Black Snake 2013

The game Ticket to Ride, by aforementioned designer Alan R Moon, is known by many gamers, somewhat darkly, as a 'gateway game'. It is easy to grasp, has a simple rules set, and an uncomplicated turn structure. Indeed, it is one of the first modern games I played, and it was the game that started my ever-ballooning collection. It involves collecting sets of cards to spend on creating train routes along a colourful board. It has been showered with various accolades, and rightly so. Black Snake takes the sturdy frame of Ticket to Ride and boils it down to a 52-card affair. Players are still laying track, albeit in a more abstract setting.

—description from the designer

This game is part of Femtitva, a collection of 10 games by Scott Huntington that were inspired by popular modern games but can be played with a traditional deck of cards.

In Black Snake, players start with a hand of three cards while three cards are face up next to the draw pile and are available for drawing, while cards equal to the number of players are played face-up as the starting "Track". On your turn you either: 1. draw two cards (face-up ones or from the face-down pile); or: 2. lay track, by playing an ascending or descending sequence (ignoring suit) on top of one of the current "Tracks". These earn points depending on the size of the sequence (1 card = 1 point, 2 cards = 3 points, 3 cards = 5 points, 4+ cards = 7 points). The first player to reach 30 points (or 40 points for a longer game) is the winner.

—user summary