Take on the NES with the Decktet

Most of these games are not playable yet. Please be calm! =)

General Thoughts and Ideas About Decktendo

The NES has been a favorite of mine ever since I can remember. Maybe it's because its release in the US was the same year I was born, but I have always had an affinity towards it. The following three games (hopefully we can come up with more) are ideas I had one day just after I discovered the Decktet.

Decktendo Controller

Decktendo uses a controller to manipulate all of its games. It is made up of a 'D-pad' (up, down, left, and right), Start, Select, A, and B. Not all games must or need to use all of the buttons, but they are there nonetheless. To press one of the buttons you place a suit token on top of it. It's that simple. Have fun!

Figure 1. A Decktet Controller for you to print out. Just click the image and save or print it out.

Games

Six Sigma

A game based on the original Zelda — a top down exploring game.
Designer: Richard Skifton
Num. of Players: 1
Extra Materials: Suit tokens, d10

Set up

Place the Excuse at the center of the table. Take 3 knot tokens. The various tokens have many uses, and further in the game you will receive other tokens that will aide you on your journey. Place the Decktendo Controller in front of you. The controller will be explained in greater detail later.

Object

A six story tower stands before you. Immortal glory awaits those who ascend its lofty halls and grand stairs. Each floor is littered with traps, enemies, and any other calamity you can conceive. You must learn from your surroundings and gain what you can before you ascend to the next floor.
The game starts out as a clean slate. You are standing at the doorway (the Excuse) ready to explore the tower in any direction. On each floor you must find the doorway to the stairs (the Ace of that floor)

Controller

On your turn you're able to use as many of your tokens as you have available to you. Place each token one at a time on a button of the controller and carry out its action. The controller has the following actions:

Up - Explore Up
Down - Explore Down
Left - Explore Left
Right - Explore Right
B - Use Item
A - Use Sword
Start - Equip Weapon
Select - Select Item

If a token is already placed on the 'D-pad,' 'A,' or 'B,' then simply place the next token atop the previous. Once you have used all of your suit tokens then wipe the controller clean and start again.

Game Play

Upon venturing into the tower's doorway (the Excuse) you will experience many difficulties that will challenge your wits, press your luck, push you to the limit.

Encounters:
There are three types of encounters you could have:

Aces
Personality
Location
Event

Personalities and Locations are optional encounters, while if an Event is encountered you must fight back. Aces, on the other hand, are sanctuaries where you may find rest.

Suit Tokens:
The suit tokens in this game represent various things. They are your experience, weapons, action count, and life. The three knots tokens originally given you at the start of the game represent your knowledge and experience at the start of your adventure.

Actions:
Within the tower you can perform 3 actions on your turn:

Explore
Fight
Rest

Exploring:
When exploring you simply venture out into the unknown and draw a card from the draw pile and show it as face up next to the previous card in the direction you explored in.

Fighting:
In order to fight you simply place a suit token of your choice on 'A.' This allows you to roll the ten sided dice and hope to roll the Rank of the card or above in order to defeat the enemy. If defeating the enemy is successful then you receive a suit token of the lower ranked suit as a reward. In order to receive the higher ranked suit on the card you must first hit 'Select,' so time your suit tokens correctly. If the attach roll was unsuccessful then the encounter removes one of your suit tokens (i.e. damage taken), and you are pushed back one card in any direction.

Hexris

A game based on the Russian hit, Tetris.
Designer: Richard Skifton
Num. of Players: 1

Set up

The game is played out in a grid of various sizes that may fill up if you're not careful. Only one card can occupy a location at a time. Each location on the grid is square and fits cards either laying down or standing up.

Novice: 8 x 5
Easy: 7 x 5
Medium: 6 x 5
Hard: 5 x 5

Shuffle the Basic deck and place it to the side as a draw pile. Take one card — face up — and place it in the top row middle column of the board. Place another card face up in the docket (just above the draw pile) to show which card is coming up next.

Controller

Place the Decktendo controller in front of you and take the number of suit tokens as your grid is tall. The suit tokens can be used on any of the buttons on the controller. Button Left moves the card left. Button Right moves the card right. If the card is up against the wall of the grid it can't go further in that direction. Button Down slams the card down to the lowest possible position of that column the card is currently in. Button A will flip the card Clockwise (CW) and Button B will flip the card Counter-clockwise (CCW). Button Select switches the top middle card (card in original position) with the card in the docket. Once the card has moved it can no longer be switched with the spare card in the docket. In this game the buttons Start and Up do nothing.

Game Play

The cards will start to fall as soon as you start the game. Once you use a token for any reason the falling card goes to the next row. Resolve the pushed button first, then drop the card one row. Once you have seated the card at the bottom most position of its column, the next card from the docket is brought to the top row middle column face up and another card is brought out into the docket from the draw pile. Your suit tokens are also then brought back into your use and you continue playing as normal.

Once a card has reached the bottom of a column (either the bottom of the grid or a top another card/stack already there) it is stuck and can't be moved.

When six consecutive cards (in any arrangement) have matching suit the six cards are removed and all cards fall straight down. This is compulsory. In order for the cards to have a connection the suits must connect. The card is particular in the way it is oriented. The top suit of the card connects on the ends of the card (smaller edge), while the bottom suit of the card only connects on the long edge of the card. Crowns and Aces connect that one suit on all four sides. This means the orientation of the card needs some forethought before it falls.

Game End

The game ends by 1 of two things happening: 1) The cards are all gone from the draw pile 2) The cards are stacked up to the top preventing another card from being placed in the top middle position. In either case the game ends immediately and you count the rank of each card removed from the game, multiplied by 1000, as your score.

Shovelin' Steve 2

A game based on Dig Dug 2

Setup

Remove all 10 wyrms cards from the basic deck and shuffle, then set them aside. This forms the enemy deck. Take the remaining cards and shuffle, then draw the first 23 cards. Now draw two cards from the wyrms deck. This brings the hand up to a total of 25 cards. Deal out the cards face up as an island in this fashion.

x
xxx
xxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxx
xxx
x

where the island looks like a pyramid with 7 cards at center. Place a wyrms suit token on the card with a wyrms symbol (there should only be one). Now place Shovelin' Steve on the exact center of the board (fourth row, fourth column), unless the wyrm is there then pick any card orthogonal and adjacent to it.

Controller

Place the Decktendo controller in front of you and take five suit tokens from the general supply. The controller works as follows:

Up - Up
Down - Down
Left - Left
Right - Right
B - Use Pump
A - Drill Island

Gameplay

Throughout the game you have the option of either blowing up your enemy or sinking the island around you.

Blow up enemies:
To blow up your enemies you need to first read the rank of card the enemy is standing on, then press B and the direction that the enemy is standing away from you. The wyrm must be orthogonal from you, but does not need to be adjacent. If the wyrm is more than one space away from you then you must hit the direction key as many times as the wyrm is away. Once you've made connection with the enemy you then need to pump your gun with B up to the rank of the card the wyrm is standing on, the wyrm will then explode.

Sink the island:
To sink the island you simply pull out your drill and hit the card you are standing on three (3) times with A. This will flip the card you are standing on to show it has been drilled. Whenever parts of the island have been sufficiently drilled enough to have two ends of the drilled cards touch two sides of the island then that part of the island sinks. If the island is split down the middle, then whichever side has more creatures on it will sink. If it is still a tie, then you choose which side.

Variants

Credits

Playtesters: Richard Skifton, Ashley Skifton

Links

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