Card deck composition

[ufm]

There are 18 cards in the game.

5 noodle
3 mushroom
3 soy sauce
2 ginger
2 green onion
1 chicken
1 pork
1 shrimp

btw, I think the penalty for failing a challenge is too heavy, especially in the first turn.
When someone is leading, challenging or bluffing have little or no merit for that player.
Was this game supposed to discourage challenge? I don't know but it seems to be...

[run games]

gwgreb

[Shaq Jenkins]

Thank you for posting this!

I agree that the penalty for failing a challenge is way too severe. There's practically no chance of making a good stir fry, and it places you at a heavy disadvantage for the rest of the game.

I've played 10 games so far, and I have mixed feelings about it. Because of the severe penalty, I notice that most people don't challenge anything. If there's no challenges, then the game becomes one that's based solely on luck, and the person who is lucky enough to draw the best cards wins. The current rules really discourage people from challenging, and I don't think that's a good thing. Challenges are what makes this game fun, and the rules should encourage more of them.

If a person fails a challenge, they should have to randomly discard 1-2 cards, rather than their whole hand. This would make it so that players aren't challenging constantly while still ensuring that players who challenge have a shot at making a decent stir fry.

[run games]

I take a look of the games in the 'bluff game list' and find out other bluffing games dont encourage bluffing (facing risk) as well

In the boss (2P), the best strategy is to not face any risk unless needed (get less important card information, means less lucky)

In Libertalia (2P), black usually do not have to face risk because of better cards, causing both colors sometimes play the same card together

[diamant]

btw, I think the penalty for failing a challenge is too heavy, especially in the first turn.

If the penalty is so tough, don't bluff on the first turn.
You have got the list of the eighteen cards. So, you can realize that it would be stupid to bluff in declaring Shrimp, if this card is in another hand. Therefore, you can more surely bluff when you have Shrimp in your hand, and you tell Shrimp for your discarded card, but it is not.

[Dan808]

Thank you for posting this!

I agree that the penalty for failing a challenge is way too severe. There's practically no chance of making a good stir fry, and it places you at a heavy disadvantage for the rest of the game.

I've played 10 games so far, and I have mixed feelings about it. Because of the severe penalty, I notice that most people don't challenge anything. If there's no challenges, then the game becomes one that's based solely on luck, and the person who is lucky enough to draw the best cards wins. The current rules really discourage people from challenging, and I don't think that's a good thing. Challenges are what makes this game fun, and the rules should encourage more of them.

If a person fails a challenge, they should have to randomly discard 1-2 cards, rather than their whole hand. This would make it so that players aren't challenging constantly while still ensuring that players who challenge have a shot at making a decent stir fry.

I agree 100%. Really enjoyed this game to begin with but unfortunately the more you play the more you realise its almost entirely luck based, which is a shame!

You should only lose 1 card for calling out a bluff incorrectly, OR the player caught should lose their entire hand. As it stands, if you call someone out incorrectly then you have lost 99% of the time, its almost impossible to come back from, and yet (heres the biggest flaw of all) even if you get caught bluffing, you can then STILL cook a stir fry, thats insane!

I've spoken to people who say if you guess incorrectly then you can pull it back by catching the other player bluffing, but once someone is in the lead they have no reason to bluff at all, so thats never gonna happen..

[LightKnight]

This is more or less true for Standard game. But the game is thus better for Master Chief version, where you have the time to build your own rhym, and where it's about creating a balance, challenging and accusing with good proportions, plus based on good reasons and on the number of points of different players. In this mode, I confirm that if you have patience (without you have to abandon challenging and accusing, because there will be a moment you will do only that, then never anymore), it can get interesting. It's really 2 things : Master Chief mode, and patience. Then the game can be played fully.

[intelekt]

Right, so Lightkinght has indeed shed some light on our design that is most certainly true.

In the 50 point standard game you'll see some swings that are unavoidable, and the idea is that the game ends relatively quickly, so that's part of the intended design. As you add more points to the game, it inherently becomes more strategic albeit a bit redundant to me personally.

There are a couple of really fun variants that will be released eventually, my favotire being "Bull's eye chef" Where players have to hit 50 exactly. It's an entirely different game at that point and feels much less luck based.

In terms of the penalties, Run Games is correct that this is pretty standard in terms of bluff calling being very punishing. The reward of an extra card however often means you will be very established next turn and have an easy discard option.

The active player can see other's investment in bluff calling by looking at their hand size. A player with 1 card is far more likely to call a bluff thank a player with 3.
If you simply do not call bluffs, you will either lose the game, or are sort of "drawing for winner" which tends to be far less fun.

We truly appreciate how many people have been playing and sending their thoughts on SF18. Keep cooking and have fun!