Expanding From 4 to 7 Players Worked!

One of our first assumptions was that Jingozi was a maximum four player-game based on earlier tests. One reason for it was certain players would have dominating chip stack, which meant the other players would slowly bleed chips with no chance to make a comeback or have fun. However, we’re excited to share that we were wrong.

In a recent playtest session, we tried five and more players, implementing a scoring system that incentivized players to come second or third. The first player knocked out of run out of cards would lose, earn zero points, and instantly force a chip count for the rest. Of course, a winner-take-all format is possible. But a tournament style point system encouraged more matches and strategy.

Even more encouraging was that with more players, the dealer button and positions of players became that much more important. Not surprising since the same dynamics apply when playing poker, only in Jingozi, one cannot fold to start and every player must participate in every hand.

We’ve now updated our rules from 2-4 players to a possible 2-7 players. The more the merrier right? Throughout the holidays, we plan to playtest the maximum seven players, but we expect the same fun and competitive results. Stay tuned for more updates.