[Icehouse] Discard and Draw in Zark City

[Andrew Plotkin]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2008, Christopher Hickman wrote:

> On Wednesday, February 27, 2008, at 11:09AM, "Andrew Plotkin" <erkyrath at eblong.com> wrote:
>> Assuming I'm right, the rule could be worded to "...then draw one, two, or
>> three cards. You can never hold more than six cards."
>
> Or "...then draw until you have six cards total or you've drawn three, 
> whichever comes first."

That's less clear to me.

(The other suggestion, "draw up to three cards", unfortunately collides 
with a common game idiom meaning "draw until you have three cards in your 
hand.")

> I see now that it was trying to stay true to Zarcana, but I think a DRAW 
> action of "Draw three cards and then discard, if necessary, down to a 
> hand of six." would be a much cleaner and simpler rule.

A little simpler, but I don't see it as a huge win. It would also change 
the balance towards drawing -- drawing when your hand is full would always 
be tempting, and it would be easier to get the hand you want. (Meaning the 
attack cards you want.) I would have to be convinced that this makes the 
game better.

> It also would allow for digging through the deck faster to get to the 
> shuffle, which would be a good thing, in my opinion.

Oh, we did that anyway. I spent a lot of turns discarding three and 
drawing three.

--Z

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