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KeyedTriads.md

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This card game has been designed to be consistent enough for a background event, eg "our heroes are sneaking through, and there are a number of security guards playing cards - if alerted they will raise the alarm, but they are not on active duty right this moment".

Keyed Triads

This is a card game for two to seven players. Above seven and it's best to split the group into multiple separate rotas.

The deck of cards consists of four distinct suits with the numbers 1 through 10, plus two cards ranked zero. This can be done with a classic Western deck by first removing the Jacks, Queens, and Kings, and retaining the two Jokers as the zeros.

Appoint one player as the dealer. A full rotation involves each player dealing once, and each player scores according to the total number of triads claimed over all deals in the rota.

Phase one: Keying

  1. Dealer shuffles the deck, and deals three cards to each player. Players observe their own cards only.
  2. Beginning to the left of the dealer, player lays one card face up in the middle of the table.
  3. Continuing around to the left, players two and three lay cards face up, making a full triad.
  4. The one who played the third card takes the triad. This is his/her key. It is retained face up in front of this player (everyone's keys are public). Take note of the sum of the cards in your key (eg 🂵🃃🃙 = 17, 🃟🂤🃁 = 5).
  5. Continue around the circle until every player is keyed. (NOTE: See below re Dealer Keying which will occur if exactly three or six players are playing.)

Phase two: Claiming

  1. Dealer takes the remainder of the deck and distributes it among players. This will not necessarily be even, meaning those players left of the dealer will have one more card than those right of the dealer.
  2. Just as with keying, three players lay down a card, creating a triad.
  3. Once a triad is complete, it is awarded to the player with the closest key, counting by the card sums; see Claim Strengths for tie-breaking rules.
  4. As before, continue around the circle until all triads have been formed.
  5. Count the number of triads each player has claimed. Note that you do not win or lose until the entire rota is complete, once every player has had a turn to deal once.

That's it. A fairly simple game, but the strategy is deep!

Dealer Keying

Normally, the dealer is the very last player to be keyed. If exactly three or six are playing, however, the dealer will be keyed early. This triggers one small quirk in the play order.

  1. Upon becoming keyed, the dealer announces "Dealer is keyed", and places the key face up in a visible location, passing it one player to the left. This player is "key-skipped" and the player after them begins the next triad.
  2. When the key-skipped player completes a triad (which will be the next card played by them), the dealer key moves one player left, and that player is skipped.
  3. After keying is complete, the dealer key returns to the dealer, and claiming begins. The dealer-keyed rule remains active - after the dealer completes a triad, the key rotates one to the left, and that player is skipped once.

Note that the rotation of the dealer's key does not affect who claims a triad, and some groups use a separate "dealer-keyed marker" for this purpose.

Claim Strengths

When a triad is completed during the claiming phase, players may lay claim to it. If multiple players claim, their claims are compared for strength. Suppose that the triad 🂤🃙🂡 has just been completed. This has a sum of 14.

(Note that the order cards are played is irrelevant, both in keys and triads.)

  1. Equal sum is stronger than any other sum. A key of 🃃🃆🂵 is stronger than a key of 🂢🃔🂦. 1a. If no player has a key of equal sum, the nearest sum is the strongest. 🂱🂪🃕 is stronger than 🂣🂲🃖.
  2. If multiple players have equidistant sums, count how many suits match. 🃚🃟🂥 has two matching suits, and is stronger than 🂩🃁🂳 with just one. For this purpose, the two zeroes (or jokers) are considered to be a suit of their own, matching each other but nothing else.
  3. If there is still a tie, count how many ranks match. 🃄🃊🃟 is stronger than 🂳🂸🃃. 3a. Proximity counts here too. 🃄🃊🃟 is stronger than 🂴🃈🂶.
  4. Suits are ordered in a well-known way. With the Western deck used here, this is Jokers, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts. 🂴🃈🂶 is stronger than 🃄🂸🃆 as two hearts is stronger than one heart.
  5. In the incredibly unlikely case where you STILL cannot determine a winner, the triad is "dead" and does not get counted to anyone's score.

The vast majority of triads can be assigned by sum, with even suit matching being rare. Rank matching and suit ordering are oft-forgotten rules.

Strategy

Gameplay seems simple, but how do you maximize your chances of claiming a triad? If you're the one to complete it, you can try to choose a card that places it closer to your key than someone else's, but if you are the first or second player? And what keys are the strongest? Should you be mid-range or extreme?

This is a game mostly played casually, to fill in time, and deep strategy is not always employed, but those who play frequently will have their pet techniques.