed No Jack/No Kings mechanisms without sharing how to win. There’s a separate deck of Patrons. Every patron can be claimed with a Blackjack (21), but each patron also gives discounts to two suits. If you have a face card from either suit in your tableau and you reach the lower number, you can claim the patron. Every turn, you can either claim a patron or purchase cards from the supply. That’s how the gamer (Protospiel) lost so many times. He would purchase cards if they fit in his “perfect deck” instead of claiming a patron. The first player to claim six patrons wins.

No Theme and Simple Mechanisms

I don’t know why I shelved No Jack/No Kings for almost a decade. My best guess is that I wanted No Jack/No Kings to have more theme or more complexity. I no longer care if No Jack/No Kings has a theme, and any additional mechanisms I added to the game diluted the core gameplay. I was obsessed with everything No Jack/No Kings didn’t have and failed to see what it did have. That same Protospiel (seven years ago, I’m guessing), I only taught the game once. Other gamers taught No Jack/No Kings to the rest of the convention, and the game was played consistently for two and a half days. I need to get out of my own way. Ugh!

I’m finalizing the starter decks and the cost of cards. But there are shockingly few things to balance/tweak after I pin down the starter decks, so I’m left with one question. Which name do you like better, No Jack or No Kings?

Let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.