Dvorak

Dvorak
Card game
Authors	Kevan Davis

This is a "make it up before you start" game, unlike 1000 Blank White Cards which is a "make it up as you go along" game. Game developers will often use Dvorak to try out ideas in gaming as a prototype before adding more rules or integrating the cards into a larger board game.

The game Fluxx and all its flavors are subsets of Dvorak.

Rules

Start with a Dvorak deck of cards, which are made of two types: Things and Actions. Shuffle, deal five to each player, and put the rest face-down in the center. Make space for a discard pile. A Dvorak deck may have an initial victory condition.

A player's turn starts with picking up a card from the deck. If the deck is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile and make it the new deck. The player may play one Thing card (by placing in face up in front of them,) or playing one Action card (by discarding it and following it's instructions) or one of each in any order. If the player has met the deck's victory conditions, or if the player has met the victory condition stated on one of their Thing cards, or the victory condition mentioned on the Action card just played, the game is over. Otherwise, the player discards any cards in their hand in excess of five, and the next player takes a turn.

However, any Thing cards on the table or Action cards played may contradict the rules, and must be followed.

Making a Deck

If you're not using a pre-made deck, toss 9 or 10 blank cards to each player. Everyone gets a pen, and two colored markers: one for highlighting Action cards, one for highlighting Thing cards. Start writing, and toss the cards into the middle. Any player can veto a card by picking it out of the middle and showing it to the other players -- unless everyone is happy with the card, throw it out.

Get the players to all agree on a theme before you start making cards, so you don't have Cowboy cards in your "Ninjas vs. Zombies" game.

You can add new cards while you're playing, if you have blank cards left over. Write it, color it, toss it into the middle of the table and if everyone's cool, shuffle it into the deck.

How does Fluxx fit into this?

Fluxx Keepers are Thing cards. Fluxx New Rule and Goal cards are Thing cards shared by all the players. Fluxx Action cards are, well, Action cards. The "Draw 1, Play 1" rule card is a Thing card that all players share and never leaves the table.

Advanced Rules

• Sometimes you will want to more with your cards than just pick up and put down, but don't want to write on every damn card "rotate this Thing 90 degrees; if this Thing is rotated thus it is not counted for any victory conditions." Instead you and your fellow players can write a glossary of terms and everyone playing can just say "this card is tapped."

• People may want to have Things that give the player more options during their turn. Rather than writing out "The player that possesses this thing may forfeit playing an action card to perform..." you can just write "Action: ..." This is called an Action-Thing.

• You can add new rules to the game, even during the game, but you must write the rule down and all the players must agree to it the rule before it takes effect, just like a new card.

• You could have Thing cards that combine with other Thing cards -- the two thing cards together count as a single, different Thing from it's parts. i.e.: "Left Half of Treasure Map" + "Right Half of Treasure Map" = "Cap't Silver's Map", or "Hackers" + "Steroids" = "Anonymous."

• Multi-Deck Dvorak is where every player has their own deck and discard pile, and they only draw new cards from their own deck. All players share the same victory conditions (plus-or-minus what their own Action or Thing cards might say).

Example Cards

Example Decks

• All Your Base Are Belong To Us ...oh god...
• Candyland Corrupt your children with Dvorak
• Time Machine More playable than Chrononauts
• Sysadmin Another playable Dvorak deck

See Also

• 1000 Blank White Cards an much more anarchy version of this game.
• Fluxx a very popular variation on Dvorak -- and unlikely to be a ripoff. Has an expansion called Ninjafluxx.

Links

• Dvorak Game the official wiki

Card Games
Collectible Card Games:	Call of Cthulhu - Cardfight!! Vanguard - Fire Emblem Cipher Force of Will - Jyhad - Magi-Nation Duel - Magic: The Gathering Netrunner - Pokémon - Star Wars: Destiny CCG (Dead) - Yu-Gi-Oh
Other Card Games:	1000 Blank White Cards - 7th Sea - Apples to Apples - Bang! Cards Against Humanity - Coup - Decktet - Dominion - Dvorak F.A.T.A.L. - Keyforge - Mafia - Mag Blast - Mao - Munchkin Race for the Galaxy - Sentinels of the Multiverse - Tanto Cuore
Traditional Card Games:	Bridge - Cribbage - Mahjong - Solitaire/Patience - Poker - Rummy - Tarot