Top Trump Squads
From DispatchWiki
by Kevan
Contents |
[edit] Equipment
- A deck of Top Trumps cards.
- At least two players.
[edit] Summary
Using a standard deck of Top Trumps cards, players invent missions that fit the theme of the set, and then compete to build the most effective squad of characters to complete those missions.
(The game is basically a hybrid of Top Trumps and Yahtzee, created in exasperation at Top Trumps still not having any proper rules, that in spite of all the film and TV tie-ins, they're still just using the same playground rules from twenty years ago. These new rules still boil down to gambling on how a given card's stats might compare to those of other, unknown cards, but the decisions are less obvious, and the theme-specific "missions" - recreating scenes from films but with randomly-assigned characters - are a good metaphor-building exercise, and fun to play out.)
[edit] Play
[edit] Setup
Each player is dealt a number of cards equal to the number of stats (height, top speed, battle rating, etc.) that are used by the deck. These cards are laid out face-down in front of each player, in a row, and the position of the card corresponds to the same-positioned stat - if the third stat on the deck's cards is "Strength", then the third card from the left is the character you've assigned to "Strength" role.
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+ +--+ +--+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--+ +--+ +--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
Any player who's got a good idea for a mission may suggest one. A mission is basically just a group of three important stats (one Critical, one Important and one merely Useful), but spun into some sort of narrative that fits the theme of the deck.
(Stats needn't be selected as "highest wins" - the creator of the mission can choose "lowest wins" if it fits the idea better, or "nearest to a given value", or anything else that works.)
An example mission for the Star Wars Top Trumps deck might be:-
"You're assembling a squad to escape from the Death Star. It's useful that one of your squad have the Brains to disable the security systems, it's important that someone has a high Combat Skill, and it's critical that you have someone who can comfortably wear a captured Stormtrooper uniform - they must have a Height as near to 200cm as possible."
Each player then marks their own cards with tokens to signify the three stats used by the mission - three tokens above the Critical Stat, two above the Important one, and one for the Useful one. These are the tokens that you'll win if the character you assign to that slot beats your opponents' characters.
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** * **
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[edit] Squad Building
Squad-building then begins. Each player should pick up a card from the six in front of them, look at it, and then place it face-up in place of any of the face-down cards (or back in the slot they took it from). Once a card has been placed face-up into a slot, it may not be moved.
The player then repeats the process with the face-down card that they'd picked up to make room (or pick up a new one, if they didn't move the last card), and continues doing this until all six cards are assigned to a slot.
*
** * **
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|++| |++| |++| |++| |++| |++|
|--| |--| |--| |--| |--| |--|
+--+ +--+ +--+ +--+ +--+ +--+
(Squads are built simultaneously - there's no need to wait for others to assign their first card before moving on to your second.)
When you've finished your squad, discard any characters that were assigned to irrelevant stats. The three characters that remain are those that you're sending on the mission.
* ** * ** +--+ +--+ +--+ |++| |++| |++| |--| |--| |--| +--+ +--+ +--+
[edit] Scoring and Victory
When everyone has built a squad, the player who created the mission should run through it again, stat by stat, and ask everyone who they've assigned to each slot. If your character has the winning value for a slot, you get to keep the tokens that were above it. (If multiple characters are tied for a given slot, they all win.)
A new round then begins, with another player making up a new mission.
The first player to collect ten tokens wins the game - if several players pass ten during the same round, the one with the highest final score is the winner. (If it's a tie, it's a tie.)
