Stuck at work on Sunday and taking a short break. No piecepack mail
to entertain me. I'll have to write my own.

I am awaiting my own copies of the Four Seasons and Playing Cards
expansions from Mesomorph, and hope to review them ASAP. I was
initially looking forward to the Four Seasons expansion more, but now
it seems to me that the Playing Cards expansion might offer more
possibilities.

Has anyone considered that until now, color and suit were always the
same in the piecepack? It would be pointless to say (in a Poker-like
game, for example), "Red Aces are wild" because Red = Suns and Suns =
Red. If you are using just the Playing Cards Expansion, however, Red
could mean either Hearts or Diamonds, just as with a normal deck of
playing cards. If you add the Playing Cards expansion to the standard
piecepack, Red could mean one of *three* different suits.

Most exciting to me is the possibility of adding the Playing Cards
expansion to the standard piecepack, then removing Crowns and Arms.
That would leave only three Red suits (Suns, Hearts, Diamonds) and
three Black suits (Moons, Spades, Clubs). In this scenario, not only
would there be an extra "dimension" (colour as well as suit), but
there would be _six suits_ to match the _six values_ of piecepack
coins, tiles, and dice. This is one of those mathematical features
that seems to open the door to new game designs. It was the
"tightness", the _integrity_ of the piecepack that was one of the main
things that attracted me to it in the first place. This combination of
components seems to hold promise too.

Hmm, two of the six suits are "special" (Suns and Moons), just as two
of the six values are (nulls and aces). Interestinger and
interestinger...

If someone enters a game relying heavily on these features into the
next contest, don't assume it's me, 'kay?

Ron

--
Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
Center for Ludic Synergy, Seattle Cosmic Game Night,
Kennexions Glass Bead Game & Positive Revolution FAQ: http://www.ludism.org/