Tea Jars and Dagabira Card Game (Kingdoms and Thorn)

Because it keeps sidetracking me, I'll start with a drinking game: Tea Jars. In the Ogunn block of nations, it's commonly played in teahouses, which are kind of like pub style community hubs, where they serve an alcoholic "tea" and a non-alcoholic version when there are kids afoot.

They fill a few tea jars, and someone in the group asks a question. Each person has to answer, then explain their answer before they take a drink. When someone's answer is particularly BAMF or otherwise deserving of praise, they get a dikhot!. Basically, the game's purpose is to 1) make it easier to share bad stories and 2) to test potential suitors, friends, etc. for worthiness. Or you know, to just shoot the breeze.

It kept getting in the way because in these same teahouses is where they play the strategy card game, communally anyway, which is called dagabira.

I haven't finished building out the game and really only started getting details down this morning, but the idea is a card strategy game that is traditionally played in sets.

Each set of a standard game between two people consists of four rounds with the set win being determined by how many rounds the player wins and by what strategy. This differs from the communal game where each round is played between a different pair of players and an individual player must work their way up the set but can also fall down it through poor play. The win sometimes provides a monetary prize, which is divided by where a player ends on the set. Each round is played with a specific initial card arrangement.

Each round begins with a large number of cards laid out in a particular pattern and there are a set number of "plays" that most players use to win. To win a round, you have to clear enough cards to land on a winning pattern or clear the board. Clearing the board is usually only accomplished by the lucky or the very, very good.

There are three ways of playing dagabira apparently:

ivhot - The traditional way, where you pick a gameplay appropriate for the board as laid out and appropriate to your opponent's strategy and use its methods and plays to clear cards to a winning pattern, such as winning with the Serpent or the Waterfall.

shiviin - The usual modern way, where you switch gameplays as needed but still are playing the traditional way for a given move.

bastiá - To play with one game on top and another beneath, derived from the concept of sheltering your desired outcome with another potential desired outcome, so every move you make can be used to forward literally two different gameplays. Players who use bastia strategy usually think in terms of the moves that are tied to each gameplay rather than the gameplays themselves.

Apparently, the danger of ivhot play is a player may fail to look "around" and see their play needs to change. The danger of shiviin is the failure to look "forward" strategically and nail the endgame. The danger of bastia is a failure to look "back" and see how the foundational plays made already may bear fruit.

It's often played for a monetary prize (gambling, ahem) but not always. The standard set is a four round game played between two players and the communal game is one round for each set of two players until they've played their way through whoever is present. The standard set for two players always have the same starting cards and the communal game rotates randomly through the accepted starting layouts (there are dozens).