Fifteen years ago Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR to use the shorthand) was an instant hit, and as the intervening years have shown, an instant classic. Awash in the sea of games that is Gen Con there was a small island of KotOR nostalgia, an aspect of when playing the game I’d often tried my best to avoid. Absence truly made the heart grow fonder.
Pazaak is a card game similar to Blackjack in that the goal is to total the card to 20, or as close to 20 as possible without going over. There is a shared deck of cards numbering 1 to 10. Each player draws a card from this central deck and places it in front of them. A player could get lucky and draw a 10, then another 10 from the deck for a total of 20 (I was this lucky person).
The catch is that each player has a personal deck of 10 cards that they shuffle and choose 4 to offset the element of chance the main deck brings.This personal hand of 4 cards gives the player the ability to raise or lower their total. As an example, if a player draws a score of 21 and has a -1 card in their personal hand, this creates a total score of 20.
The version of Pazaak played at Gen Con is available from Coryphefish Emporium on Etsy. The cards are printed to look like the video game cards, dutifully complete with the pixelated appearance. Two versions of the game are available, KotOR 1 and KotOR 2. KotOR 2 has additional cards and abilities in the personal decks, but the core idea remains the same.
If the real thing isn’t for you, there is always the option to fire up the old XBOX, find the Pazaak den, and play the digital original.