I've seen the game stop after only two quadrants and end with laughter and ceremony or bitter wars. These are a puzzling group of people, to say the least.
-Sage Vuko Bratavich
The tribesman of
the Gorgonian Wastes, the Balagri, developed the game to ease diplomatic tensions with a game of strategy, implicity, and chance; the game is known in
Haseic as "Save Face" or "Yes, But" / "Yezbit" .
The Purpose of the Game
In creating Save Face, the Balagri hoped to make diplomatic relations much more fair and explicit without speaking. As much of their culture revolves around stoicism in a harsh environment, diplomacy rarely, if ever, went well. With the introduction of the game, a few rules of etiquette were set in place in order to create a friendlier environment: The game must be played sitting down; both parties must bring their own cards and board, more on this later; The board must be set upon the ground, in a tent, between the two players; and tea must be served to both participants. Due to the last rule, there is an unspoken third player who is making the tea and moderating and stimulating conversation between both people if they grow silent. This person must be a mutual friend or from an unbiased party agreed upon by both players.
With the game in place, more rules were brought in to encourage a greater amount of implicitly in these negotiations as a whole. Many of these have grown in popularity and become standard. These will be made note of further on.
The Game's Set-Up
Save Face revolves around a 6x6 grid divided into four connected 3x3 equal quadrants and, typically, 40 playing-cards derived from one's standard diviner's deck of 52. There are variant rules stating that 36 cards can be used instead, but this will be discussed later. Both players must bring their own cards and board as a gesture of good faith that they wish to negotiate. Entire negotiations are called off and rescheduled if one has forgotten their board or cards, as this is otherwise a great disrespect to one's opponent. The third, unspoken player has the joy of being unaffected by the game, and both serves tea and goes over the talking points the two players wish to discuss. This is where the quadrants come in.
Each quadrant is numbered one to four (Q1-Q4) in a C-shape pattern, or going from top right, curving about top-left and bottom left, and finishing at bottom right. Each quadrant has a particular meaning in regards to the conversation at hand: Q1 is Disagree, Q2 Agree, Q3 Like, and Q4 Dislike.
Winning a quadrant is imperative to prove the validity of one's negotiating point by simultaneously talking through it and displaying a master of the game.
The number four holds a great value to the Balagri people; to them the number four can be seen in the family (Mother, Father, Boy, and Girl) or in the passage of one's life (Baby, Child, Adult, Elder). This is why they display this sacred number.
-Sage Vuko Bratavich
Additionally, the cards are organized in a specific manner in order to both discourage cheating and encourage chance, chance making the game fair according to the Balagri. Regardless whether the player's deck numbers 36 or 40, it is split into four parts, called
Duqla--mini-decks. Each
Duqla totals 9 to 10 cards in each stack of four. From each separate
Duqla, a player draws one card and maintains a hand of four cards. When a player places a card, they must draw from their first
Duqla deck, then the second, third, and fourth, beginning again at the first, each time the place a card.
Player Rules
Each game consists of 3 players, the opponents, who alternate between initiator and responder, and the unspoken third player who provides tea and direction to a conversation gone still or awry.
Player Order and Turns
The person who speaks first does not go first. Instead, the initiator, as they are called, allows their opponent, the responder, to go first. This allows for them to react through the game. As such, the responder places a card in one of the quadrants, and then begins the debate back and forth, each player putting down a card in response to the other.
Now, A player may never put down a card if they do not speak. If they choose not to speak, one of two things then occur: One, the player may instead sip their tea, which is an implicit signal for their opponent to offer an explanation; the kind of explanation (concerning details, method, topic in general) is alluded to by the player sipping tea; and two, the unspoken third player might ask (or otherwise referee) that perhaps a gentler beginning topic should start things off. The third player must do this at every point the conversation lulls or grows loud and aggressive, but must divide their comments fairly between the two, offering constructive criticism and direction objectively.
Regardless, once the responder places a card and speaks, this begins a chain reaction within the game. After a quadrant is filled, the responder then trades roles with the initiator and begins a topic for the negotiations which the previous-initiator now reacts to.
And so on and so forth.
Card Rules
Each person must bring their own standard diviner's deck, which numbers 52. Of those cards, only 40 or, atypically, 36 may be chosen from the standard deck and played. Of these, only 8 of the 16 face cards may be chosen at random, fanned out by the player's opponent. Chosen cards are then shuffled and divided into four separate, smaller decks, called a
Duqla.
Each card has a value that correlates with the number or face with which it is associated (See "Numbered Cards" and "Face Cards"). The cards value is equal to both its strength and protection. Briefly, a Numbered Card of 5 has a strength and protection of 5; it beats anything with a value of 4 or lower, cannot do anything to a fellow 5, and is beaten by anything of 6 and above. When another card is overpowered, it is flipped over and cannot be removed.
Cards Roles
Each suit, here divided into Coins(♢), Swords(♤), Wands(♧), and Cups(♡), has its own unique abilities. As a side note, these abilities are at times different between the numbered cards and the faced cards, but this will only occur if stated in the rules (and they are, see "Face Cards" after this section).
The key to understanding a cards roles involve understanding the symbols used in the pictures displayed below. Each picture helps signify the abilities of a particular suit. Aside from knowing which suit is which based on its symbol ( Coins(♢), Swords(♤), Wands(♧), and Cups(♡) ), there are two others of import: The star(
✧ ) and the circle( ◯ ).
The star(
✧ ) denotes that a particular suit can use its strength in that area. The circle( ◯ ) signifies that a particular suit can protect an area. Again, a card's strength and protection is equal to its value.
Below, then, are a list of the suits and their roles:
Coins(♢)
Swords(♤)
Wands(♧)
Cups(♡)
Cards Used
The standard diviner's deck is often used as a way to divine the future or make sense of one's current plights. As is evident in the name of the game, "Urn Hinlu an'Chol" ; a
Chol is one's inner face. It represents one's desires, like that of a soul but not quite the same. So, when one is "saving face" they are saving the secrets of their desires. An observer can see this as then a kind of spiritual combat between the opponent's divining cards and the other player, who seek to safeguard their wants and ensure negotiations go according to their ulterior motives. Thus, the Balagri employ diviner's decks against one another, against here being in a loose sense--sometimes.
Numbered Cards
With each suit of cards, Coins(♢), Swords(♤), Wands(♧), and Cups(♡), there are a total of 9 numbered cards ranging from 10-2. In Save Face, each card's displayed value is its value in the game. Values are used in Save Face as a means of determining a card's strength and protection, and the two share the same value displayed on the card. For this reason, a 6 will overpower anything of a value of five and below, will be at a stalemate with a 6, and will need to be flipped over, admitting defeat, for anything higher than a 7 that can affect the card.
These values complexify when it comes to examining the weaknesses of each suit against one another, as will be demonstrated later.
Face Cards: Master of their Suit
As discussed previously, there are four suits: Coins(♢), Swords(♤), Wands(♧), and Cups(♡). Each of these four suits has four face cards, which are alternatively referred to as The Masters of (Suit). When referring to a particular "Master" it is referred to as 1st-4th Master of (Suit). The Coins(♢) are the most important and therefore the highest valued; The 1st Master of Coins is valued at 10, with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th having a value of 9,8, and 7, respectively. Next important are the Swords(♤) with a starting value of 9, Wands(♧) at 8, and Cups(♡) at 7. Each of the suits own Masters, 1st-4th decline in value accordingly.
For Example:
Master of Coins(♢) values: 1st = 10, 2nd = 9, 3rd = 8, 4th = 7
Master of Swords(♤) values: 1st = 9, 2nd = 8, 3rd = 7, 4th = 6
Master of Wands(♧) values: 1st = 8, 2nd = 7, 3rd = 6, 4th = 5
Master of Cups(♡) values: 1st = 7, 2nd = 6, 3rd = 5, 4th = 4
Values aside now, each group of face cards (Coins(♢), Swords(♤), Wands(♧), and Cups(♡)) have a collective ability depending on their suit.
Coins's(♢) face card ability is to remove all cards in a cross from the card, as determined by the points of the symbol. One can see this above in the "Card Roles" section. This includes cards that belong to the player of the face card. Once removed, each card is removed from the quadrant entirely and given one to each
Duqla which has yet to be drawn from, in order, but is placed at the bottom of said
Duqla. This is a particularly strong strategy for players who have two cards that are face-down or that have been cornered by a particularly strong card of an opponent's.
Swords's(♤) face card ability is to add half, rounded down, of its own value to the two cards diagonally behind it. This potentially causes the cards it is such adjacent to overpower any opponent cards it can affect. Most strategies involve placing a Master of Swords diagonally beside any cards of the suit of Coins(♢). As a detractor, the card cannot protect those it is positioned across from, as other cards of its suit could.
Wands's(♧) face cards have an ability to placehold for other, more desirable cards. Due to exploitative strategies involving placing more powerful face cards down later, uprooting chance, in a sense, these cards have been banned from some boards. This is why, for those who have been patiently curious, the reason 36 cards is sometimes used instead of 40 cards.
Cups's(♡) face cards can combine both of the values (divided by 4, rounded down) of the two cards within the spaces diagonally in front of it (that a normal card of its suit protects) in order give a boon of protection to those cards.
Name List: Masters of Their Suits
Coins(♢)
- 1st: World
- 2nd: Star
- 3rd: Sun
- 4th: Moon
Swords(♤)
- 1st: Throne
- 2nd: Weave
- 3rd: Tower
- 4th: Circle
Wands(♧)
- 1st: Sacrifice
- 2nd: Justice
- 3rd: Strength
- 4th: Humility
Cups(♡)
- 1st: Lovers
- 2nd: Golem
- 3rd: Fiend
- 4th: Beast
Cards Weaknesses
Each suit has another particular suit to which it is weak. This weakness applies to all cards, numbered and face alike. For example:
- Wands(♧) trump Coins(♢)
- Swords(♤) trump Wands(♧)
- Cups(♡) trump Swords(♤)
- Coins(♢) trump Cups(♡)
Or put another way,
- Coins(♢) are weak to Wands(♧)
- Wands(♧) are weak to Swords(♤)
- Swords(♤) are weak to Cups(♡)
- Cups(♡) are weak to Coins(♢)
When a card is weakened, the protection of the card is lowered. As a quick refresher, a card with a value of 10 has both a strength and protection of 10. Weakness only lowers a card's protection.
In the case of a card's weakness, for every adjacent card that it is weak to, it's value drops by one. For example, if a 10 of Coins(♢) is beside three Wands(♧) cards, the 10 of Coins(♢) card's protection value drops to 7. This is an effective strategy for overpowering cards and ending stalemates.
Points and Winning
In order to win a quadrant, a player must either have the most face-up cards or the most face cards in a single quadrant. Once the quadrant is conquered and no more cards may be placed down by either player, the winner of that quadrant is given a point. Additionally, any face cards played by their respective players are tallied and give a point each. This is kept track of by the unspoken third player.
After all quadrants are filled, and the points are tallied, the winner of the game is the one who holds the most points. One honorable rematch is entirely within the rules, as often the Balagri have been known to play the game until both players are satisfied.
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