Historical notes and thematic ties in Jeanne d’Arc: Siege of Orléans

When I first read about the extraordinary, surprising, and inspirational life of Joan of Arc, I knew immediately that I had to make a game about her. 

Separately, reading articles by Dan Thurot (AKA Space-Biff) about games such as City of Six Moons and Personal Demons, or by John Mulligan (Skeleton Code Machine) about The Chaplain’s Game, I have come to the understanding that board game design is more than just a hobby: it is an art form. I know this might sound pretentious, but game mechanics can be more than just a set of rules, or instructions for gameplay, they can be metaphors for the theme they are representing. 

So, in this vein, and with respect for Joan of Arc in mind, I wanted to make Jeanne d’Arc: Siege of Orléans more than just a swashbuckling tug-of-war for points. I wanted the mechanics to represent something about Joan's life, her era, and the struggles she faced. Now don't get me wrong - I know that this is a relatively simple game with simple mechanics, and I know that this is no grand piece of art. However, early on in development of this game, I made a key design choice. 

The challenge I set myself was to use, where possible, card game mechanics that were contemporary to Joan of Arc. I wanted some of the feel of my game to emulate the cardplay that was around while she was. 

This proved something of a challenge, mainly for two reasons. 

First, there is very little documented about card games that existed in the early 1400s. In many cases it is unclear when, or where, a game came about. Piquet, for example, was first mentioned in writing in 1535, and called Le Cent; however, legend has it that it was created by none other than La Hire himself, who fought alongside Joan of Arc (represented by the Jack of Hearts in my game). Conversely, it may have had Spanish origin and simply migrated to France - we just do not know. 

Second, there was not a huge variety of games that existed at the time (as far as we know). Karnöffel and Das Guldin Spil are among several trick-takers that were played as early as the 1400s, and there were many gambling games with convoluted, arbitrary betting rules, along with more simple hand-management games, but clearly game design has moved on a lot since then. 

Listing games that were strictly contemporaneous to Joan based on documented fact, then, leads to a very small selection. I decided to widen the scope just a little, to games that (with perhaps a stretch of imagination) may have been around at the time. So much of life went undocumented in the 1400s, and card games were likely passed around by word-of-mouth. Dating a game to the earliest written mention is at best an upper limit for its first appearance; many of these games were surely in existence for years prior to that. 

There is an irony that in some cases the only reason we have documented evidence of a game is because of a sermon from the Church trying to suppress it. Ronfle (also known as Ronfa) is dated to 1458 because of condemnation from an Italian Dominican friar who preached against its association with gambling and idleness. So, early on in my research I hit upon a worrying conclusion: that the pious and religiously driven Joan of Arc may well have disapproved of my entire endeavour. 

While this gave me pause for thought, I pushed on nevertheless because games have moved on a fair amount since the 15th century, and I hoped that Joan might understand that I am doing this from a position of admiration and homage. 

With all this in mind, here is a little information about each of the games that served as some inspiration for my design, including a brief historical note: 

Thirty-one (Trente et un)

• Earliest record: 1440, from a sermon by an Italian friar. 

• 2 to 7 players are dealt three cards, and aim to form a hand totalling to 31. An optional rule involves forming three of the same rank (a trio) of different suits. 

• Uses a standard 52-card deck. 

• Connections to my game: 31 total, three-card hands, three-of-a-kind. 

• As soon as I had settled upon the idea of forming hands of three cards, I knew that having the option of a 31 total could work well too. The fact that this game is provably near-contemporaneous to Joan, and involves three-card hands meant it was perfect! 

Ronfle / Ronfa

• Earliest record: 1450-1480 (in a sermon from an unknown Dominican friar). 

• Using a 48-card deck, players form a hand with matching suits, called a ronfle (later translated to ruff in English), but which nowadays we would call a flush. 

• Connection to my game: flush. 

• I really wanted to incorporate elements of this game as it has a high chance of having been played during Joan of Arc’s lifetime. However, very little is known about the game except that it is not a trick-taker, and it involves flushes. 

Truc

• Earliest record: 15th century (Spain and France). 

• Players are dealt exactly three cards, and need to win two out of three tricks.

• Connection to my game: three-card hands. 

• I originally intended to incorporate more of this game, specifically the need to win two out of three tricks, but in the end it was mainly just the focus around three-card hands. 

Piquet

• Earliest record: 1535, although its predecessors (Le Cent, Saunt, Los Cientos) were probably played in France and Spain, and it may even have been created by La Hire. 

• A tactical game in which two players form hands of three or more cards, including sequences (a consecutive run of three or more cards of the same suit), and sets (three or four of a kind). 

• Connections to my game: sets and sequences (and the terminology Trio and Tierce). 

• I liked the idea of forming sets and sequences of three cards, and this also links (admittedly quite loosely) to Truc’s three card system. 

Karnöffel and Das Guldin Spil

It is worth making reference to these games that did not make the above list. This was not because I did not consider them, or because they did not fit the requirements, but I didn't want to shoehorn in too many mechanics just for the sake of it. 

My game actually started life as a trick-taker, as this mechanic (a) was probably in its early stages while Joan was alive, and (b) is thriving nowadays more than ever, with 3,286 such games listed on BoardGameGeek.com at the time of writing. In addition, Karnöffel and Das Guldin Spil both feature an inversion of societal expectations regarding hierarchy. Other than the religious subversion, such as The Devil beating The Pope (which may have troubled Joan), the reversal of societal norms felt particularly on-point for the feminist icon. 

However, the more I tweaked, adapted, and fundamentally changed the game, the more it moved away from the genre. This is in no-small-part due to the fact that Wil Su has already designed a tour-de-force solo trick-taker in the form of For Northwood! (formerly The Emissary). I tried a few alternative ways of getting solo trick-taking to work, but it never felt as good as his work. So I moved away from those trick-takers and towards games that featured set collection. 

A very French deck

I also dabbled with using a variety of different deck setups, such as the French 32-card deck used in Piquet. However, having last year designed The Four Musketeers, which required a certain amount of setup, I really wanted to aim for a "grab and go" kind of game, where all you need to do is shuffle the standard deck. I wonder if I should have tried to push more for that particularly Joan-contemporary deck, although it is worth saying that Thirty-one uses a standard 52-card deck. 

I was especially thrilled when I learned that not only is La Hire (very questionably) the game designer behind Piquet, he is also (unquestionably) associated with the Jack of Hearts in French playing card tradition. As he fought alongside Joan at the Siege of Orleans, this was unexpectedly fitting. There is also a vague connection to the Dauphin, Charles, in the form of the King of Hearts. Combining these with the fact that the colour red is often associated with Joan of Arc herself, it felt fitting to have the red royal cards represent special player-effects. Incidentally, black was apparently a colour fashionable in the Burgundian court at the time (the French faction allied with the English), which was a lucky extra touch! 

Patience is a virtue? 

I went through several iterations of this game before I finally hit on the core game loop, and more than once I considered abandoning the entire project because I just couldn't get it to work in a satisfying and fun way. 

The main game structure I finally settled on involves a board setup similar to Patience (also known as Klondike or Solitaire), which is far from contemporary to Joan (dating from the late 1700s). However, perhaps it still has that "old-school" feel to modern players? But I am most proud of having incorporated several mechanics and aspects of games that may have existed during Joan's lifetime. 

It took a huge amount of work (belied by the simplicity of the game itself), but I really hope I have settled on a fun solo game. There are still tweaks to be made, for sure, but I am pretty happy with its current form. 

I would love to imagine that Joan might be, too.