Idea

Simple card game based around trampolining. Play cards representing elements of a trampoline trick to score points. Short play time (maybe 15-30 mins), easy for younger kids to grasp.

• Rummy-ish. Hand size increases according to bounce height, allowing bigger trick combos.
• Cards have type and colour. Play a set of a single colour to increase bounce height.
• Types:
  • Front/back flip. Played in pairs. Front/back flips cancel each other out if a pair of each is played
  • Half Twist. Incrementally score more points?
  • Drops. One per trick. Gives another go maybe? (if so, should be limited in number?)
    • Seat drop
    • Knee drop
    • Front drop
    • Back drop
  • Poses (positions?)
    • Pike
    • Tuck

Rules

On your turn, either

1. Draw x cards (2?). Discard to hand limited
2. Play set of cards all of a single colour, the size of your current bounce height (ie. if you have a hand of 4 cards, you must play 4 of a single colour), to increase your bounce height. Draw cards up to new bounce height.
3. Play a valid set of cards representing a trick. If all same colour, hand size increases by 1 (up to limit? maybe 7). If trick contains fewer cards than current hand size then bounce height reduced to number of cards played in that trick. Score points for trick, then draw cards to new bounce height. (If your trick was all same colour, then bounce height increases). (If you end your turn with more cards than the current bounce height allows then you must discard down).

ie. My current bounce height is 4, I play 2x flip cards, a pike and a half twist, all in the same colour. I score TBC for the trick, increase my bounce height to 5, so draw 5 cards.
Next turn, I decide to play a smaller trick, 2 x back flips, different colour. My hand size is now only 2, I have 2 cards in hand so I don’t draw more cards.

Goal / Endgame

• Most points
• Game ends when… not sure yet
  • Maybe a player lands a trick of a certain size? Could lead to extended play times if it’s hard to get cards in right colours
  • Deck runs out? Not sure this is appropriate here, I’d expect to cycle through the deck a few times in a game
  • Point target? Feels arbitrary

Other thoughts

Iconography

Some initial ideas for icons representing different card types. Should show scoring / how card is played (ie. I tried to indicate that the flip cards are played in pairs)

Combos

The current set of trick elements feel limited, doesn’t seem like there’s huge scope for different trick combination to allow much variety in scoring (need to playtest).

Failures

Should there be a way to mess up a trick?

Some sort of dexterity element perahs? Something like: stack cards at edge of table, do a coaster flip and try and catch all cards? Only caught cards count? Chance of fumbling trick and losing cards? I could see this being an unpopular addition, and would penalise younger players, so maybe not.

Is there a non-dexterity solution?

“Stealing a bounce”

Some kind of ‘steal’ mechanic to allow players to piggy back off of the previous players bounce? Maybe if they play a trick in mis-matched colours, and you have cards that could “fill in” the trick in the same colour, then you can play them as if you played the trick? Just spitballing…