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.

Using the pattern

The basic design question when using Card Hands is determining the size of the hand; should all cards be distributed at the beginning of the game or should some cards be left in, for example, a Drawing Stack.

Another fundamental design question regarding Card Hands is how the size and content of the hands change. Having an initial set of cards that shrinks as cards are played makes use of Limited Resources and allows the game designer to limit the length of the game. Refilling the hand continuously as cards are being played creates a Closed Economy and frees the game design to determine the game length by other means.

Although most often consisting of Cards, a Card Hand can also consist of Tiles in games that have Tile-Laying.

Can Modulate

Cards, Tiles

Can Be Modulated By

Drafting, Memorizing, Privileged Abilities, Sets, Randomness

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.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Asymmetric Information, Containers, Gain Information, Ownership

Can Modulate

Cards, Tiles

Can Be Instantiated By

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Can Be Modulated By

Drafting, Memorizing, 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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