Game: Top Trumps

Thread: Re: Any good ideas for games with Top Trumps cards?

mintyh — 2008-05-19T06:59:09+00:00

My four-year old son came up with something that at least extends the gameplay a bit: the ability to call 'low' or 'high' when choosing an attribute. Can help you conquer those big-number cards...

But hey, it's Top Trumps- waddya expect in terms of deep gameplay? ;-)

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T19:01:06+00:00

TopTrumps - Angela Anaconda

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T19:00:32+00:00

TopTrumps - Buffy - Im Bann der Dämonen

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:59:57+00:00

TopTrumps - Der Herr der Ringe - Die zwei Türme

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:59:19+00:00

Top Trumps - Der Herr der Ringe - Die Rückkehr des Königs

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:58:46+00:00

Top Trumps - Shrek 2

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:57:48+00:00

Top Trumps - Schloss Einstein

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:56:34+00:00

TopTrumps - The Da Vinci Code - Sakrileg

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:54:40+00:00

Top Trumps - Horror

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:53:55+00:00

Top Trumps - Super DC Heroes 2

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cdefrisco — 2008-04-21T18:44:38+00:00

Top Trumps - Super DC Heroes

Thread: Re: Review, Reminiscence and Copyright-Bothering Images

Domhnall101 — 2007-10-03T19:31:55+00:00

Red Wine Pie wrote:
Very simply. Split the decks evenly between all players. Hold the cards so ONLY the first one is face up. A random player starts by reading off one of the categories and the value for that category on his card e.g. If playing the Horror deck, the card may be King Kong, and the player may read "Physical Strength:100". The other players then read their value for Physical Strength, with the highest winning all the cards. In the event of a tie all cards are put in a pool, and those who tied play again until the only winner of a road collects all the cards. Once a player loses all their cards they are out. Play continues until one player has all the cards - that player is the winner!

Special cards labelled "Super Trump", "Top Trump" or similar will beat all other cards as long as you are the "defender", rather than the "caller".

Some sets also allow you to play Happy Families i.e. gathering groups of 4 or 6.

and that is almost over complicating it. Not a game for playing with people who can count cards..

Thread: Top Trumps Battle Cards Game

johnclark — 2007-09-11T12:40:40+00:00

Here is an alternative game for playing with Top Trumps cards, which I invented and played a few days ago. Everyone agreed that it worked well so I figured I would write it up. Its a quick game, easy to learn (nevermind the long-winded explanation below!) and requires some strategy. We used Simpsons TT cards which makes it more fun.

3-5 players is best.

Deal 3 cards to each player. Play the remaining cards in the middle of the table as the draw deck.

On a player's turn, he may choose to either draw a card, play a card in front of him, or declare a battle. After performing the action his turn ends.

Actions:

Draw a card: player takes the top card of the draw deck into his hand. Players can hold as many cards as desired.

Play a card: player selects one card from his hand and puts it face up in front of him, next to any other cards he has already played and such that all players can see the played cards.

Declare a battle: if player has at least three cards face up in front of him, then he may declare a battle. The battle occurs as follows:

The player selects a category. All players then examine their cards on the table and determines which card has the worst value in that category. If a player has more than three cards on the table, then they choose the card with the third best value in the category.

The players announce their values for those cards. The player with the best value of those cards is the winner of the battle and the player with the worst value is the loser.

The winning player then finds the card in front of him with the best value in the category, and 'retires' the card (as the hero), by placing it in a pile near him (but seperate from the other face up cards).

The losing player finds the the card in front of him with the worst value in the category, and 'retires' it (in disgrace) by placing it a general pile of disgraced cards.

Play continues until no more actions are possible. The player with the most cards in their 'hero' pile is the winner.

Example of play

Players are Dan, Ben and Josh.

Dan goes first and plays Homer Simpson
Ben plays Santa's Little Helper
Josh draws a card, making his hand up to four cards.

Dan plays Barney Gumble
Ben plays Apu
Josh plays Ned Flanders

Dan draws a card
Ben plays Marge Simpson
Josh draws a card

Dan plays Chief Wiggum
Ben draws a card
Josh draws a card

Dan plays Snowball II
Ben declares a battle!

At this point, each player has the following cards in front of them:

Dan has four cards: Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, Santa's Little Helper, Snowball II
Ben has three cards: Chief Wiggum, Apu, Marge Simpson
Josh has one card: Ned Flanders

Ben chooses to fight the battle according to the "Fattest" category. Each player then finds his card with the 'worst' (lowest) value in the category.

Ben's worst card is Marge Simpson, which has a "Fattest" rating of 28.
Dan has four cards, so he can choose which three cards from which to select his worst value (he picks the three other than Snowball II) and, of those three, Santa's Little Helper has the worst "Fattest" of 23.
Josh only has one card, which is Ned Flanders, so he must use the "Fattest" on it, which is 27.

So, Marge, Santa's Little Helper and Apu are selected to battle it out for the title of "Fattest", and Marge (Ben's card) emerges the hero.

Ben then 'retires' his best card in that category, Chief Wiggum (Fattest = 48), removing him from his play area and placing him in his score pile, where he takes no further part in the game. Ben now has only two cards in his play area, Marge and Apu.

The loser is Dan, who had Santa's Little Helper, which is also 'retired' in disgrace and placed in a common pile, taking no further part in the game. Dan now has only three cards in his play area.

Josh then takes the next turn.

That's it! If you give it a try then let me know!

Thread: Narnia Top Trumps - review and session report

johnclark — 2007-05-11T00:24:28+00:00

Dinner party and then some quick games. Played Apples To Apples first (Josh won easy) and then Narnia top Trumps.

The Narnia Top Trumps are completely beautiful - great production values with raised gold lettering for the card titles and very nice pictures. Easily the best Top Trumps set I have seen. Categories are:

Wisdom
Courage
Cruelty
Height
Magic Powers
Combat Skills

On four out of the six categories Aslan is the best, with the White Which best in Cruelty and the Centaur chief best in Height.

All of the characters are represented, including Maugrim and Father Christmas, with the strange exception of the beavers! Also, there are a few generic characters, such as the Bear, Dwarves and Minoboar, which appear in the final battle scene. In addition, there are 2 version of each of the children - one for the start of the story (simple as their names), and the other for the end of the story (as their full royal titles - King Peter the Magnificent etc). I quite like this, but I'm still miffed at the lack of Beavers.

We played with NINE people, which did not really work. Each player started with 3 or 4 cards, so most of us were out in the first 3 rounds, especially given that the first round was a 4-way tie!

Ben was dealt Aslan and eventually won the game - this would happen frequently.

[present were: me, Jeanette, Dan, Ben, Josh, Ginny, Wishnu, Lily, Kazia]

Thread: Re: Review, Reminiscence and Copyright-Bothering Images

Red Wine Pie — 2006-10-31T08:17:42+00:00

Very simply. Split the decks evenly between all players. Hold the cards so ONLY the first one is face up. A random player starts by reading off one of the categories and the value for that category on his card e.g. If playing the Horror deck, the card may be King Kong, and the player may read "Physical Strength:100". The other players then read their value for Physical Strength, with the highest winning all the cards. In the event of a tie all cards are put in a pool, and those who tied play again until the only winner of a road collects all the cards. Once a player loses all their cards they are out. Play continues until one player has all the cards - that player is the winner!

Special cards labelled "Super Trump", "Top Trump" or similar will beat all other cards as long as you are the "defender", rather than the "caller".

Some sets also allow you to play Happy Families i.e. gathering groups of 4 or 6.

Thread: Re: Any good ideas for games with Top Trumps cards?

Punainen Nörtti — 2006-10-16T08:53:39+00:00

I was playtesting my (4) by playing with myself with the Narnia deck. I think that makes the game Narnian Whist:-) Anyway, I simplified the tie-breaker condition so that there are no specific tie-breaker attributes, but the trick is won by the last-played card of those having the equal winning value. Because of that, also the rule of beating high card becomes "If a player has a card that has the named stat higher or equal than in the highest card in the trick so far, the player must play such a card. Otherwise, the player can play any card." I also played so that the dummy was exposed before the opening lead (unlike in Bridge). The deck consists of 30 cards, so I dealt 9 cards for the attacker and 7 cards for everyone else. The attacker discarded two cards before the play began. N/A was regarded as a lowest value in any category (lower than 0.)

Then, some observations from the play. First, the deck consists of generally good cards and generally bad cards. There are seven categories, and there are only eight cards that are in top 3 in some caregory. In particular, Aslan is the high card in all categories except for height (where the top is Aslan's general), and cruelty (where the top is White Witch.) Mainly, the game revolved around the eight top cards, and in particular around Aslan, Aslan's general and the White Witch, so that the luck from the deal was a significalt factor. Usually, at most two tricks were won by cards outside the eight top cards.

In particular, the non-Aslan categories (that is, Cruelty and Height) were very significant, because they allowed the side without Aslan cash in tricks. The main techniques of standard trick-taking games worked also in this game, except for establishing long suits (which requires the concept of following suit, not present in this game) and voiding suits in order to ruff (which requires the concept of trumps.) The main tactics:
* Proper timing of cashing in high cards. (Aslan's general is the top in Height, and quite high in other categories. If you do not play it as height in time, you may lose it, but playing it prematurely may promote cards below it in other categories.)
* Leading a medium-high card in some category in the hope that the second player must play the second-highest or third-highest card in that category, which is beaten by further cards.
* Trying to make the opponents play top cards of some category as cards of a wrong category. ((Example, if there is the White Witch (the second in Magical Power) in the dummy, play Santa (the third or the fourth in Magical Power) as the opening lead as "Magical Power". This way the dummy is forced to play the White Witch, which is beat by Aslan (the first in Magical Power). Voila, the White Witch does not get a trick in Cruelty.)) In particular the Fighting Skills and Magical Powers categories are good in this, since cards that are very high in any category tend to be at least moderately high in Fighting Skills and Magical Powers.
* When there are several equal cards that are winners in some category, give a trick to the opponents' sure winner in some other category (for Aslan, if possible, since it usually gets a trick sooner or later), and hope that they will lead the category where you have one of the equal winners. This way you might be the last one to play a winner.

Thus, there are immensely complicated tactical oppoturnities in the play, but tactical play is possible only after one memorizes the attributes of the top cards in the deck. (However, one does not need to know all the deck by heart. Knowing the top third of the deck or the top half is enough.)

At least in my playtesting, the attacker seemed to have a slight advantage over the defenders, but not a very big one. (Making the opening lead against an exposed dummy is very advantageous.)

To add more variation to the game, it is possible to deal everyone 7 cards, and expose the two extra cards, which are noy used in the game. (I am not sure if the game is biased in favour of the attacker after this adjustment.)

I am not fully satisfied with my game-ending condition (that is, after a fixed number of deals), since it means that some players may become unable to win before the game ends. Maybe it would be better to play so that only the attacker gets points (-4 for no tricks, -3 for one trick, -2 for two tricks, -1 for three tricks, 1 for four tricks, 2 for five tricks, 3 for six tricks, and 4 for seven tricks), and the first player to get 7 points wins the game. Maybe, still, add the rule that a player always has at least zero points (which guarantees that the game will end with the probability 1), and that if the attacker gets 7 tricks, he gets an extra deal where he is an attacker. (Giving also the defenders points in a game where the first player to reach a limit wins is no good, since it would lead to semi-cooperative play. The above variant keeps the defenders always fully cooperative.)

Thread: Re: Any good ideas for games with Top Trumps cards?

monkian — 2006-10-13T12:27:58+00:00

Some really good simple ideas there, Tuomas. Better than anything I've come up with.

I like (2) but it's so simple I should have thought of it! You could use stands like in LOTR: The Confrontation to hold the cards so that you can only see your own and play on a chess board. When the pieces meet, the attacker could pick a stat. That would be cool with any deck of character cards.

Thread: Re: Any good ideas for games with Top Trumps cards?

Punainen Nörtti — 2006-10-13T10:36:14+00:00

In the game (4), before the first trick is started, the attacker announces a stat that is used as a tie-breaker throughout the deal in case there are equal winning cards in the trick. Maybe, a secondary tie-breaker stat, too (in case that the primary tie-breakers are also equal).

Thread: Re: Any good ideas for games with Top Trumps cards?

Punainen Nörtti — 2006-10-13T10:25:23+00:00

Just some quick ideas... Haven't tested any of these.

(1) Approx. 4 players. All cards are dealt so that everyone gets an equal number of cards. Players look at their cards like in Great Dalmuti or poker, and unlike in the original Top Trumps. The player to the dealer's left starts by playing a card and naming a stat that is played. Each player, in turn, must either pass or play a card that has the named stat higher or equal. When all players except for one have passed, the player who played the last card plays an arbitrary card and names a new stat to be beaten. The winner is the player who gets rid of all his cards first.

(2) Some kind of board game for two, where the cards are used as playing pieces, and they can be moved one square or so each turn. Each square on the board has a name of a stat, and if two cards arrive at the same square, the one with the stat of the square lower is captured. To recognize the player owing a card use the orientation of the card (shogi style). Of course, it is also possible use the cards face down, so you get a stratego-style game.

(3) Some kind of Cosmic Encounter clone, except that you use the Top Trumps cards as attack cards. The attacker may choose the stat, or that each planet has a designated stat that is used, or that each planet has stat of strength so that it the attacker chooses it, the defender gets a bonus.

(4) Three players, all cards are dealt into four equal piles. The dealer is the attacker and the other players are defenders. Each player takes one pile as hand cards (a player looks at his hand cards, like in bridge or poker, and unlike in the original top trumps), and the cards in the one extra pile are placed face up between the defenders (like the dummy in bridge). The defenders form a partnership, and the face-up hand (dummy) is regarded as the attacker's partner, and the attacker decides which card to play from it. The dummy plays as if it were a fourth player placed between the defenders. The player left to the attacker starts the first trick by playing a card and naming a stat. Then, everyone of the other players (including the dummy) plays one card from his hand into the trick face-up. (First the player to the trick-starter's left, then the player to his left, and so on until everyone has played a card.) If a player has a card that has the named stat higher than in any card in the trick so far, the player must play such a card. Otherwise, the player can play any card. The trick is won by the highest card of the named stat. The winner of the trick names a new stat and starts a new trick.

After all the cards have been played, each player gets a point for each trick their team won. In the next deal the role of the attacker rotates to the player in the previous attacker's left. The winner is the player with most points after a pre-determined number of deals.

Thread: Any good ideas for games with Top Trumps cards?

monkian — 2006-09-29T15:00:12+00:00

Top Trumps cards are great. You can get packs with almost any theme imaginable and most people own a pack or two. The problem is, the game itself is abysmal. I played it with a 5 year old once and even she got bored.

So I've been looking for any advanced games that can be played with the cards. Top Trump Squads sounds okay: http://www.xorph.com/dispatch/wiki/index.php?title=Top_Trump...

Please post any ideas anyone has for games. Don't feel that you have to use the original mechanic where a category is picked and the highest statistic wins. Be as original as possible and use specific packs if you like.

There must be a good way of having characters fight against each other using different stats in an RPG sort of way.

Come to think of it, who the hell is going to be looking up Top Trumps on BGG?

Thread: Re: Review, Reminiscence and Copyright-Bothering Images

Geosphere — 2006-09-11T15:07:08+00:00

I've seen these in ToysRUs. How do they actually play?

Thread: Review, Reminiscence and Copyright-Bothering Images

Red Wine Pie — 2006-09-11T11:14:57+00:00

Top Trumps, eh? Cor, that takes me back. It was probably the first game I bought with my own money back in the mid-70s. Some of the sets I still have suggest that sets of (generally) 32 cards cost 35-55 new British pence, which was probably about a week's pocket money for me at the time. I've got 17 sets left, of which I've found 16 featuring in this picture:

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The brands I have are Top Trumps, Super Trumps, Star Trumps and Mini Trumps. Top Trumps were most common and had the largest range of subjects - they also had a redemtion system whereby collecting a certain number of gift cards would allow you to send away for one of four special sets of cards. In the early days this involved taping 5p pieces to a card and sending it away in the mail "allowing 28 days for delivery". Ah, blissful day when only exciting things (and no bills) arrived in the post.

Anyway, getting back to my review of the Top Trump range. It was certainly the case that some sets were better than others. Later Top Trumps in particular became lazy exercises in making up any old categories and numbers For example, the Horror sets featured only 4 items: Fear Factor, Physical Strength, Horror Rating and Killing Power. I find it hard to believe that the numbers chosen for these rankings had anything to do with the card they appeared on, and in any case there was never any desciption of what Horror Rating or Fear Factor actually represented. I find it only a little easier to believe that there was any kind of game balancing or play testing involved in equalising the cards. At least King Kong had a hundred for Physical Strength, and Dracula 100 for Horror Rating but the rest was a starting point for a hundred pre-geeky playground battles.

Even in the more "serious" sets you were left to your own devices as to how to interpret results. In the Super Trump Tank set, was "Rocket" better or worse than any Caliber of gun (eg 76mm, 105mm)? And what about the bridge tanks, which had no gun at all? The Super Trumps also had a card marked "Super Trump" (duh!) which was supposed to act like a Joker. The rules didn't make it clear whether this card always won in attack or defence, or just attack. As the Trump was often a poor card, it made sense to say it only won in attack, making it a "eggshell with hammer" card.

I have seen the Mini Trumps dismissed is an inferior variant, but they were very neat for youngsters with small hands, and could be well hidden for use before and after class. I used to travel an hour or so to school so there was plenty of time to play with fellow junior commuters. The Mini Trumps also featured number grouping (1-8, a-d) which allowed you to play Happy Families with the same cards.

The only Star Trumps set I had was even classier than Super Trumps, with better quality card and nicer print. My owned range included: Spacecraft Space and Military Rockets, Aeroplanes, Cars, Tanks, Helicoptors, Soccer and Cricket Stars, Dinosaurs and Horror.

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OK, so the Copyright-bothering images. First are these Horror card images. Not content with stealing copyrighted monsters names (King Kong, Creature from the Black Lagoon), some pictures for made-up monsters have been laughably stolen from TV and movie images. Spot the Mutant from This Island Earth, the Daemon and the Sea Devils from Doctor Who (as the Venusian Death Cell - a third Doctor in-joke) and more.

Even more likely to cause large law suits are the cards in the Spacecraft set. Yes, that's an X-Wing on the cover of the set and no, there's no mention of Lucas or Star Wars. Inside, it's coyly refered to as a Yavin Interceptor, together with its chums the Racing Falcon (Vader's Tie Fighter), Imperial Space Cruiser (close enough) and the Death Star. See if you can guess where the "Cyclon Raider" and Colonial Viper came from. Other images are knicked with out reference from the great SF illustrators of the day including Chris Foss. Ah, simple innocent days.

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I think the appeal of the game has not changed with the launch of the new "official" licensed sets. Pick a subject you and your favourite kid like. Sneak a look at the cards so you can work out what a good rating for each item is. Then play it fast and loose as a filler and have a blast.

Thread: Re: List of all versions?

Julian.Simpson — 2006-07-28T21:25:04+00:00

In the Simpson household we have the following:

The Simpsons - Horror edition
Star Wars Episodes I - III
The World of Roald Dahl - Goodies and Baddies
The Incredibles
DC Super Heroes 1
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Bratz

Thread: List of all versions?

johnclark — 2006-07-17T04:50:34+00:00

It would be good to have a complete list of top trumps and variants. Those that I have are:

[published as ACE Super Trumps - probably late 1970s]

Space Rockets
Super Cars
Super Cars (another set, different)
European Locomotives

[Top Trumps]

Lord of the Rings
Simpsons

Can other people add those they have or know of?

Thread: Top Trump Squads

kevan — 2005-07-17T09:54:01+00:00

Top Trump Squads crosses the basic game with Yahtzee, to produce something a little more strategic and interesting than the usual "look at your card and pick the highest stat" rules: players are dealt a number of cards face down, and have to assign them to categories, one at a time. The strongest "squad" of cards wins.

http://www.xorph.com/dispatch/wiki/index.php?title=Top_Trump...

Thread: User Review

slider — 2004-08-09T04:31:59+00:00

Top Trumps is a simple card game that has been popular in Great Britain for many years. Parker Brothers is now publishing it in the United States. The game is a variant of the classic "War" card game. Different editions are available with different themes. The editions currently available in the U.S. include Military Jets, Dinosaurs, Star Wars, The Simpsons, Predators, The Lord of the Rings, and Shrek 2. The set from which the particulars of this review are drawn is The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The deck consists of 30 playing cards plus one card with the simple rules and another with some background about The Lord of the Rings. The cards are laid out in a fashion similar to most CCG cards. The name of a character and a photograph from the movie fill the top half. Below these are a series of statistics. At the bottom is the "lore", a brief paragraph with information about the character that is for flavor only.

The statistics are the heart of the game. The Two Towers game has six statistics, not counting the Culture statistic that isn't used in the game. The statistics are Resistance to Ring, Age, Resilience, Ferocity, Magic, and Height. Each statistic is followed by a value.

Players hold their cards in a stack so that only the face of the first card is visible to them. The player whose turn it is selects one of the statistics and reads it out loud. The other players respond by reading the same statistic from their top cards. The player with the highest value wins, places all the played cards at the bottom of her stack, and starts the next turn. The winner is the person to collect all the cards.

The choice of statistics gives the starting player an edge. She can pick a statistic in which her top character excels. Of course, this means that success at this game will improve as the cards become more familiar. Some characters are clear winners in certain statistics. Nobody in the game is older than Sauron, nor is anyone taller than Treebeard. Woe to the person with Grima Wormtongue, the sorriest card in the game!

I've only played the game with two players, and in this format Top Trumps is susceptible to one player running away with the game very easily. Calling the statistics is a great advantage. This is mediated slightly because a player on a streak will eventually win Grima Wormtongue or some other less powerful character and then cycle back around to that card. This is not necessarily a complete drawback because it serves to make games shorter than a standard game of War. Clearly the probability of long winning runs is reduced with more players because there are more cards challenging the starting player and therefore a greater chance for a different winner.

The cards are attractive with a colored background and Tolkien runes. The photographs are well chosen and reproduced. The lore is fairly accurate, and research is evident even when it appears wrong. Wulf is named as the leader of the Dunlending Wildmen. Tolkien actually wrote about a leader in Dunland named Wulf, but he lived at the time of Helm Hammerhand, 260 years before the time of The Lord of the Rings. (But who can say that Peter Jackson's Wulf isn't a descendant with the same name?)

The validity of the statistics is debatable. Values for Resistance to Ring, Resilience, Ferocity, and Magic are inventions of the game designers. Some relative values clearly make sense, but Tolkien scholars might scoff at others. I was pleasantly surprised to find, however, that most of the ages are accurate. The Orc ages are inventions, and seem far to great to me for a brutal society. The only age of a main character that I question is that for Legolas, who is listed as being older than Elrond. Tolkien gives no age for Legolas, but it's surprising that a game based on the movie license would make this claim.

Top Trumps is mostly luck with a small helping of card familiarity. I find it to be a nice wind-down distraction for finishing up a heavy gaming evening, but only because I'm such a Tolkien fanatic. With such a wide variety of themed decks available, everybody should be able to find one that suits them.

Thread: Toys R Us only?

Dingus — 2003-09-24T15:15:56+00:00

I read that the new decks are only available at Toys R Us. Our local one only carries the Simpsons and Lord of the Rings decks.