Each player is dealt nine cards and the round plays through the four seasons and two Celtic festivals (Bealtaine and Samhain), with the wealthiest player going first during each season.
#HEARTS CARDS IN A DECK CELTIC FULL#
There is also a full glossary of all the Gaelic words used to further help along understanding of the strange terms.Īlthough the game has a deep and complex strategy element to it, we were able to dive in and play through a couple of rounds without thinking too hard about it. We played with the anglicized rules, but, now that we have the rules down, we’ll start introducing the Gaelic to enhance the flavor of the game. Though the main rule book contains a lot of Gaelic words which may prove to be a barrier to entry for some folks, the game designers were thoughtful enough to also include an anglicized version of the rules to further simplify learning. We skipped the easy rules and haven’t yet tried out the advanced play. My wife and I sat down to play a basic round of Ard Rí using the version 1.0 of the rules. Only a single deck is needed for two players, two decks for three to four players, and all three decks for a five player game. In the advanced play each court card has special abilities based on the particular figure’s mythology. The game can be played three ways–children’s/easy (age five to thirteen), basic play, and advanced play. He also wanted them to be the foundation of a strategy game, Ard Rí (High King), where two to five players take on the role of ancient Gaelic warlords and struggle to become the High King. Acken didn’t want to just stop at a few decks of beautiful cards that only briefly touched upon Celtic mythology. A good, high quality set of playing cards never seems to disappoint anyone, and these are excellent cards of high quality with beautiful artwork interwoven with deep symbolism and meaning.īut Dr. The third deck, the main focus of this Kickstarter, is also a symmetrical deck, this time featuring the chaotic and destructive forces on the court cards.Įven if I were to stop there, I would highly recommend backing this project, which is already almost fully funded. The second, asymmetrical deck features two figures on each court card that are in opposition to each other–one with a leaning towards order and healing versus one who is chaotic and destructive. The figures on the court cards in this deck feature figures from Celtic mythology representing order and healing. This deck, like all of the decks, features its own unique card back but shares all of the number card faces with the other decks. The first deck released, was a symmetrical deck. His knowledge, expertise, and passion for the subject is evident in all of the art on these decks. All of the cards were designed, illustrated, and detailed by James Acken, a Doctor of Medieval Studies. The suits themselves, along with the court cards, jokers, and card backs all have deep meaning which is explained in great detail on the Cultúrlán website.
But what really makes these decks unlike most themed playing cards is that every detail is carefully and beautifully executed and directly ties to the Celtic lore and mythology of Ireland and Scotland. While all of the decks can be used as standard poker decks, they are so much more. This third campaign also brings a strategy game that can be played with the decks. They recently launched their third Kickstarter for the third and final deck in their Celtic Myth Playing Card series. Cultúrlán has done an amazing job at bridging two things that I love–tabletop games and the rich culture and mythology of the Celts.
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