About NewfieCards

NewfieCards is where we play the card games we grew up with at the kitchen table, like Scat, 120s and Krazy 8's, and a couple from further afield too. Sit down against the computer players, or with family and friends, wherever they've ended up.

The existing design of this site is clean and simplistic, based on how I currently design and build web applications in my work life. Full stack developer is a hat I wear... If you know what that is, then you'll probably understand. So form and function guide the initial design. However, this is NewfieCards, and that means something. So the design will evolve in that metaphorical direction, once function has been properly established.

Every computer player here is a tribute to a real person who once sat around our kitchen tables, telling stories and laughing over a deck of cards. They still get a hand in every game we play.

• Scat (31): A fast game of collecting cards to reach 31 in a single suit. Knock and come up lowest, though, and it costs you two lives. The rules are here.
• 120s: A traditional Newfoundland trick-taking game, four players in two partnerships. Bid 15, 20, 25 or 30, the high bidder names drumpfs, everyone throws what they don't want and draws back up, then five tricks a hand until a side reaches 120. The rules are here.
• Go Fish: The one everybody learns first, and it's all memory. Ask any player for a rank you're already holding. If they have it, they hand over every one and you go again. If they don't, it's "Go Fish" and you draw. Four of a kind is a catch, laid face up in front of you, and whoever has the most catches when the cards run out wins. Level on catches, it comes down to what the catches are worth (2 through 10 face value, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13, Ace 14). The rules are here.
• Krazy 8's: A shedding game where eights are wild. Match the suit or the rank on the pile, play an eight to call any suit you like, and draw when you can't go. First one out of cards wins the hand.
• Rummy: Sets and runs. Draw from the stock or the discard pile, lay down three or four of a kind or three or more in a row of one suit, lay off on anybody's melds, and throw one away to end your turn. The first one out scores what everybody else is still holding. The host picks the house rules, like where the ace goes and how a hand is scored. The rules are here.
• Cribbage: Fifteen two, fifteen four. Two, three or four at the table, and four play as partners. Throw to the crib, peg your way through the play without passing 31, then count your hand with the starter. The dealer counts the crib last. First side round the board to 121 wins, or 61 for the short game. Muggins is the host's call. The rules are here.
• Scopa: The Italian sweeping game, played with a forty-card Italian deck. Play a card to take a table card of the same value, or a few that add up to it. Clear the table bare and that's a scopa, a sweep, worth a point on its own. The rules are here.
• Escoba del 15: Scopa's Spanish and Argentine cousin, with the same forty cards. Your card takes any cards on the table that make exactly fifteen together with it, so a seven takes an eight, or a five and a three. Sweep the table and it's an escoba, worth a point on its own. The rules are here.

In 120s, and a few other games here, the strongest suit in a hand has always gone by trumps. Lately, though, the fella who shares that name has taken a notion to rename things that aren't his to rename: the Gulf of Mexico is the "Gulf of America" to him now, and he'd like Lake Ontario to be "Lake American". So I've returned the favour. On NewfieCards, trump cards are Drumpf cards.

It's not made up, either. The family name was originally Drumpf; an ancestor changed it to Trump back in the 1600s (Wikipedia). John Oliver made the case better than I ever could on Last Week Tonight, in "Make Donald Drumpf Again" (2016). I'm only following his lead, and having a bit of fun while I'm at it.

Nothing about the game changes. A Drumpf card beats every card that isn't one, same as a trump always has. Only the name is different.

Rather have your trumps back? No hard feelings, b'y. Go to your Profile settings, untick Rename "Trump(s)" to "Drumpf(s)", and save. Every Drumpf on the site goes back to Trump for you. It's switched on for everyone to start with, because that's the kind of crowd we are.

There's nothing to download or install. You play in your web browser.

NewfieCards is invite-only. You can create an account, but it waits until I let it in, and you can't sign in before then. I get an email the moment you're waiting, so it shouldn't be long.

I built this site, because even though I left Newfoundland 30 years ago, I never really left it behind... No Newfoundlander ever does. It's for mom and dad Reg and Lorraine Porter, who are still living on the rock, keeping our traditions alive. It's for my brother Reggie, who went east, completely leaving North America, when I went west. It's for all the Newfoundlanders scattered across our big country and far beyond.

Most of all, it's for anyone who's ever missed home, missed their family, or missed those who've passed on. Through these games, my hope is that we keep these memories alive and our connections strong, no matter how far we wander from home.

This project wouldn't have been possible without the incredible support and contributions from so many wonderful people. A heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped bring these memories to life and keep our traditions alive in the digital age.

Everything registered users do here is logged, and that includes the chat. Every line typed at a table is written down and kept, so if somebody has to answer for how they spoke to another player, there's a record of it rather than my word against theirs.

The Terms & Copyright page says exactly what's kept and who can read it. There's no tracking that follows you off this site.

Zero tolerance for harassment or inappropriate behaviour. This is a family space. Everyone should feel welcome in it, and most of all safe. I'll close an account over it without a conversation.

The bill is small. The code hosting on GitHub and the server on Railway come to about $30 to $50 a month, depending on storage and traffic. The domain name is about $15 a year, and the security certificate is free. That's the whole bill.

The real cost is my time, about a day a week, and most of it goes on the parts nobody sees.

If a lot more of us turn up, the bill grows with us: a second server, a proper database with backups, a real email service and somewhere for errors to get reported. For something like 1,000 to 5,000 people, basic hosting would come to about $3,500 to $4,500 over two years. We're nowhere near that, and I'd be delighted to have the problem. If you do chip in, that's what you're chipping in towards: keeping a small bill paid now, and being ready for a bigger one if enough of us turn up to the table.

I'd be honoured if you help support this project

NewfieCards is a labour of love, that I'm building to extend Newfoundland traditions into a virtual space to help keep families, like mine, connected across any distance. If you'd like to support the development and hosting costs of this project, please know every contribution helps ensure we can keep the virtual card table open for anyone and everyone to join. "Whether you be Newfie, or not B'y".

Support on GoFundMe