Fraser Island: A game of bluff and greed

I was away on holiday during this LD but wanted to make a game anyway - so I made a card game! The game is played using a standard 52-card pack of cards. The game has only been playtested with two and three players, but should extend to more players.

The rules of the game are thus:

Story

You (Player 1) are a seasoned diamond miner, and you arrive on Fraser Island with other miners as there have been reports of magnificent diamonds being dug out here. You immediately spot your arch-rival (Player 2) and optionally other rivals (Players 3 to n).

"Of course you would be here", you say. "It's a small world" comes the reply.

However, after some more chat, you decide to put your differences aside and in stead team up in order to beat the rest of the miners to the best diamonds, and maybe even find the legendary Ace of Diamonds.

You agree to evenly share all diamonds found, but anything else of value is for each to keep. You also agree that the penalty for hiding a diamond is confiscation (if its a big diamond it is confiscation of ALL your private assets) and the penalty for hiding the legendary Ace of Diamonds is death.

Of course, in secret, you think you might be able to pocket a diamond or two for yourself despite this agreement...

Aim

The goal of the game is to accumulate more wealth than any other player.

Wealth

At the end of the game, each card in each player's private pile is worth thus:

• Each ♥ is some minor valuable gemstone worth $1.
• Each numeric ♦ is a small diamond and worth the numeric value in $ (eg. 5♦ is worth $5).
• J♦, Q♦ and K♦ are big diamonds and worth $50 each.
• The legendary A♦ is a massive diamond worth $100.

Starting the game

Each player draws 5 cards into their hand. Do not show the cards to your opponent(s).

Turn

Looping clockwise from a randomly selected starting player, each player takes a turn. A turn goes like this:

You go mining for diamonds. The outcome of the mining depends on which card you play and/or what you choose to tell the other players.

Select a card from your hand and play it. You play it by either putting it face down on top of your private pile - or face up on top of the public discard pile. Anything played in the public pile is shared with the other players, eg. if you find a diamond you are supposed to declare it by playing it here. You can also choose to play it into your private pile, at which point it goes face down on top of the pile. You then need to tell the other players which card you played. You may choose to lie/bluff at this point.

After you have played a card, draw another one.

Card types

• ♠ and ♣ denotes standard rock
• ♥ denotes minor gemstones
• ♦ denotes diamonds

End

The game ends when a player draws the last card. Each player, starting with the player who would normally go next, can then issue a single challenge (see below) before the wealth of each player is counted.

Challenges

Any player can at any point issue a challenge of honesty. The challenging player needs to pay a $1 fee (eg. a single ♥ card from their hand) that is refunded if the challenge is successful.

Once a challenge has been issued, no further actions are completed until the challenge is over. If a player was halfway to putting a card into his private pile, that action is not completed before the challenge has finished.

All players (including the challenger) reveal the top 3 cards of their private pile. If any of them is a ♦ card, the challenge is successful. That means, the $1 fee is returned to the player issuing the challenge, and the three revealed cards are added to the public discard pile. If a player was hiding J♦, Q♦ or K ♦, all the cards in the offending player's private stack are revealed and added to the public discard stack. If someone was hiding A♦, the offending player is removed from the game (executed).

If the challenge is unsuccessful, the challenging player lose their $1 fee (and will have to play the rest of the game with 1 less card in their hand), and they also lose some credence. If they had already lost some credence (eg. by already having made an unsuccessful challenge) they become "a person of disrespect" and can no longer issue challenges.

Note that there are no limits on how many challenges a player can issue as long as they are successful.

Also note that a "person of disrespect" can still participate and even win the game - they just can't issue challenges.

Finally note that if a player puts a card in his private pile and says "I found a diamond" then any player (except persons of disrespect) can challenge them without paying the $1 fee and without penalty (e.g. without losing credence if unsuccessful).

Example play

• Player 1 and player 2 each draw 5 cards each
• Player 1 starts and plays a card (9♦) into his private pile and says "I just found some normal rock" (i.e. he is bluffing). Then he draws a card.
• Player 2 plays a card (5♥) into his private pile and says "I found a gem", and draws a card.
• Player 1 plays a card (4♥) and says "I too found a gem" and draws a card.
• Player 2 plays 3♦ to the public pile (face up) and draws a card.
• Player 1 plays a card (6♠) to his private pile and says "nothing" and draws a card.
• Player 2 plays 7♣ to his private pile, says "just rocks" and draws a card.
• Player 2 then chooses to challenge player 1, and pays with 7♥ from his hand.
• Player 1 reveals the top 3 cards from his private pile (6♠, 4♥, 9♦). He was hiding a diamond - so these three cards go into the public discard pile. He now has $0 value in his private pile. Player 2 also reveals his top 3 cards - well 2 as he's only got 2 (5♥, 7♣) - but he wasn't hiding any diamonds so he's fine. Because he caught player 1 trying to hide a diamond, he gets his fee (7♥) back and can still challenge at least twice more before the game is over. He has $1 value in his private pile (from 5♥), and if player 1 challenged him he would be fine as he does not have any ♦in his private pile... atleast not yet!

Note that if player 1 was hiding a big diamond - say J♦ - he would lose his entire private pile (in this case, only three cards, but later in the game it can be disasterous) - and if he was hiding A♦ he would be out of the game!

Extensions

If playing with more than 4 players, add a second pack of cards, but remove the second A♦ first!

Questions/comments/feedback welcome!