Mao, in card game form
I came across this game last weekend, catching up with some friends at Tech. I’ve been collecting games to write about lately, but this one was different enough from what I’ve been playing lately to jump the line.
Strictly speaking, you’re not supposed to tell people how to play before beginning, but it’s easier to get people playing if everyone has some idea how the game’s played beforehand.
Materials
Mao uses Uno or (folks suggest) a pair of standard card decks.
Key rules
- No talking
- No touching your cards until game is in play
- No not-touching your cards while the game is in play
- When you’ve played down to one card left, say “Mao” (like saying “Uno” in Uno).
- Any rule infraction carries a one card penalty, to be enforced by the other players at their discretion until you stop breaking the rule.
- The winner of a hand gets to add a rule to this list, which he or she must then enforce uniformly upon the other players (no playing favorites, point out situations where you didn’t enforce the rule if you forget). Don’t tell everyone else your rule, just enforce it by awarding penalty cards and explaining what the penalized party failed to do. The other players have to figure out your rule themselves.
In the creating and enforcing of new player rules comes the challenge, the fun, and the frustration.
Regular card play follows a basic Uno/Crazy Eights pattern. Try to shed your cards before everyone else, play same color/suit or same rank (number) on one another. If you don’t have a playable card, draw one. If it’s playable, play it, if not, you’ve got another card to hold. If playing with Uno cards, ignore the Uno effects of draws, skips, reverses, wilds let the next player play anything.
Player rules
Player rule requirements can vary but tend toward requiring players to say something when a rule-triggering event happens. This works very nicely with the No Talking rule, because when people speak out of turn as they try to figure out someone’s rule, you can slap them with a penalty for talking. It also avoids the potential injury associated with elaborate physical feats.
To maximize the range of available rules, triggering events for rules can vary from simple to complex (someone plays a Skip, recent cards played add up to a specific number, the last 3 cards complete 3 numbers in the Fibonacci series). Who is required to speak can also vary, though many times they’re tied to the person playing a card. What people are required to say can be any sound from the wide lexicon of human utterances (though many will want to lay some ground rules beforehand).
The most elaborate rule in our recent play session was that after someone played a card following a draw card, the person to the left of the player putting down the second card had to say the name of the month corresponding to the draw number (2 or 4) plus the number value of the card played on it. So if I played a 7 on a Draw 2, the person to my left would have to say “September” or get slapped with a penalty.
Play experience
It was great fun, though rule fatigue can set in quickly, as you each try to enforce any rules you’ve set, work out any rules you haven’t figured out yet, and remember to keep all the rules you understand. (After 5 player rules get added, you start feeling the burn.) The game runs heavily on cognitive load and people crumbling under the weight of remembering many arbitrary rules.
In checking to see what’s available on the net about Mao, I came across a reference to People’s Democratic Dictatorship, a variation that allows each player to set a rule at the beginning of the game and enforce that rule, rather than awarding rules for winning hands. I’ll have to try that approach out next time.
July 6th, 2006 at 2:34 am
Quite possibly the greatest game of all time. My rules are, of course, entirely different than yours; the game lends itself to mutation rather readily.
A few variations you might consider, which I think make the game a bit more friendly and fun:
I still think it’s better to not explain much ahead of time – traditionally, I say “It’s like crazy eights or uno, and that’s all I can tell you. You will have to figure out the rules by watching and playing.” or something to that extent.
Another concept I came across recently was that of “Mini-Mao”. In this version, there are essentially NO base rules; you take turns playing one card to get rid of them, and the game builds as everyone makes up new rules. This even allows you to play with odd decks, such as tarot or even a CCG. Friendlier to newbies, as the game is built up as they play, though it does lose some of Mao’s mystique and fraternal quality.
August 16th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
I must say, the way we played was rough for noobs. Once I got it down though, things worked out reasonably well. After working through the initial feeling of bewilderment, the most interesting “design problem” as a new player was coming up with rules that were interesting without being too complicated or too infrequently occurring.
Mini-Mao sounds like an interesting thing to try out, though I’m guessing it doesn’t feel remotely mini as the rules pile up and people pass out under the cognitive load of remembering the mountain of rules they must negotiate with their one card. Definitely a challenge worth trying out.