The Dealer
The Dealer is a push-your-luck card and party game for 3–6 players. It's designed by Scott Huntington and Shaun Graham, with art by Carly Berry, and it's published by Invisible Typewriter.
The setting is an intergalactic casino and the game is played with a deck of 100 cards: 25 each numbered 0, 1, 2 and 3. To win, and score points equal to those in your hand, you need to have a total in hand of 3–5 points. The dealer scores for each player that goes bust, either by exceeding 5 points or by having a hand with a total value of less than 3 points. Sounds simple enough except for one crucial point - as in Hanabi (AbacusSpiele/Rebel Sp Zoo), you can't see your own hand of cards...
After players have each been allocated one card by the dealer, which they hold up so they can't see it but everyone else can, there's a short 30-second opportunity for players to offer each other information or advice that may or may not be true. Within that 30-second period, any player can decide to 'bank' their hand, placing it face down on the table and freezing it at whatever is its current value. This process is repeated, adding a card each round to those players who haven't yet 'banked' their hands, until eventually every player has 'banked'. Only then are players' hands all revealed and scored.
That's the game in a nutshell. With just three players you play so that everyone gets two turns as the dealer; with 4–6 players you just play so that everyone gets one turn as dealer. There's a little more, however: each player is dealt a role card that affects how they play their hand. For example, as the 'sniper' you secretly choose a number 3, 4 or 5 as your predicted score and if your prediction is correct you get to draw an additional two cards to add their numbers to your score for the round. As the 'secret keeper' you get to draw a card that only you see, you place it face down on the table and its value is added to your hand. The role cards are all dealt face up so these aren't hidden roles, and they rotate around the table along with the dealer role card so that everyone gets to play each of the role cards used in the game. It's a common gripe in games with asymmetric powers that some are stronger than others; The Dealer negates such complaints because every player gets a chance to use all of the role cards in play.
We've enjoyed this game most as 5–6 players. Much of the party-game fun comes from the fact that players can see each other's hands and in how they choose to help or deceive each other; especially as other players can always see when another player is telling the truth and when they are lying. Individual rounds may at first feel semi-cooperative with just the dealer as the enemy but in reality it's every player for themselves because you don't want other players to end the game with a points score that beats yours. And as Invisible Typewriter tell us in The Dealer's strapline: 'In space, no one can hear you scheme!'
Hands play in under 5 minutes so this is a party game you can play through comfortably in 30 minutes. And if you can't find The Dealer at your local board game store you should be able to find it on Amazon or get it direct from the publisher at https://invisibletypewriter.fun/products/the-dealer
