Cribbage Ribbage

Lately Ive been interested in Roguetype games.  Games which have no set structure, where items, levels, enemies, and anything else you might think of, may be randomised for your experience.  All of them have the same goal of "start from the beginning and reach the end."  Run the Race.  Conquer the marathon.  If you fail, you start again.

    Generally Roguetypes come in two genres: Rogue Like, and Rogue Lite.

    Rogue Like games start your character with the same basic setup, like a Sword and Shield.  Generally like you've made no progress at all when you start again.  Often games like this will expand on itself, letting you find unlocks through the game which vary your play and style every time you start a new run, sometimes even offering up a different starting weapon if you want.

    Rogue Lite games don't just expand, but improve.  Every run can gather you resources or improvements that can roll over onto subsequent runs, improving stats or equipment, forming a sense of progress into your character.

The only Roguetype game I ever played before the genre boom was Dragon Crystal, a Sega Master System game about someone who found a dragons egg that follows them up thirty randomised floors to the top of a tower.  You progress slowly but surely, collecting potions and scrolls, cursing yourself with unknown armour and jewellery, fighting the wildest enemies like a flaming tree that chucks fire at you from across the room while a floating blinking eyeball... just... kinda... blinks more furiously at you.

Since the boom there are hundreds of Roguetype games, harkening their own genre tags on Steam, streamers with the ability to chat away during their runs able to gain popularity, and something of a cult following causing hundreds more of clones with interesting spins.

One of which that has gained popularity over the last year is Balatro, a Roguelike game based off the idea of Poker.  You face a target Chip score that you have to reach using a standard deck of cards and playing different hands that give you different or better scores and bonuses based on the hand.  A two pair might give you 100 chips, but a Ace High straight might give you 150 chips.  You draw 8 random cards from your deck and form your plays from there.  Simple.

Between each hand you stop by the shop where things get interesting.  The game from then on works as a Deckbuilding game allowing you to improve your standing using Card Collecting tropes, offering card packs with consumables, some of which come in the form of Tarot Cards, or special Joker Cards that add to your play style.  The Joker cards are gorgeous, especially in that they all look like the effect they apply.  The Vagrant Joker looks like a Vagrant Clown; the Misprint joker is misaligned and cut wrong; The Credit Card is exactly what it sounds like for "Bank Gold"; The Loyalty Card for Jokers Deli offers you bonuses for every 6th Hand; The Business Card, the Golden Ticket, the Ride the Bus, the Hanging Chad, the Drivers License, the Certificate, the To-Do List... I think you get the idea.

Jokers will often give you mulitipliers for what you play, turning that 100 for a pair by putting a x2 on the end, upped to x4 because theyre both diamonds, up to x6 because it's the first hand and you have a face card in there, oh make it x10 because they're all evens, oh and get a tarot card because you have less than $4 in your pocket.   Multiply and improve and now you have over 1,000 chips

I've been watching a lot of Balatro get played since the new Demo came out and all I can think is "Why doesn't Cribbage have this?"

I've been playing a lot of Cribbage lately, just passively on my phone when I'm feeling dissociative and fidgety, and while I've learnt a few things playing it over and over, I've reasserted something in my head: Computers tend to cheat.  And I will believe that even through a wealth of evidence countering that belief, and my biggest cheating opponent is the game of Cribbage.

It's one thing if I'm having my arse handed to me by an actual opponent like my Mum, seeing how she reached her points and choices for the flop, but you cant read computers so there's always a chance that they just happen to have the right cards hiding up their metaphorical sleeve.

I want to see is some variety.  The app I play with mum is just the standard rules but one day I'd like to change things up and play things like Negative Crib where you aim to get the least number of points, or maybe even Crib Wars where you try and get to 363 points through what I can only assume is a Snakes and Ladders gauntlet.

Balatro has gotten me into extra mind, trying to think about how it would go in that style.  You get similar hand plays, your Pairs, Three and Four-of-a-kinds, but you also get to count 15's, and Straights can start at 3 cards but get more points if you can combo it out.

I.e. a 3, 4, 5 will get three points, but a 3, 4, 4, 5 will net eight because you can form two straights and a pair.  A 3, 4, 4, 4, 5 will net fifteen because of 3 runs of 3, and a 3-of-a-kind which is 3 pairs making six points.  If you consider the chance of getting 15's in there then your points start to skyrocket.

Thinking more about it, it would probably be easy to implement it.  You still get your 8 cards, you just draw an extra card that has to be in hand.  You play up to four cards to add to it and garner your chips from a slightly different pool that accounts for 15's and combo straights.  Bonus if the turn is a Jack, and/or if a Jack being played is the same suit as the turn.  Plus a special 19 Joker that gives you a multiplier if you play a hand that doesn't score any points.

Might have to see if I can't doodle up a 19 Joker.  Or not, it could just be a blank card.

Aside: There was a Truck at the shop that was Truck 19.  It was a dreadful vehicle.  But it was a big Red Chevy truck, and now I want to get a classic Red Chevy Truck and put a Ace and 9 of Diamonds on it and call it my Truck 19.

Additional Aside: I also learnt some new obsolete terms going down a small wiki hole.  A Prial is a Three of a Kind, and a Mournival is a Four of a Kind.  The Elder is the person who is first after the dealer.

Also, any excuse to use this gorgeous board that I got for my Birthday.