Change of Heart is a collection of trick-taking games from designer Chris Wray and artist Megan Russell. Each game is a twist on the classic game Hearts. Each features an all-new mechanic.

Change of Heart: This is a new spin on the classic game of Hearts.

In Hearts, the Queen of Spades was worth a whopping -13 points. Why put so much emphasis on one card? In Change of Hearts, all of the Queens are worth negative five points.

The idea was also to put a fresh twist on the Jack of Diamonds, which in some Hearts variants was worth +10 points. But again, why so much emphasis on one card? In this game, all of the Jacks are worth something, and worth even more the more you capture.

The high cards in the deck also have different backs, and players pick their hands using the limited amount of information that provides. The first pick goes to the player furthest behind, creating a sort of catch-up mechanic.

Look Ma, No Hands: A frequent knock on trick taking games is the luck factor. This game is, to the designer's knowledge, the first full-information, fully-determinative trick taking game designed. Many of the concepts that make this a no-luck game could work with other trick-taking games, but it felt most natural to marry them with the game of Hearts.

All cards begin on the table. Players play tricks, taking any card from the table, though they should generally follow if they can (there are rules if they don't). The winner of the trick gets positive points. Everybody takes the card they personally played.

Thus, players in the first phase are building their hands with trick taking. Then they play a second hand, but it is the classic trick avoidance game of Hearts, with the negative points for Queens and Hearts.

In sum, there is full information, and the game very much feels like Hearts. But it has zero luck.

Go Shoot the Moon: The designer's favorite part of the game of Hearts was always trying to “shoot the moon.” In this game, the theme is to make the game of Hearts where one player attempts to shoot the moon each hand. There's a sort of auction at the start, where players can either take the moon shooters' hand (i.e. the hand with the highest cards; the suit back is different on the highest cards) or pass over it under the agreement that they will pass the moonshooter one of their highest cards. There is a scoring mechanic for when the moon is not shot.

The Tin Man: The Tin Man has always wanted a heart, and with apologies to L. Frank Baum, the best way to get it is not from finding a wizard from Kansas, but rather by playing the game of Hearts.

This uses a sort of automated player called The Tin Man; he can win tricks. If the Tin Man captures the most Hearts, he will be happy, and the players will be rewarded (i.e. Hearts and Queens will score POSITIVE points). If not, he’ll be upset, and the players will suffer (i.e. Hearts and Queens will score NEGATIVE points).

Hearts is the classic “trick avoidance” game, where players usually avoid capturing tricks, since points are unwanted. But what if the game wasn’t necessarily a trick avoidance game, but could become a plain trick game (with positive points) if the players (with a little foresight from the track) caused a paradigm shift?

Change of Heart

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