Game Preview: Rapscallion

By W. Eric Martin
March 4, 2008

Publisher: Bézier Games
Designer: Ted Alspach
Players: 2-6
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Release Date: April 2008
Price: $20

Ted Alspach is known in the gaming world mostly for multiple Age of Steam expansions and the Board 2 Pieces comic here on BGN, but his collected works include a tile-laying game (Seismic), a giant party game (Ultimate Werewolf), a goofy gift that’s also a game (Start Player), and the recently announced freebie, Ubongo Extrem Crazy Expansion.

Rapscallion, the next title to be released from Bézier Games, was birthed from Alspach’s love of blind bidding games, including Ys, Aladdin’s Dragons and For Sale. “I’ve had several different games in various stages of development over the past few years, but Rapscallion is the one that everyone seemed to really like,” he says.

Rapscallion uses a customized deck of playing cards along with sets of bidding cards for up to six players, a separate deck of bidding cards, and a scorepad. The game uses poker hands for scoring, and like poker itself the game requires both smart bidding and sly bluffing.

Each player starts with three numbered bidding cards (distributed Ra-style with cards both higher and lower than other players) and two Rapscallions; since the game is named after them, they are obviously better (i.e. higher) than all other bidding cards. In each round, players go through a number of blind bids, first using bidding cards to collect playing cards, then using a playing card to collect a new bidding card, then repeating this process two more times until the player ends up with a hand of eight playing cards. (As I learned firsthand, demonstrating this process by playing a practice round is much better than trying to explain the rules, so I’m leaving out a few details here.)

Players then use their playing cards to create the best possible poker hand, scoring points for straights or better (flush, full house, four-of-a-kind, straight flush). The player with the best hand overall receives bonus points, while the low hand is penalized. A side bet gives one player additional points, but to win the bet, you’ll have to toss a high bidding card at the start of the round, which will make it harder to win the playing cards you want during the round.

“The poker aspect was really a result of trying to find the right items to bid for that had interesting values,” says Alspach. “The nice thing about poker hands is that they’re fairly universal in terms of rank. The bad thing is that you can all sorts of tied situations, which I addressed by having a suit rank.”

Rapscallion is for 2-6 players, and Alspach says, “It’s an entirely different game with 2-3 players than 4, which is different from 5-6. The reason is that with higher numbers of players, most or all of the cards will make it into player’s hands, giving them a better shot at a higher ranking hand. Games with five and six players see royal flush hands and four-of-a-kind hands fairly regularly, while four-player games are really about full houses and flushes. With 2-3 players, a lot fewer cards make it to the table, making a wider variety of hands, and some more strategic play (using the Rapscallions for the “side bet,” watching other players’ choices more closely, etc.).”

“After hundreds of plays of all the different numbers, I think the game is best with five, but I know one person who likes the two-player game best (and he consistently beats me handily at it as well).”

Alspach is taking preorders for Rapscallion through the newly revamped Bézier Games website and is offering free shipping and guaranteed delivery before distributors and retailers receive their copies.

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