Jacynth City

Jacynth City is a 1–3 player game based on P.D. Magnus' Jacynth and Andrew Looney’s Zark City (a simpler Zarcana-style game for a traditional deck of cards). I devised it after a discussion on my geeklist of Zarcana-type games. I’ve also made a more Zark City-like Decktet game, Deck Town, deciphered Dectana, and am playtesting yet another Zarcana-type game for the Decktet.

Setup

Each player receives a supply of nine Looney pyramids (three of each size) in a unique player color.

Use a full (extended) Decktet, except for the Excuse. Set up one of the three starting configurations for Jacynth (the Razeway, Towers, or the Old City).

Deal three cards to each player. If any player receives all extended deck cards, deal out one more card each. Repeat until every player has at least one base card.

Each player chooses one base card from their hand. Reveal them simultaneously; the player who chose the highest ranked card goes first. In case of ties, use the natural Decktet suit order to determine the winner. (In case of remaining ties, which are possible with the double Decktet, determine first player by the highest rank held by the players to the left—that is, rank the potential second players—or redeal if necessary.)

Terminology

Number card

a card of rank 2–9

Base card

a card of rank Ace, Crown, or a number card

Extented deck card

a Pawn, a Court, or the Excuse

Board

the set of cards laid out on the board

Adjacent

unless explicitly mentioned otherwise, adjacent refers to orthogonal adjacency of cards (sharing a side)

Occupy

you occupy a card if you have at least one pyramid on it

Control

you control a card if you occupy it and no one else does

District

a set of cards that share the same suit and are orthogonally adjacent to one another. A district may consist of a single card. A number card will be in two districts.

Suit match

cards in the Decktet can have multiple suits; two cards show a suit match when at least one suit is shared between them

Suit order

the natural suit order of the Decktet is according to their order of appearance from top to bottom on the cards: Moons, Suns, Waves, Leaves, Wyrms, Knots.

Rules

The first player hatches their chosen card. The remaining players do the same in clockwise order.

Play continues in clockwise order. On each player’s turn they have a choice of eight actions, listed below. At the end of their turn, a player must discard down to the hand limit of three cards.

Shuffle the discards whenever you run out of cards to draw.

Actions

Hatch

If you have no pyramids on the board, build and then place a one-pip pyramid on your built card.

Draw

Draw three more cards.

Grow

Replace one of your pyramids with one of the next larger pip count.

Spawn

Add a one-pip pyramid from your supply to a card you occupy.

Build

Add a number card from your hand to the board, orthogonally adjacent to a card you already control.

Move

Move one of your pyramids one card orthogonally.

Fly

Discard an Ace to move a card you occupy (along with all occupants) to any legal position on the board. (You may disconnect the board in the process.)

Attack

You may only attack pyramids on the same card or on a card adjacent to one of your own pyramids. Discard a Crown (3 pips), Courts (2 pips each), or Pawns (1 pip each) totalling or exceeding the pip count of the attacked piece. Return the the attacked piece to the owner’s supply.
If each spent card matches the card being attacked in at least one suit, you may, in addition, replace the defeated pyramid with a matching pyramid from your supply.
If you overspent to defeat the pyramid, you may draw a card for each unused pip.

Game End

The game ends when the 5x5 board is complete. Scoring is according to Jacynth districts (one point per card), but the owner of each district is determined by a majority of pips, or, barring that, in Jacynth style, by control of or pip-plurality on the highest-ranked card. If there is still a tie, the players divide the points.

Variants

Draw a card at the beginning of every turn, as in Zark City, or at the end of it, as in Jacynth.

Allow Pawns and/or Courts to be built (but not occupied), as in a Jacynth variant.

Allow the Excuse to be built as a block/impediment (but not occupied), as in a Jacynth variant.

Fly Variants

• Require a suit match (of the spent Ace with the flying card).
• Require a suit match if you don’t control the card.

Attack Variants

• Penalize or credit attacks according to the difference in attacker/defender pip counts. (Note that there was no requirement that the attacker have superior forces.)
• Only allow attack by superior forces.

Credits

M.C.DeMarco, March 25–April 9, 2024

Jacynth is by P.D. Magnus, creator of The Decktet, an alternative deck of cards released under a CC license.
Looney Pyramids (a.k.a. Icehouse pieces) are the creations of Andrew Looney and John Cooper. Zark City was devised by Andrew Looney, based on Zarcana and Gnostica by John Cooper et al.