Last Jack*ss Standing
ROLE
Designer
TYPE
Tabletop - Card
OVERVIEW
The apocalypse is nigh! Choose the deck of 1 of 3 Jack*sses (Head Honcho, Desk Jockey, or Pan Handler) trying to compete with and outlast the other humans by managing your Food, Health, and Security. Or perhaps control the apocalypse yourself by choosing the Overseer attempting to eliminate all humans.
PLAYERS
2-4
GAMPLAY LENGTH
45 Minutes
CATEGORIES
Card Game
Competitive
Roles
DECISION STRATEGY: 5/5
COMPONENT COMLEXITY: 3/5
LUCK'S HELP: 4/5
DETAILS
DESCRIPTION
In the spirit of trading card games where everyone has their own unique deck and battles it out with their own cards to take out their opponent, Last Jack*ss Standing takes an approach that removes the building aspect of the decks and reduces it to simple selection of a pre-built deck. Grounding the theme for easier entry are characters with different lifestyles that give them (via their card selection) their designated tools to survive the Apocalypse by managing their own pool of the same 3 resources that everyone else is working with. Each player has a hand of 5 cards at all times with mixes of during-turn and out-of-turn cards leaving gameplay open to constant action.
Additionally, is the deck option to be the Overseer giving outside help or hindrances and, in not needing to manage your own pool of resources but manage your player’s resources. You need to be particular with who you target. Playing this provides the option to either play the strategic way and try to win yourself by eliminating all players, lest the final one survive the final round, or the chaotic way and just mess with the players. They can even use the power of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse to target all players for extended turns, which can only be ended by a single card in each player’s deck that they must work together to use against the Overseer.
ADDITIONAL DESIGN NOTES
The theme started as a school project with random word generation to start which, when combined, brought forth the inspiration to question, how would different social classes bear when facing a celestial catastrophe? What would it really come down to that kept people alive?
While the design is asymmetric with different decks and having different resources to start, there are some common cards between decks; just in different quantities to keep balance. Also, the 1v3 mechanic adds another layer of nuance to the asymmetry where the Overseer can only win by playing strategically and the players are not only trying to play against each other's resources to survive, but an outside force picking targets/favorites.
During play testing, I was finding people thinking some decks were better than others and trying to switch but it really came down to how they used their cards, not necessarily the decks themselves. There was even a time where the Jack*sses agreed to make sure one of them would live through the final round just so the Overseer could not win.
RESOURCES