Spicy is an example of taking a traditional card game and tweaking it with some nice art and a couple new rules. To be fair, I think this can be a very good formula.
In the case of Spicy, it builds off of a game that I’ve heard called BS, Bologna and ‘I Do Believe You Are Lying’ It’s a climbing game where you play cards face down, stating what card it is. Of course, you could be lying and other players can call you out on it. You get penalized if you lied and were caught. They get penalized if you were telling the truth.
You’ve probably played the game by one name or another.
Spicy uses a three-suit deck with three of each rank from one to ten. There are also five wild suit cards and five wild rank cards. The suits are chili, pepper, and wasabi. And the artwork is of googly-eyed tigers, a traditional theme in Korean artwork (An art style that I know is clearly referenced by Jinu’s pet in K-Pop Demon Hunters lol)
The clever twist in Spicy is that when you call someone a liar, you have to specify if they are lying about the card’s rank or suit. This makes the bluffing more interesting. It also wouldn’t work as well with a traditional deck of cards. Spicy having fewer suits but multiple of each card helps the bluffer.
Spicy is a fun time. It’s perfect for smack talk and casual play. And learning it or teaching it is greatly enhanced by how it builds off of game mechanics that folks are probably already familiar with.
I have come to think of this less as recycling mechanics and more of tapping into the tropes and language of games. I recently learned some word games that were very distinct from Scrabble but used Scrabble’s scoring methods. That helped learning and playing the games.
Using red to represent anger isn’t plagerism or recycling. It’s using a common understanding.
Spicy has a low bar for entry but is also has room for fun social activity and solid gameplay.
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