I love the game 5 Crowns, a card game I often play with my family. It is similar to gin or rummy 500 except it is for multiple players, players draw an increasing amount of cards per round, and there are wild cards. When it is a player’s turn, they can draw a card from the deck or the discard pile, then discard a card. A player goes “out” when all the cards in their hand can contribute to a run of three or a three of a kind. On the first round, threes are wild, on the second round, fours are wild, and so on. After each round, players count their points and at the end of the game, the player with the least points wins.
These mechanics create a dynamic in which players are constantly competing to go out first or score the lowest points possible. By seeing what cards people are keeping and discarding, a dynamic is created in which players notice what each other are going for, fueling the competition. The mechanics also create a dynamic such that players may stop discarding certain cards or start holding onto certain cards that they notice others need.
Additionally, the differing number of cards in each round (mechanic) creates a challenging dynamic where remembering which card is wild for a given round is an arbitrary challenge. The mechanics lead to a competitive dynamic such that no player ever wants to verbally ask which card is wild, as there is always a chance that a player will discard a wild card.
Overall, the mechanics of this game lead to competition and challenge as kinds of fun.
