a ridiculous game that everyone should play

[mathemagicalschema]

being approximately a smush of Fluxx, Mao, and Calvinball.

Supplies

• 1 (or more) deck(s) playing cards
• Notepad
• Writing instrument
• Players more interested in having a good time than munchkining.
• who knows???

Objective

[unknown]

Initial Rules

At the beginning of play, shuffle the cards and deal five to each player. Each player, on their turn, plays one card. If the effect of the card has not yet been declared, the player makes it up; this should be recorded. If the effect of a card has been declared, it is activated. At the end of a player's turn, they draw one card.

A friend and I made this up tonight and these are the rules we ended up with:

Jack of ♦: Ignore one rule this turn.
4 of ♠: If there are 4 fours on the table, the player of the fourth 4 takes another turn. [in retrospect this is more of a rule than an effect.]
All Kings: Whoever plays a king sets a new rule for the whole game.
2 of ♥: If you hold a King, search the deck for the Queen of the same suit and place it in your hand. If you hold a Queen, search the deck for the King of the same suit and place it in your hand.
J of ♥: Invent one rule applicable for the duration of the next player's turn.
Ace of ♣: If there are four aces on the table, the player of the fourth ace takes all the cards on the table into their hand and discards down to 5. [again, more rule than effect]
Queen of ♥: Redefine the effect of any one card, including this one.
6 of ♦: If this is the third 6 a player has on the table, take one card from each other player.
Ace of ♥: Play on another player's turn to cancel the effect of their card.
3 of ♣: The player may discard their entire hand, and draw back to 5.
10 of ♥: The player may repeatedly draw and discard cards until 4 cards in their hand form any straight or flush.
4 of ♦: View opponent's hand.
4 of ♥: Draw 2 cards this turn.
2 of ♠: Randomly choose one card in an opponent's hand, and shuffle it into the deck.
J of ♣: The game ends. [we needed to sleep.]

King Rules

• When a pair is laid down, the players must play Rock, Paper, Scissors. The winner may take any card from the table, and shuffle the rest back into the deck.
• When the game ends, hands are valued like poker hands to determine the winner.

Guidelines and General Advice

• We enjoyed trying to give suits and numbers loose "themes" or general associations - for instance, my idea was for all the court cards to enact different types of rule changes, with Kings making whole-game rules, Queens shifting card definitions, and Jacks creating one-turn rule changes. Friendperson felt that hearts should generally be buffs and spades should have some sort of debuff/destruction theme.
• I believe it is advisable to have some function like our Kings and Queens, to ensure some flexibility and capacity for consciously engineering the game.
• Similarly, if you're trying to meander toward a win condition, it helps to cooperate a bit.
• we both plan to bring this ruleset into future games and let them expand until they become shambling madcap horrors.