American Playing Cards

The French system of suits and royalty has governed card games for five centuries. American Playing Cards offer a new foundation.

Fifty cards. Four colored suits of ten. One wild suit of ten. The numbers run from 1 to 10, with no court cards and no jokers.

The System

The suits are designed with true rotational symmetry: where a standard playing card must print its suit twice to remain readable from either end, every American Playing Card suit is shaped so that it reads identically when rotated 180 degrees. The suit designs themselves are original, each one a creative development of its source shape rather than a reproduction of convention.

The Standard Edition keeps the suits abstract. Their meaning, and how the cards are used, is determined by the game being played or by the edition in hand.

Special Editions

The same fifty-card system is the foundation for every edition. In the President Edition, the suits become Democratic, Republican, and Other Parties. In the States Edition, red suits are Red States, blue suits are Blue States, and the wild suit represents Swing States, with each suit further distinguished by geographic region.

Special editions support their native games and also serve as trivia decks: proximity games, geography challenges, and questions drawn from the American Chronicle.

Digitally

American Playing Cards games are available through two venues within American Portrait: the American Portrait Gallery, and Casino Camino, where winnings carry across games within the platform.

Games

Frontier

Frontier is a betting game for 2 to 8 players, played over five rounds. Each round, players secretly commit cards from their hand, bet on their strength, and reveal. The highest configuration takes the pot. Build your hand. Read the table. The player with the most cash when the dust settles wins.