Fizgig is Fonseca’s national card game, and one of its cultural hallmarks. Many have spoken of Fizgig’s prominence in Fonsecan culture. Ekene Cerridwens famously said Fizgig “captures everything about Fonseca and its inhabitants: their cultural diversity, intricate worldviews, and zest for life”.
The game is played with a deck of 120 cards, consisting of 4 suits (air, earth, water, and fire) of 30 cards each, numbered 0 to 29. 30 is an important number in Lloereg culture, as it is the approximate number of days in a month, and the Sun and Moon are the two premier figures in their mythology and cosmology.
The game begins with one card being drawn onto the world’s hand in the middle of the table and the rest placed face down in a pile close by. Play progresses around the table, with each player doing one action on their turn. They can:
During the face-off, players can get, share, seek, and wait as usual. When play has passed back to the person who initiated the face-off, everyone reveals their hands. The person with the most points wins.
Point scoring in Fizgig works differently from most other games. Firstly, points are tallied from cards in your hand and the world’s hand. This is usually a benefit, although not always. The remainder of the rules of scoring vary widely between players. Some of the many ways to score or lose points that have been attested include:
Ultimately, no matter how you score, the player with the most points wins. If a tie occurs, tied players draw a card into their hand and compare scores again.
When playing for cash, whoever faces bets a certain amount of money into the pot. Each player, along with playing normally, also will either:
Whoever wins (if they did not sit) gets the entire bet.
Fizgig originated as a fusion of European card games and the traditional Lloereg game of Dwil. Its wide variety of point-scoring mechanics meant it caught on with players of all skill levels. It was first described in writing by John Ainsworth Jr. in his booklet Fizz-Gig, a Game Played Among the Inhabitants of the Island of Fonseca: A Description and Guide. The game was also a symbol of racial unity, as while it was played among slaveholders it was also played discreetly among the enslaved.
As Fonseca became a hotspot for various disreputable activities, including gambling, Fizgig became even more prominent. Part of its popularity is that it was difficult to adapt into the traditional house-player dichotomy common in casinos. Thus, it became a symbol of gambling remaining a social activity.
In the decades after the Fonsecan Revolution, Fizgig became became something of a secular icon. In 1977 it was officially named the national game of Fonseca. It has become popular across the Federation of Phantom Islands, so much so that often the national tournament has more non-Fonsecan players than Fonsecan players.
The name of the game, “fizgig”, has numerous meanings and five independent etymologies. This means it is hard to determine the initial meaning of the name. Theories include:
The name being the same as The Dark Crystal character Fizzgig is coincidental.