Origins Find: Kenzerco "Aces and Eights" Vintage Western Playing Cards for Faro

Wandering around Origins, I came upon the Kenzerco booth and its display of the “Aces and Eights ” RPG. “Aces” looked cool and won an Origins award, but I had already spent a bit more than my budget, so I had to save the “Aces and Eights” purchase (and review) for another day.   I did get a very brief introduction to the unique combat system, involving both dice and a deck of cards to determine hit location. I will not go into detail about the combat system, but the card decks that Kenzer uses for the game caught my eye.

Forgive my poor photography skills, I could not get the glare down on the shiny cards.

The cards have an 19th century style, complete with square corners and a tan/mottled background. There are no numbers on these cards, just images, so you have to count. The best part is, as they age, these cards will become  dog-eared and discolored. It just makes them look more authentic. They are usable for any standard card game, but they are marketed as “Faro” cards.

Faro was “the” game to play in the old west. Forget those poker games you see in the movies. Real men gambled on Faro.  I played it a few times as a child and had a good time. The setup is very different from a modern poker game.

This is a 52 card deck with two jokers, so a review is not a good term for this post.  I only want to raise the  profile of an inexpensive ($10.00) item that I thought was an elegant piece of gaming equipment.

Full Disclosure: I paid full retail price for this deck and do not receive any benefit from any sales or clicks this post generates.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer