A Card Game?!

Yes, I've made a card game, or at least the idea of a card game.

I've had the idea for some kind of simple, Noir-themed card game rattling around at the back of my head for quite a while now, but it's never come into sharp focus before. I really enjoy simple card games with a social focus, like Werewolf or Love Letter, and as people who know me will know, I love a good tribute to a game I enjoy. Somewhere in the back of mind, ideas have been juggling themselves, re-arranging into different configurations in an attempt to create something at least semi-original and not just a reskin of an existing game.

The most recent step towards achieving this was the idea of a two-card system, like Love Letter, but both of them being hidden, like Werewolf: you would get a Character and an Object in an envelope and then make deals with other players to either get the Object you wanted or use the Object you had in the way desired by your Character, e.g. the Hitman wants the Gun to use it against anyone holding the Evidence, etc.

Here's where we arrive at one of those blurry parts of the design process, since I can't pin down exactly when I made the leap from that idea to using blackjack mechanics; it certainly happened as I was falling asleep one night, but don't ask me how that works. The concept was on my mind the next morning as I took a walk, anyway, and things crystallized rapidly: even the image of the logo for the game came into my mind fully formed in a moment.

The game I've made feels like something I'd happily play casually as a time filler, with a specially printed deck of cards, so maybe I'll take it in that direction in the future, but for now what I could do with is some feedback on the basic structure and the card effects. For example, is it better to increase the pot when you stand or stretch at the end of a round? Is it acceptable to win a pot that contains no chips or should every round start with one chip in the pot? Are any of the cards game-breakingly powerful or pointlessly weak? I'm open to any constructive feedback, as usual.