Reaction: PK Cards

Finally finished playing our first game of PK Cards The Broken Seal. It took us about 3 hours of play time. Part of me blames the fact it's our first game. First-time games are always like that: you are unfamiliar with the game mechanics. You second guess every rule because you wonder if you read it and understood the rules right. You debate with your equally bewildered opponent whether you both agree with the same interpretation of the wording. The other part of me blames the fact that PK cards is simply a long game.

Compared to Magic: The Gathering where a lucky break will allow you to win big-time resulting in games as short as 5 or 10 minutes, PK doesn't allow for landslide victories so easily. You play Battles (made up of “Sorties”) until you get 7 wins. So far we've gotten our fastest Battle down to about 10 minutes. That said, a true landslide win is indeed rewarded with additional victory points on the score-board.

Unfortunately while this does make for decisive games leaving very little question who deserved to win in the end, I just don't see a game that lasts more than 2 hours picking up steam at our little club (which is composed of 20-30-somethings in an office environment who have only a lunch hour to play games together every day (and even then we don't necessarily play every day).

So how does it work? It's like a really complex version of War. Players take turns playing cards while being the attacker and defender. Offense and Defense scores on creature cards are compared. If they tie, then there's a complex version of Rock-Paper-Scissors using the colours shown on the play-mat grid. If the colours don't line up, then it goes to blind luck by drawing from the deck and comparing the numbers on the drawn card. Do this 7 times. The player with the most Sortie wins has won this Battle.

As you can see, between the sheer number of times to play “Sorties,” and then all the variations to the Sortie introduced by the different Power and Influence cards to modify the Creature's stats, each Battle can swing wildly from only a few minutes to many more minutes of game time.

I've continued to buy a few boosters in the interim because like Weirdguy I have a bit of faith. We've suggested that perhaps after some deck customization the game will move faster. For instance, eliminating a few different creature types or colours would simplify a lot of the stats modifiers. And of course, a better hand will probably lead to quicker Battles overall.