New Rule

Introduction: Thunderstorms can be exciting, but if they knock out the power, then the excitement really begins! It can be annoying to find yourself without lights, TV, refrigeration, or any of the other electronic services people depend on, but an unexpected break from these creature comforts can often be invigorating in unexpected ways… and in Lights Out, it can even mean the difference between victory and defeat! In this game, players compete while a storm rages around them. At any time the lights could go, and the rules you depend on could all go out the window. When that happens, whatever advantage you may have had is up for grabs!

Players: 2-4

Materials:

• One standard deck of playing cards.
• One six-sided die.

Setting Up: Shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player, setting aside the remainder into a draw pile. Turn the first card in the draw pile face-up and place it next to the deck: this is the starting play pile. The youngest player goes first, and play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: Players race to rid their hand of all cards. Basic play is as in the classic game Crazy Eights: on their turn, a player may play one card from their hand that matches either the value or the suit of the top card in the play pile. Eights are wild and may be played any time on any card, and they allow the player to declare any suit they wish as the new required suit to match. If they are unable to play, the player draws a card from the draw pile instead.

However, players must also roll the die each turn. If they roll a six, the lights go out. Play continues using the “In the Dark” rules until a Lights On event is triggered. While the lights are out, players do not roll the die: rolling resumes with the next player in the sequence after the lights are restored.

In the Dark: As soon as the lights go out, all players keep one card from their hand and deposit the rest into a common, shuffled heap in the middle of the table. The player that rolled the six chooses a card from the heap and plays on the play pile as the new top card. Play continues with the player on their left as follows: on their turn, players draw a card from the heap and take it into their hand. If they are able to play on the play pile that turn, they may choose whether or not to do so:

• If they choose to play, they declare “Lights On!” and lay the card on the pay pile.
• If they choose not to play, they keep the newly drawn card and their turn ends.

Play continues in this way until either a player plays on the play pile or all cards in the heap have been drawn. Either of these triggers a Lights On event:“Lights On!”: When a Lights On event occurs, all cards remaining in the heap (if any) are collected and added to the bottom of the draw pile. Normal play resumes with the next player in sequence; whatever cards each player currently holds become their new hand.

Winning the Game: The first player to reduce their hand to zero cards is the winner. Alternatively, players may elect to play multiple rounds and award point based on the number of cards remaining in each player’s hand when one goes out.

Next: Designing “Lights Out”:

The other night there were a number of thunderstorm and tornado warnings for the coastal Georgia region, and the power was knocked out for all of Chatham county. It’s something everyone has experience at some time or another, but it was also the tail-end of the St. Patrick’s Day festivities here in Savannah, and there were thousands of revelers on the town. When the lights went out, all those drunken partygoers were stranded on River Street. I did not envy the Savannah Police Department their task that night.

However, it did make for an interesting evening spent in my friend’s loft, watching the darkened city below. When I sat down today to write a game, it was the subject that sprang most readily to mind. Considering how much games depend on the flow and dispersal of information, a mechanic based on “blind play” sounded challenging. I envisioned a number of scenarios including forcing players to play with their eyes closed, but I felt that was too unpredictable and lent itself to easy cheating, even unintentional cheating. Ironically, the need to keep the game playable at all during the “dark” phase meant I needed to preserve at least some information, so I decided on a mechanic that forced players to scratch their strategy and scramble to adapt with new cards: a play analogy to “groping around in darkness,” if you will. The system was too heavily reliant on luck at first iteration, so I added a mechanic whereby players can opt not to play a playable card, forcing their neighbors to draw and take their chances with the likely result of increasing their hand. It’s a bit of strategic sacrifice and push-your-luck mixed together, and I can’t tell without playtesting if it will be successful.

I decided to keep the basic mechanic simple to draw a clearer contrast between it and the “In the Dark” play: just a recycled form of Crazy Eights, a children’s game most people know. Crazy Eights is not a particularly good game, unfortunately: there are few meaningful decisions to be made. However, I felt that this also would help underscore the impact of the “dark” play phase, though I am once again forced to hypothesize until I get a chance to playtest. If the “blind play” can materially improve Crazy Eights, I might reasonably infer I’ve done a good job with the design

Tags: Game Design //