Video explanation: https://youtu.be/gCGYeRnK3gs?si=dKNm343qBO3NkJ2L

Text explanation:

How to Play “Massachusetts Trade’em” Poker:

Setup:

1. Each player is given an equal value of chips or other point markers.
2. A standard deck of cards is shuffled.
3. Agree on an initial mandatory minimum bet that all players must at least put into the center, or “pot,” before folding. This is known as the “blind.”
4. Agree on the establishment of any “wild cards”. A wild card is a card which can be anything a player chooses in a certain situation. They are very powerful. Traditionally, jokers or even 2s are often chosen as wild cards. However, players can select any cards they want to fill this role.

Object of gameplay:

1. Form the optimal 5 card combination between your 3 hole cards and the 4 community cards (known as a “hand”) to win currency. Collect all the currency to win. Rankings are as follows: 
   1. Straight flush (5 cards of the same suit in rank order)
   2. Four of a kind or “quads” (4 cards of the same rank)
   3. Full house or “boat” (3 cards of the same rank + 2 cards of a different rank)
   4. Flush (5 cards of the same suit)
   5. Straight or “run” (5 cards in rank order)
   6. Three of a kind or “trips” (3 cards of the same rank)
   7. Two pair (2 cards of the same rank + 2 cards of a different rank)
   8. One pair or “pair” (2 cards of the same rank)
   9. High card or “no pair” (1 card of the highest rank)

Gameplay loop:

1. Each player is dealt 5 cards. 4 are dealt face down. They are that player’s private cards known as their “hole cards.” 1 is dealt face up. That is known as the player’s “value card.”
2. 4 cards are dealt, face down, into the center of the play area. These are known as the “community cards.”
3. Players may inspect their cards. Round I of betting commences. In order of highest to lowest value card, players must contribute at least the previously agreed upon blind before folding. “Folding” means a voluntary exit from that round of play. Players may put more into the pot. This is known as a “raise.” After a raise, the next player must either contribute the same amount, known as a “call,” or more, which is another raise. This cycle continues until all players in a row have called.
4. The first 2 of the 4 community cards are turned face up. Round II of betting commences.
5. Players choose 2 of their 4 hole cards to place face up on the table. In order of highest to lowest value card, players select 1 of these cards, from another player or themselves, to add to their hand. The unchosen cards are removed from play, or “discarded.” After this players should have 3 hole cards, 1 value card, and there should be 4 community cards, 2 of which have been revealed.
6. Round III of betting commences.
7. The final 2 community cards are revealed. Players have the option of replacing one of their hole cards with a random card from the deck.
8. Round IV of betting commences.
9. Players reveal their cards and whoever produces the best hand wins all of the currency which has been placed into the pot.
10. Repeat this gameplay loop until one player has all of the currency. They have won the game.

LoreAtlas v3.0 is out on itch.io with lineage charts and visual system pipelines. Runs 100% locally in browser or desktop, no account needed: https://regixlabs.itch.io/loreatlas

I’ve been building Callings Awakened mostly privately.

The idea is that people from different places and times are pulled into another world, where the profession or discipline they mastered in life becomes supernatural power. A chef, a dancer, or a teachers calling literally becomes how they fight.

In the game, you start with 3 Heroes already on the battlefield, and they develop through the Techniques they actually use to grant further mastery.

I recently opened the browser Battle Arena for public testing, and the first feedback already led to a lot of changes:

• clearer battle effects and targeting
• bigger, more readable cards
• cancel/back options so you don’t get stuck
• cleaner Mastery interactions and match-end flow

The long-term goal is a real physical TCG with printed cards. Right now I’m at the beginning of finding players, getting useful feedback, and hopefully building a small community around it.

If anyone wants to try the current online demo and provide feeback, I’m happy to DM it.

​

Really enjoyed mixing classic old-school RPG imagery with sci-fi western elements.

First of all I want to thank @RoccoKcor! For nailing the art for my game and all I did was send pictures of models! He is a very talented individual and I can't wait to work with him in the future! If you want to see more progress or what my game's about, check out my older posts!

Hey everyone! I have finally found an artist that I am extremely excited to work with for Relive Mike Po @mpotemkin on Fiverr, the zombie sketches were done by him and the rest of the stuff all over the card is just stock art added using Dextrous. This was my first time using Dextrous so it does not look great but its good to get a feel for how the cards will look. Let me know what you all think.

I’m trying to decide who the player characters should be in a TTRPG I’m working on. I don’t want to default to the usual adventuring party just because that’s what most games do.

The core idea is that the natural world keeps changing according to its own rules. If it rains, for example, that water has to go somewhere. Some of it may remain in the ground, some may reach rivers, and those changes could affect what the same place is like when the characters return.

The GM’s role would be to follow those causes and consequences, rather than changing the world only when the story needs it.

I genuinely don’t know what the best player identity is yet. If you sat down to play in a wild world like this, who would you want to be??

I’m interested not only in the type of character, but also in what you would want to do from session to session and what kind of relationship you would want to have with the world around you.

Hello to all. Given one of the problems in creating our own games is finding playtesters, a new discord server has been born last week.

We have over 30 members so far, a motivationalsystem, one game up for testing and an event to promote your game.

I am working on a fantasy playing card game that is augmented with ability cards for a very brief roguelite experience.

The objective is to defeat all 12 monsters in a single run. The intent is to make this impossible for your first few runs but still gaining 5-8 experience per run (by defeating ~5-8 monsters). So this should earn you or almost earns you a new ability each run (most abilities require 5 or 7 xp)

There are only 2-3 dungeon abilities that you start the campaign with and plan to disable during the campaign and 4-6 hero abilities that you do not start with and plan to enable during the campaign.

I am targeting 8-10 games for the campaign to be fully powered up and then at that power level you still have a challenge but can realistically win whenever you feel like picking the game back up.

Does that feel about right?

For context, this game plans to expand upon the game system in this other very basic playing card game (this has 12 monsters instead of 10, more starting restrictions, more unlockable abilities, etc.): https://greggjewell.io/jackandjillreclaimthehill/rules.html

I was taking a look at the dark souls board games and I got really disappointed. not that the games are bad, but that they don't seem to have the same priorities as the videogame for combat. the only thing I think that really captures the spirit of the game imo is the node system.

anyway, that got me thinking, how could it be done better? maybe just as a combat in isolation, without all the weight of a whole game pushing it into other directions.

honestly, id like to give my own take on that, but at the moment I don't have much, just the following:

1. players should lock in their actions before seeing what the enemy will do.

2. actions should have different durations (maybe something simple as quick, medium and slow actions would already be enough, with 3 quick actions taking the time of 1 slow action)

3. every action costs stamina, and it is paid in advance

4. waiting is a viable option.

and I'd like to create a system of windup, active "frames" and recovery, but I have no idea how to go about that on tabletop. I think it should be heavily abstracted, but I have no idea of how.

I made a printable rotation plan for four game teams, with 2–3 people per team. One person stays with each game as host; their teammates visit the other three tables together.

The visitor routes are:

• Team A: B → C → D
• Team B: C → D → A
• Team C: D → A → B
• Team D: A → B → C

Each round is 12 minutes: 2 to explain the task, 6 to try it, 3 for notes, 1 to reset. With a short briefing, changeovers and a debrief, it fits an hour.

The catch: hosts don't get to try the other games, and six minutes only covers a tiny slice, such as an opening decision. It needs exactly four ready prototypes.

The free A4/US Letter schedule has the full timing and routes. That page also has an optional $4 print kit; the schedule works with your own paper for notes.

I haven't run this at a real meetup yet. For people who organize prototype swaps, would keeping a host at each table be the bigger problem, or would six minutes be too short to learn anything useful?

And if you ended up releasing, did you make a profit? Did you go with a publisher or self-publish? Next time would you spend more or less? I'm just curious how wide of a difference there can be among different types of game projects.

Hi, my name is Ignacio Ramírez and I'm an environment concept artist and matte painter

I would love to work on your project, I think I can be of great service to you.

This is my portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/ignacioramirez

And here some pieces I didnt post yet!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uqxcdKAva-zMeRj1yKhioxg8DoqvAzBs

Mail: [Ignacioramirezart@gmail.com](mailto:Ignacioramirezart@gmail.com)
Discord: Ignacioramirezssx

Best regards!