Special Play Cards - face up or face down?

sdague · Post by **sdague** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:14 pm

We've started to add the special play cards into our inducement pool, and are curious if they should be played face up or face down? (i.e. should your opponent know about them in advance or not?) The rule book doesn't state either way.

If there is no hard and fast rule, how do people generally play with them?

Gesmachiene · Post by **Gesmachiene** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:19 pm

We play them face down. That way it has a surprise element to it, and keeps the opponent guessing as to what's coming...
Opponents might even change tactics when they are afraid you've got a pit trap card for instance.

lerchey · Post by **lerchey** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:45 pm

Agreed. In both of the league that I play in, we do not show the opposing team what cards we have until we play them.

Grumbledook · Post by **Grumbledook** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:45 pm

we read them out as we got them pre match

Post by **lunchmoney** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:46 pm

sounds like it's entirely up to you league commish. we play face down for the surprise element

bjorn9486 · Post by **bjorn9486** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:04 pm

We keep them facedown except when its a card that needs to be played on a person at the beginning of the game. Then we say it is played, keep the card face up, and tell a 3 person who the card is on. Then when an action affects that player, we tell them that the card was used on that player.

Grumbledook · Post by **Grumbledook** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:07 pm

given that everything else is open, I prefer the open use of cards

or well i didnt like the 3rd edition cards that were really broken and I didn't welcome the reintroduction of them either

hiding them makes them even worse in my eyes

Wanchor · Post by **Wanchor** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:58 pm

Hidden here too. The cards are usually shown to a third person as well just in case there are a lot of draws to be made and the cards have to be put back into the decks.

Smeborg · Post by **Smeborg** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:26 pm

They are meant to be hidden, IMO.

The fun of a hidden card is that you can have a completely useless one, but still use it as a bluff threat. I thought this was one of the main points about cards since 3rd Ed.

And it's entertaining.

Darkson · Post by **Darkson** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:02 pm

Smeborg wrote:They are meant to be hidden, IMO.

Yep. That's how they were originally designed.

frogbear · Post by **frogbear** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:30 pm

Hidden

They are meant to be 'played'. Played would infer that the card is then turned over.

I know others will state that 'played' could be pushed forward, yet in card games, you play a card by showing it. This is no different.

'Activating' a card is different to 'playing' a card.

sdague · Post by **sdague** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:45 pm

Thanks for all the comments here. We'll definitely switch to cards being secret until played. It would be great if that was clarified in the LRB5+ rulebook, just to get rid of confusion.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 11:37 pm

LOL. It never even occurred to me that they wouldn't be hidden.

sdague · Post by **sdague** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:36 am

For people that have been following the BB rules all along, I think it is probably more clear, as my understanding was 3rd ed was more clear on it. For those of us coming back to it from a long hiatus (2nd ed rules, still have my old polystyrene pitch), the intent isn't obvious, at least to me.

Blammaham · Post by **Blammaham** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:37 am

I've always played face down.S.