Reviews

of Parlett's original card games

David Parlett - the Ace in the Pack
by Luiz Dal Monte Neto [Brazilian games inventor]

Many people think the pack of cards is used for just half a dozen games or so that form part of every family's recreational baggage. This is a mistake. It actually provides an opportunity to enjoy several hundred games with a variety of objectives and mechanisms, amongst which will be found examples suiting every kind of taste. There are those who believe that this "arsenal" is static - that is, that such games have been around for as long as the pack of cards itself, without imagining that anything new could possibly appear under the sun.

The truth is that the card game repertoire is constantly evolving, and, in the second half of the twentieth century, with considerable speed. Becoming more and more imaginative, it has given rise to games that come near to subverting the normally aleatoric nature of the pack. One example, from the 1950s, is [Robert Abbott's] Eleusis, which virtually eliminates the element of chance.

At the present time several inventors are striving to reach beyond the veritable treasure-chest of games that is the pack of cards. Few, however, have equalled the accomplishment of the Englishman David Parlett, a 51-year-old journalist [this was written in 1990] and language graduate, who collaborated for several years on "Games & Puzzles", a prestigious English review of games and pastimes that circulated up to the start of the 1980s. Parlett's creativity is as ordered and precise as a Swiss watch. His games mesh so well with the structure of playing-cards as to give the impression that the pack was created specifically for his inventions. An example is his game of Ninety-Nine, one of those rare games designed specifically for three players.

As a small demonstration of Parlett's talent - a sort of aperitif, so to speak - I introduce the reader to Abstrac...

While everyone has at least heard of Bridgette and most have probably tried it (if not, what's stopping you?), a less common but excellent two-player trick-taking game is David Parlett's Duck Soup. This game uses a standard deck of cards, and the rules are available online at Parlett's website... This is a wonderful game and works very well, and since it can be played with a standard deck of cards there is almost no time it can't be suggested when two players are ready to go... Parlett didn't stop with Duck Soup; his site also has rules for other good games in this format including Parity and Cross Purposes.