Do you like grandpas? Do you like cribbage?

October 14, 2016 11:08 AM

Then you might like Cribbage With Grandpas.

• You play cribbage,
• You play against the computer,
• The computer is your Grandpa,
• You get to create your Grandpa.

Cribbage With Grandpas was developed by Less than Three Interactive.

posted by amnesia and magnets (30 comments total)

Awww, I used to play cribbage with my Grandpa.
posted by chavenet at 11:17 AM on October 14, 2016 [9 favorites]

I wish the grandpa would teach you how to play cribbage because I don't know how to play (or forgot); still going to install it because I think the idea is pretty great (and I want to create a grandpa)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:27 AM on October 14, 2016

I feel disproportionately happy that this exists.
posted by willpie at 11:29 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Does it talk enough smack at your when playing, and will peg your missed points ?
posted by k5.user at 11:31 AM on October 14, 2016 [8 favorites]

This is amazing. My attempt to interest my board game loving friends and boyfriend in cribbage was a failure. A grandpa avatar is exactly the solution.
posted by the primroses were over at 11:33 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I never played with my grandpa (both dead before I was born), but I did with the rest of my family -- but ever since I've adulted, they've stopped playing with me. Just because you guys started playing because it was educational doesn't mean it's not my favorite card game. And none of the other adults want to play it. (The preschooler in the house is, alas, too young to introduce, because no addition.)

Playing with a grandpa sounds PERFECT. Thank you, amnesia and magnets!

(True fact: as best anyone can tell, cribbage was the invention of the 17th-century courtier, mercenary, and poet, Sir John Suckling, who was also a noted gamester.)
posted by Quasirandom at 11:38 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

this makes me feel a lil weird because the only person i ever play cribbage with is my boyfriend

but that's not going to stop me from downloading this immediately
posted by burgerrr at 11:41 AM on October 14, 2016

Looks like Grandpa CAN teach you cribbage; there's evidently a very nice and patient tutorial that you can play as long as you like.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 11:43 AM on October 14, 2016

Even after the tutorial, if you need help with scoring or reminders of whose turn it is, grandpa will always help.

What about muggins? Not an accurate representation if he doesn't muggins your missed points.
posted by RobotHero at 11:48 AM on October 14, 2016 [7 favorites]

it ain't Grandpa unless it deals from the bottom of the deck and moves both your pegs backward by equal amounts when you're not looking.
posted by Old Kentucky Shark at 12:03 PM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

My grandpa, muggins as a life lesson.
posted by chavenet at 1:47 PM on October 14, 2016

I played with my grandparents, gone these many years. I played with my parents, also gone these many years. Now I play with my wife, with my friends. I recently acquired my grandparents' old triangular three-hander cribbage board, on the back of which they had kept track of exactly who had won how many games, still visible in pencil. They told stories of how they would play each other every single night in the early days of their marriage to determine who did the dishes that night.

One of my grandfathers had a little rhyme for just about every score you could get in cribbage. Fifteen-two and a pair's four--thank god there's no more!

Of course, nothing rhymes with 19.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:49 PM on October 14, 2016 [4 favorites]

They almost certainly won't have the family variant (Speed-cribbage: Deal out 8 cards to each, everybody gets a crib), but still. How did they know to make this. I still have a soft spot for cribbage after many many games played with my grandpa, dad, uncle, mother, family over a pint or two. Nobody to play with regularly where I'm at, but I still have a solid-aluminum board (It could double as a bludgeon in case of apocalypse) and a travel-board.
posted by CrystalDave at 2:04 PM on October 14, 2016

I learned to play from my grandpa and I miss playing with him dearly. Thank you, computer surrogate! I am so excited about this!!
posted by omphale27 at 3:42 PM on October 14, 2016

"Fifteen two, fifteen four, fifteen six, and a pair is eight, and a pair is ten. Goddam right." (Miss you Grandpa!)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 4:14 PM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm sad to report that the game doesn't muggins you.

I'm also sad to report that if you have 6-7-8, you can't score either the 15 or the run, because it can't tell which you're doing.

It does, however, do silly grampa-ish scoring rhymes.
posted by Quasirandom at 4:26 PM on October 14, 2016

it doesn't muggins you which is indeed a bummer but you can definitely score the 15 and the run! just tap 6-7-8 and then 7-8 again (or vice versa)
posted by burgerrr at 4:30 PM on October 14, 2016

Awwwwww!!! (x15)
posted by Celsius1414 at 6:47 PM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I appreciate that you can make a custom grandpa, or randomize him (which if you think about it, id how it works in real life; to a baby, all grandpas are randomized.)
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:59 PM on October 14, 2016

Playing with Grandad I can handle but you wouldn't willingly play against my Gran for fun. She would crush you EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Fifteen-two and a pair's four--thank god there's no more!

Her version was Fifteen-two, fifteen-four - shout your mouth and say no more.

One for his knob!
posted by jontyjago at 12:25 AM on October 15, 2016

One for doing nothing.

I'm now thinking about muggins as a game mechanic. It is kind of weird. Not a lot of games do that. And it's a rule that will come into play more often with lower-level players.

And typically, when you make the computer version of a card game, you're going to automate stuff like point counting. But if you do that, then you completely eliminate muggins. And if you're trying to replicate the experience of playing cribbage with granddad, then the process of counting points is part of that.
posted by RobotHero at 8:24 AM on October 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm now thinking about muggins as a game mechanic.

I've been playing crib in the UK for years and this is the first time I've heard of muggins - it's not a tactic that's ever been used, at least not in my family.

you're going to automate stuff like point counting

My Dad plays against an app on his iPad and you have to enter your score manually with penalties if you enter it incorrectly.
posted by jontyjago at 10:43 AM on October 15, 2016

I didn't know how to play cribbage, but thought I should learn, and the idea of making an avatar of my much beloved, much missed grandfather to sit in my pocket and come play cards when I need him got me to buy the app. I really like this!
posted by ocherdraco at 2:04 PM on October 15, 2016

Gave this a download last night and tried it out. Great presentation, a nice tutorial, and existential dread filled every corner of me as I tried to get to sleep but was instead consumed with thoughts about the inevitable horrors of aging.

I give it a nine out of ten.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:29 PM on October 15, 2016 [5 favorites]

Does it have a grandma option? My dad's mom, who made it to 98, was a shit-talking crib badass right up until the end.

Damn, it just got dusty in here...
posted by Alterscape at 8:24 PM on October 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is so good.
posted by box at 10:01 AM on October 16, 2016

I immediately downloaded and started playing after reading this. Thank you! One of my favorite teachers in grade school taught our class how to play, so I modeled my cribbage grandpa after him.
posted by river99 at 1:08 PM on October 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wait, will the computer grandpa take the points that you missed when counting your hand? Because that is the rules when playing cribbage with PopPop. He's pretty merciless when it comes to extra points.

My PopPop was a math teacher. Cribbage was one of his many ways of helping his children and grandchildren with math. It was a BIG DEAL when I learned to count to 15, since that was the entry requirement to play cribbage with my grandfather. I haven't played cribbage with him in forever, excuse me while I go and call him up to set up a game.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 3:01 PM on October 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

In my family, we call muggins "rob your neighbor" and I've never played that way.
posted by MsDaniB at 6:50 PM on October 16, 2016

I haven't had a problem with not being able to total all my scores since that one time. I have noticed that it is sensitive to what order you tap your cards when totaling a combo - I may have given the engine an ambiguous start it couldn't resolve. So advice: if you have a run that includes a fifteen, tap the card NOT in the fifteen first.

Still regretting the no muggins, but otherwise enjoying this a lot.
posted by Quasirandom at 8:36 PM on October 16, 2016