There’s a strange thing that happens in just about any game with cards: you always want to draw more cards. And not the way you do with other things. In a game with money you always want more money, and in a game with resources of any type you want more of them, but there’s something special about cards.

More Cards Equal More Game

The primary reaons people want more cards is because they want to play the game more. Not play better or play more often, but play more of the game. This comes in two modes: quantity and variety. Some games limit what you do by the number of cards in your hand. If you have three cards, then you get to play three cards, which is doing three things, which is more than two. Therefore more cards means more game. The second reason is variety. Even if you can only play one card a turn, you still want to draw cards because you want to be able to play any card that turn. Possibly the best card, which you might not even know exists until you draw it! This is especially true if there are cards that let you play more cards, even if they do nothing else.

Information

So what makes this different than other resources that act similarly, like action points? Because cards have words on them. Cards are used when you can’t fit everything on a token, or when you need resources that act differently based on which exact one you have. This means that the more cards you have, the more information you have. You get to know what is possible in the game. If, however, you’ve played the game before and know the cards already, then instead you are learning what your opponents don’t have. Information is also cool in and of itself. Every time you get a card and read it, it feels good. Your brain starts whirring with possibilities. You start comparing it to other cards and thinking of combos. You start thinking of what other cards you want to draw!

Cards Beget Cards

One issue I repeatedly see pop up in games is the action card economy. Lets say you have a game where you have a deck of cards, some of which have specific roles in the game (for example, a movement card, or a card that represents a resource like wood or fuel), as well as “action” cards that you can use out of turn, or in addition to other abilities. This means that it is possible for some players to play multiple cards (their one movement card and two action cards) whereas others only get to play one non-action card. This means that players who drew action cards (usually randomly) get to play more of the game than others. If the game also has a hand-refilling mechanic (i.e. draw back up to 5 at the end of your turn), then playing more cards means drawing more cards which means drawing more action cards which means playing more cards and so on. Meanwhile, the player who can only play one card per turn is only drawing one card per turn.

Think about it like this: if you split the deck in half, with all action cards in one deck and all the other cards in another, how often would players choose to draw from one vs. the other? Chances are they’ll draw one card from the normal deck and all the rest from the action deck. I’m not saying your game should do this, but it will tell you roughly how important to the players one is vs. the other.

The Problem

There’s two ways this can result in problems for your game. The first is that players will prioritize drawing cards over playing well, meanaing that players will think they did nothing wrong and still ended up losing. In general, you want players to win by doing what they think is fun, as I’ve discussed before. The other problem is when they do this, but they’re right. If drawing cards gives you options, improves your action economy, and lets you snowball/combo, then it becomes the dominant strategy. Dominant strategies are not great, as you probably know.

Solutions?

There’s no standard way to solve these problems. It mostly involves just paying very close attention to what your cards do, and thinking carefully about what advantage having more cards in hand does. Simplifying cards also helps, since having multiple, similar cards means the information benefit drops. Limiting the ability to get cards also helps, since they can’t draw more if you don’t let them. Be especially careful of cards that interact with playing cards. A card that lets you play extra cards is incredibly powerful, even if it does nothing on its own, and a card that lets you draw two cards is effectively two cards if it can be played too easily. Also, while I’m hear, I’ll point out somehting else that bugs me about card games sometimes: a card that does nothing but draw one card is essentially useless. It might as well not be in the deck.

Conclusion

That was a big topic that went a bunch of different ways but the important part is think about what cards do in your game and how you play them. Players will always want to draw more cards, and you either have to try and stop them or give show them it’s not a good idea.