The piecepack concept is to provide a generic set of gaming components that can be used to design and play a wide variety of games - just add rules! Descriptions of the pieces, and links to the many rules that are currently available for playing with them, can be found at www.piecepack.org. While a manufacturer may charge for developing and selling a set of pieces, the game concept and rules are in the public domain - a generous donation, and one which attracted my attention.
Update
An article by Ron Hale-Evans on Game Systems mentions this design, and offers some critique on it. I have emailed Ron about the points he has raised, but his feeling was that he cannot make changes to the article, so I have placed my response here. Its probably only of interest if you are a piecepack fanatic! Feel free to skip this and move on to the next section...
The main point Ron makes about this design is that is "unlikely to gain much support because he changes the piecepack suit symbols". Now that is not necessarily true.
- First off, I did not create this design to "gain support". I developed it because I liked, and wanted to support, the piecepack concept, and because I like the idea of game systems - see, for example, other designs on my site for use with the New Games in Old Rome game pieces.
- Secondly, my motivation for this design was to expand the piecepack concept to allow for greater scope in play. I mention below that many modern games are aimed at least at 5 players, and I felt that that was an important area for a set of 'generic gaming pieces' to address.
- Thirdly, and most importantly, I do not believe that the symbols themselves are of great significance in the piecepack concept. I concede that they may help inspire game designs by their symbolism... but I could equally argue that, in other cases, they actually hinder the association of a theme with the game in question. For example, I have often thought it would be very cool to have a set of neon or metallic pieces with a set of modern or very abstract symbols, that would better suit (ouch) the themes of modern or futuristic games.
Let me say it clearly then - I have suggested the symbols below for reasons of practical convenience only (i.e. to work well with a readily available set of playing cards) - if you do not like them, please feel free to adopt any set you want (e.g. pick ones that can match a Tarot deck) - I believe it will make no difference to actually playing piecepack games!
For more discussion on piecepack design, and links to all kinds of expanded sets for it, please subscribe to the mailing list.
Prior to finding piecepack, I had come across a similar idea in Renier Knizia's New Games in Old Rome, where he uses a common set of gaming pieces in a variety of ways. At the time, I was inspired to develop some rule sets of my own, available here in the GamesLab.
The idea of piecepackplus (abbreviated here as pp+) is my attempt to combine some of the elements of both approaches into a more comprehensive set than that allowed by piecepack, specifically to:
The notation on the piecepack tiles has also been extended to allow for further options, especially in the area of connectivity and tile laying.
pp+ will allow all of the current rules created for piecepack to be played with only minor (if any) adaptations needed.
Because of the suggested selection of the Star Deck as a suitable basis for the cards (see below), as well as to allow, if needed, the adoption of ordinary playing cards for use with pp+, the 'standard' playing cards suits (and associated symbols/colors) could be used in a pp+ set:
Obviously, if you have some other deck of cards with 5 different symbols, then by all means adopt those symbols/colours when creating a pp+ set.
Many of the components are also marked with values; one of these values will be a 'special' value, to be shown by a symbol, rather than a number - it is suggested that lozenge or square shape, in outline form, could be used for this.
The following is a summary of the components in pp+:
If a standard set of playing cards (see above), of size approximately 2.5 by 3.5 inches (6 by 9 cm), is used in pp+, then the following changes will be required:
Colors can readily be changed using a permanent maker pen; the extra suit can be created by taking the diamond suit from an extra deck, altering the symbol and coloring it with a colored permanent maker pen.
Another option is to purchase a Star Deck from www.stardeck.com.
The tiles have the following characteristics:
The counters have the following characteristics:
The chips have the following characteristics:
There is one pawn for each suit/color, plus one neutral (white) pawn. A pawn would be about 1 to 1.5 inches in height and about 2/3 to 3/4 inch in diameter.
There is one dice (normal, six-sided, values 1 to 5 and one face 'special') for each color; plus an extra dice which shows one each of the symbols, with the sixth face marked 'special'.
Any relationship between this game and any other is coincidental (except where specifically mentioned). All ideas and concepts described here are placed in the public domain for use as individuals see fit. They may certainly not be sold in any manner. All I do ask is for any feedback of ideas and ways that this concept can be taken further.