piecepack modification discussion - aces and numbers

["odbo255" <odbo255@...>]

--- In piecepack@y..., Karl von Laudermann <karlvonl@r...> wrote:
> On Monday, April 29, 2002, at 03:01  AM, odbo255 wrote:
> 
> > *making the usage of the ace symbol consistent (always a spiral or
> > always the suit [still mulling the consequences of this one over])
> 
> If I may comment on this, I think it would be a good idea for the 
ace to 
> be consistent as well. A suit symbol would be the wrong choice, 
because 
> that of course ruins the ace coins' ability to hide their suit when 
> viewing the value side. Having ace tiles have a suit in the corner 
and an 
> ace symbol in the center is preferable to the alternative of having 
coins 
> which have a suit symbol on both sides. Heck, I think the ace tiles 
would 
> look better that way.
> 
> However, I don't like the spiral as an ace symbol. The spiral is an 
> arbitrary graphical shape, just like the four suit symbols are, so 
when 
> you first dump your piecepack onto the table and start to sort out 
the 
> coins, the value-side-up ace coins look like suit-side-down coins, 
> especially when you are a piecepack novice. Since your brain 
processes 
> written characters differently from meaningless shapes, it would be 
easier 
> to visually distinguish the value-side coins from the suit-side 
coins if 
> the ace were a character, such as an "A".

I know many are attached to the concept of an 'ace,' but wouldn't it 
be simplier to replace it with a '1' ??? 

The downside I see to this is on the die, with the removal of the ace 
the only way to identify suit ownership of a die is by color - not a 
good solution.

One of the ideas I have played with is using different number systems 
on the tiles/dice to identify suit ownership. 

An example could be: 

red/suns - I Ching Hexagrams
black/moons - Mayan
blue/arms - Roman
green/crowns - Pips

(the above example is an arbitrary pairing and in no way thought out).

With this system the coins would remain numbered in Arabic. The only 
thing numbered in Arabic would be the coins where information hiding 
is a goal. 

Tiles would contain both the suit symbol (upper left as always) and 
number in the suit's number system (providing a "cheat sheet" if you 
will for the dice which will only show numbers).

Good idea, bad? Variations?