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warrenwoodhouse · 5 months

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Caravan Card Game from Fallout: New Vegas - Card Games

What is Caravan

Caravan was designed by Obsidian Entertainment as a fictitious card game played in New Vegas within their video game called Fallout: New Vegas.

Kyle Mifflin’s version simulates as closely as possible the the way that Caravan is played in the video game of Fallout: New Vegas. The only differences are:

That instead of custom decks, each player receives the same deck to make the game as fair as possible (custom decks are allowed as a variant).

That the bug that allows you to discard during the opening round has been removed as an option.

Players and Cards

Caravan is a two-player game using two standard Anglo-American decks of 52 cards plus 2 jokers, one deck of 54 cards for each player.

Player A

Caravan

one

Caravan

two

Caravan

three

Player B

Caravan

one

Caravan

two

Caravan

three

Number cards are placed in an overlapping column within each caravan and each number card may be modified by picture cards placed overlapping to the side.

Throughout the game, Player A's Caravan One will be directly competing against Player B's Caravan One. The same goes for Caravans Two and Three. In addition, each player has a face-down deck from which they draw cards and some cards in their hand, and there is a face-up discard pile.

Objective

Each caravan has a numerical value based on the total value of the number cards in it, possibly modified by Kings. A caravan is 'for sale' when it's value is in the range 21 to 26. A caravan with a value of less than 21 or more than 26 is not for sale. Cards may be added to a caravan that is already for sale to change its value.

The object is to sell at least two of your three caravans. If both competing caravans in a position are for sale, only the higher valued caravan is sold. No sale takes place until there is at least one caravan for sale in each of the three positions at the same time.

Opening Round

To start, each player shuffles their deck, stacks it face down and draws the top eight cards from it to form their initial hand. The opening round in its entirety consists of three turns for each player, playing alternately. Each turn must be used to place one card face up to start off each of their three caravans. During this opening round only number cards (A, 2-10) can be placed. If a player does not have three number cards or aces to play, then they must show their hand, reshuffle their deck and draw eight new cards. No cards can be discarded or re-drawn during the opening round. Therefore at the end of this round when each player has had three turns, they will each have a hand of five cards and one card in each caravan.

Game Play

After the opening round play continues with players taking alternate turns. On each turn, you must do one of the following:

Play a card from your hand on a caravan, then draw a new card from your deck and add it to your hand.

Discard a card from your hand, then draw a new card from the deck to replace it.

Disband one of your caravans. Take all the cards from this caravan and place them on your discard pile.

Note that after the opening round, if any of your caravans is empty of cards you are not required to play on the empty caravan in your next turn: it can be left empty. Technically, you could win the game with only two caravans if you could sell both of them while your opponent sold the third. Any card that is discarded or removed from play is added to the discard pile. These cards can't be recovered.

Playing Number Cards

(A=1, 2-10)

Number cards in each caravan are played in a column. Each new card is added to the bottom of the column overlapping the previous number card. Number cards can only be placed on your own caravans. On an empty caravan, any number card can be played. On a caravan with one card, you may play any number that is not equal to the first card. On a caravan with two cards, the bottom two cards indicate its numerical direction - ascending if the bottom card is higher, descending if it is lower. You may play any card that preserves the direction or any card matches the suit of the bottom card. Example: if the last two cards of a caravan are 3, 7 the direction is ascending. On this caravan you may play any 8, 9 or 10 to continue the ascending direction, or the A, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 of hearts changing the direction to descending.

Note that cards following numerical direction do not need to be adjacent in value. For example you can go up from a three to a seven, or down from a seven to a three. Under no circumstances are you allowed to place a number card on an equal number card (e.g. a 10 on a 10).

Playing Picture Cards (J, Q, K, Joker)

Picture cards all have special effects. Unlike number cards which are placed in a column overlapping each other, a picture card is placed to the side of and overlapping the card it is played on. A picture card can be played on a number card in any caravan, no matter whether it belongs to you or your opponent. Jacks, Kings and Jokers can be played on any number card; a Queen can only be played on the bottom card of a caravan's column. The special effects are as follows:

Jack

Removes the card the Jack is played on as well as any face cards attached to it, and place them on the discard pile.

Queen

This may only be played on the last card of a caravan's column. It reverses the current numerical direction of the caravan and changes the suit of the caravan to that of the Queen. Example: if the last two cards of a caravan are 3, 7 and the Q is played on the 7 the numerical direction is changed to descending and the suit to diamonds - so the next card played on this caravan can be any A, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 or the 8, 9 or 10 of diamonds. Multiple Queens can be played on the same card.

King

Doubles the value of the card the King is played on. Multiple Kings can be used on the same card (for example a 9 with a King on it is worth 18, a 9 with two Kings on it is worth 36).

Joker

If a Joker is played on an Ace it removes all other number cards (including Aces) from both player's caravans that are the same suit as the Ace on which the Joker was played, along with any picture cards attached to those cards. Picture cards that are the same suit as the Ace are not affected (unless they are attached to a number card removed by the Joker). Number cards and Aces with Queens attached to them count as belonging to their printed suit: the suit of the attached Queens is ignored.

If a Joker is played on a number card from 2-10 it removes all other printed number cards of the same value from both player's caravans, along with any picture cards attached to those cards.

In all cases the card on which the Joker is played and any pictures attached to it are spared. A played Joker only affects cards that have been played before it, not cards played subsequently. All removed cards are added to the discard pile.

Picture cards can be played on number cards which already have one or two other picture cards attached to them. However, no more than three picture cards can be attached to a single number card at one time. Therefore a picture card cannot be played on a number card that already has three picture cards attached to it, and the only way to remove such a card is by the use of a Joker on another card, or by disbanding the caravan. In particular a Jack cannot be used to remove a number card that already has three face cards or Jokers attached to it.

If in the event that a Jack or Joker removes a card leaving a caravan ending with two equal numbered cards, then the numerical direction remains as it was before the card was removed (Example. If a Jack is played on the 7 in this caravan: 6-7Q-6, leaving just 6-6, the direction is descending, since before the Jack was played there was a downward sequence of 7 to 6). This only applies in situations where the removal leaves equal cards following each other. (Example: If a Jack or Joker removes the 6 in this caravan: 2-6-4, then the sequence is now ascending [2-4] and it doesn't matter that beforehand the sequence was descending.)

Winning

To score a caravan you simply add the total sum of a caravan's number cards (as modified by Kings) to determine the caravan's value. When at least one caravan is for sale from each of the three positions the game is over, and the player with two or more of the higher sales wins the game. However, in the event that one of three caravan values is tied between players, the game continues until all three caravans have sold. In this case, if a player has three caravans for sale with two being higher bids and the other being a tie, if it's that player's turn he can simply disband the tied caravan to win the game.

If you run out of cards to play before meeting the criteria of winning, then your opponent automatically wins.

Variants

Optionally, you may play with one Joker each or no Jokers. Optionally, each player may customize their own deck provided that it consists of at least 30 cards (selected from standard 52-card decks with jokers), and doesn't contain any two cards that are precisely the same. The maximum number of cards to be used should be agreed upon before the game. It is recommended that no more than four decks (216 cards) be used to make a player's deck, as there are only four different decks that can be used in the New Vegas version of the game.

Bugs and Discrepancies

Here is Kyle Mifflin's summary of some issues with the original New Vegas game and how these are addressed in his interpretation.

Deck Construction

The actual game of Caravan as found in New Vegas is played with custom decks. You must have a minimum of 30 cards to play with in your deck - the rules do not mention a maximum number of cards allowed in your deck. You may use more than one set of traditional playing cards, and have any number of cards of any type provided they don't include any two cards that are precisely the same (face and back). In practice, deck construction doesn't matter. So long as you're playing with at least 30 cards and don't have two of the same card from identical decks, then you are playing by the rules. A full 54-card deck with Jokers for each player is ideal for even, fair game play. Both players have the same cards and the same advantage. 54 cards is also enough for what could be a battle, should the game go on for that long.

Running Out of Cards

In New Vegas the in-game rules for Caravan do not mention what happens when a player completely runs out of cards to play. However, when this happens in New Vegas the opposing player automatically wins. It's pretty clear that this is supposed to happen since it's been coded into the game.

End of Game Mechanics

This isn't a discrepancy or a bug, but it's something I want to discuss. A lot of people online think that the end-game mechanics of Caravan in New Vegas is bugged. I just want to clarify that having all three of your caravans sold - two at a higher bid and one tied - does not, and is not supposed to end the game. The rules state that the game continues if one of the sold caravan tracks is at a tie. However, I get that it makes sense to end the game when all three tracks are sold and a player has sold two at higher bids. Just note, that while one player just needs to disband their tied track to win the game, if it's the other player's turn then they have a chance to tie another caravan track or to sabotage their opponent's caravan, thus continuing the game indefinitely.

Start of Game Mechanics

The in-game rules in New Vegas state that you are not allowed to discard cards during the opening round of setting up your caravans. However, the in-game coding allows you to do this anyway. It can be accurately surmised that the developers allowed this possibility to avoid dealing with what would happen in you didn't have three number cards to play during the opening round. In any case, this is a confirmed bug. Since the only thing we have to go by when playing in real-life is that you are not allowed to discard during the opening round, if you do not have three number cards to play simply show your opponent your hand, and reshuffle the deck drawing eight new cards. This is my recommended simple solution to a problem which in practice rarely occurs.

References

Kyle Mifflin’s Version of Caravan - Fallout: New Vegas’ Caravan - Invented - Pagat

Fallout: New Vegas Official Website

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