2007.11.11

The demise of traditional card games

Posted in Board Games at 5:44 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel

I grew up playing card games. As a result, I am sometimes surprised when I start explaining the rules to a card game to someone new. There are a large number of concepts common to many card games that I take for granted, and people who haven’t had the same experience playing games don’t always know what I’m talking about.

Consider one of my favorite games, Die Sieben Siegel. It is not played using a standard poker deck, but If I had to teach the game to my sister (who also grew up playing cards), I could describe the game as follows:

  • You bid for the number of tricks you believe you will take in each suit.
  • Trumped tricks can either be counted as the suit lead or as trump.
  • If trump is lead, the trick can only be counted as trump.
  • You must follow suit; you cannot trump if you can follow.
  • Each person deals once; if there are 4 players, then the game is 4 hands long.

Excepting the finer points of the scoring and bidding, that would be enough to teach her the game, since she would automatically assume all of the other rules as being the same as many other trick-taking games. But consider what I didn’t have to say:

  • I didn’t have to tell her what a trick was.
  • I didn’t have to tell her what trump was.
  • The only clarifications I needed to provide about trump was how a trumped trick counts relative to the bidding, and the fact that you cannot trump if you can follow (some games allow you to trump any trick, even one you could follow).
  • I didn’t have to tell her that whoever takes the trick leads the next trick.
  • I didn’t have to tell her about the concept of a hand was.
  • I didn’t have to explain that the playing of cards progresses clockwise during a trick.
  • I didn’t have to explain that the deal passes clockwise after each hand.
  • I didn’t have to explain that you cannot look at a trick after it has been taken, and that the taken cards are placed face down.

Card-playing is a lost art among my generation, and that’s why these concepts aren’t universally known. There are literally hundreds of interesting card games that require nothing more than a standard poker deck and a way to keep score, and they seem to be getting lost. Even classics like Bridge might be in danger of disappearing. Already the game seems to be out of fashion with anyone under the age of 40, and this is the kind of game that literally takes a lifetime to master.

What a shame.