Hands

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This pattern is a still a stub.

A Card Hand consists of the cards, which are owned by the player, but which have not yet been put into play.

Examples

Poker

Race for the Galaxy

Contract Bridge

Thunderstone

Mahjong

Tien Gow

Scrabble

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. skill cards loyalty cards

Example: in Poker each of the players is dealt five cards, which define the Card Hand for each player.

Example: Bohnanza is a card game where the order of the cards in the Card Hand is important, as the players have to play the cards in a specific sequence.

Examples of Card and Tile-Based Games that do not make use of Hands include No Thanks! and Carcarssonne respectively.

Using the pattern

While Hands requires some thing to fill them with, Cards or Tiles most commonly, the basic design questions when using Hands is their size, how they should be constructed, and whether game elements should be replenished when used (see the Cards and Tiles patterns about the actions that can be provided by the elements in the Hands).

Having an initial set of elements that shrinks as gameplay progresses makes these elements into Non-Renewable Resources while keeping Hand sizes constant or letting them fluctuate need to consider what game actions refill the hand. Hands are typically replenished directly after game elements have been removed from them as part of gameplay actions; Rummy shows an example where the replenishment is done before the actions. The new Cards or Tiles can either be taken from Drawing Stacks or Discard Piles, in some games (Rummy again) players can make a choice between both of these. Cartagena provides an example when players need to perform an action with associated Penalties (moving their pieces backwards on the game track) to receive new Cards to their Hands.

Hands are typically constructed through Randomness although this can be combined or replaced by Drafting. The Hands may be created before "actual" gameplay begins (this is the case in Contract Bridge and Whist) or during gameplay (e.g. in Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, Go Fish, Magic: The Gathering, and Poker). Players of Dominion and Thunderstone draw entirely new Hands after each turn and can indirectly construct their future Hands by Investments in new Cards for their Drawing Stacks.

Some specific gameplay actions become possible due to the use of Hands in a game. Collecting Sets in often goals or winning conditions in games with Hands - this can be found in both Mahjong and Poker, and Texas Hold'em shows that the Sets can be combinations of Hands and commonly shared resources. Another specific action is having the Privileged Ability of being allowed to look at other players' Hands (e.g. Gaius Balter's one-time ability to look at another player's loyalty Cards in Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game).

Consequences

Hands are Containers of Cards or Tiles that assign players Ownership of these. Typically Hands are secret to other players so games with Hands tend to have Asymmetric Information. Being able to deduce other players' Hands, or being able to look at them through some Privileged Ability, does in most cases offers strategic advantages and this makes Hands give players Gain Information goals.

Hands can guarantee Limited Gameplay Time and more Predictable Consequences the longer the game has progress in games where the Hands shrink constantly during gameplay (e.g. Contract Bridge and Whist) due to their contents being Non-Renewable Resources.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Asymmetric Information, Containers, Gain Information, Ownership

with Non-Renewable Resources

Limited Gameplay Time, Predictable Consequences

Can Modulate

Cards, Tiles

Can Be Instantiated By

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Can Be Modulated By

Drafting, Investments, Non-Renewable Resources, Privileged Abilities, Sets, Randomness

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

An updated version of the pattern Card Hands that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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