Third Millennium Playing Card Design
© 2001-07 James H. Vipond
Here, in brief, are my principles for modernizing American playing cards, similar to the M Pack. I have created decks for Mike’s Cards, a solitaire card game package for Mac OS and Windows, but the principles should apply to other game programs that allow custom decks, like Wiz Solitaire, PySol and those that support REKO/RKP decks.
- Keep the four French suits (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs), but make each suit a different color. Harold Lohner has created a Card Characters font, based on the corner indexes on Bicycle® playing cards.
- Since so few modern nations have hereditary sovereigns, the court cards should be replaced with family members. My preferred rank order is 0 (has a large circle and is usable as a joker), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, daughter (replaces the 10), son (replaces jack), mother (replaces queen), father (replaces king). An alternative rank order might be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, princess (to replace the 10), jack, queen, king; this would especially be suitable for blind bridge players, as the Braille symbols for letters A through I double as figures 1 through 9.
- Portraits should be single-ended, but for those who insist on double-ended cards, each card may have two identical full figures, each rotated 180 degrees with respect to the other. The portraits on the people cards are not intended to depict specific real people, nor should they be considered standard.
- I am considering different deck styles to be used with different games in Mike’s Cards:
- Two corner indexes: most solitaire games, Go Fish, Old Maid (Note: Terry Ann Womack suggests The Perfect 10 as an alternative to Old Maid.)
- Four corner indexes: Beleaguered Castle and variants, Fortress and variants (because cards are spread horizontally in both directions)
- No indexes: games in which cards do not overlap — Arcade Poker, Cribbage, Fortune’s Favor, Gate, Monte Carlo, Poker Solitaire, Threes in the Corner and others
- No-revoke deck (a different color for each suit): Crazy Eights, Euchre
- Cards without distinct suits: Blackjack, Monte Carlo, Pyramid
The zero of each suit, rather than the one of spades, would carry the identity of the cardmaker. Zeros may be used either as traditional jokers or as wild only in their respective suits.
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