TEN is live (Beat Jen in TEN)
Update: TEN has launched on Kickstarter as part of AEG's Big Game Night bundle, along with Whirling Witchcraft and the Villagers expansion for Tiny Towns, and the campaign will run for 10 days. You may pledge for all three games.
Our preview post below was published on June 18.
TEN is an abstract push-your-luck and set collection card game for 1-4 players. Although it is planned for a retail release in August, it will also be available as part of the “Big Game Night” bundle Kickstarter by AEG, launching on June 22.
The cards are of two types: “number” cards numbered 1-9 in four color suits and a wild suit, and “currency” cards, showing 1-5 currency symbols. All these cards are shuffled into a common deck. You start with 5 currency tokens.
On your turn, you flip cards one at a time from the deck and put them in the central tableau. After you draw a card, you can either pass or keep drawing. The total value of the Tableau is given by the sum of the numbers on the number cards, minus the sum of the currency symbols on the currency cards. If, when you flip a new card, this value exceeds 10, you ‘bust’. You also bust if the total number of currency symbols exceeds 10. Note also that, whenever a Wild card is flipped, the main loop is paused, and you compete with your opponent through an auction to get the card, by bidding currency tokens.
When you bust, you gain one bust token (worth three currency tokens), put all number cards in the market, and if you bust due to the total value exceeding 10, your opponent gains as many currency tokens as there are currency symbols showing. The remaining currency cards are discarded.
If you decide to pass, you can take either the number cards or the currency cards in your personal reserve. If you take the number cards, your opponent gains as many currency tokens as there are currency symbols showing on the currency cards, which then get discarded. If you take the currency cards, the number cards go to the market.
Whether you passed or got busted, you then go through the Buy phase. You can buy one (and no more) number card in the market by spending currency tokens, the cost of a card being equal to its number.
Your opponent, the AI JEN, plays next. Depending on the difficulty level (from 4 to 10), JEN flips cards until the total value in the tableau exceeds the difficulty level, and takes the number cards. You then earn as many currency tokens as currency symbols showing. However, JEN can still bust if the total number of currency symbols exceeds 10, in which case the number cards go to the market. JEN doesn’t buy from the market.
When the last card is drawn, the active player finishes their turn, and if it is the AI’s turn, you have a last opportunity to play a card. Final scoring then begins: for each of the four colored suits, each player earns as many points as the longest consecutive sequence of numbers they collected. Wild cards can be used in any sequence. If you score more points than JEN, you win the game!