You are certainly entitled to your own opinion. Such as it is.
Yes, so please don’t belittle it here.
Speed Two, also known as Frustration. Such a fun game, and it nevers ends. Literally.
One deck of cards, two people. Divide the deck between the two of you.
Each of you put 4 cards face up in front of you.
You have to look at your cards to play this game right, so pick up your half deck.
Making pairs of cards is the point of this game. If there’s two queens in the 8 cards you put out, put a card on each one. If there’s a three on the top of your deck, put it on top of another three, to make a double. You can then put another card on top of the pair you just made. (substitute whatever cards you’ve got in place of “queen” or “three”.)
It doesn’t matter if you put cards in your row or your opponent’s row. It’s supposed to be that way so you keep getting in each other’s way.
When you’ve both used all your cards, scoop up your row, shuffle them, and start again!
If you want more details, email me, because I might be able to clairify some of that.
Well, I’d appreciate the same courtesy. Tough titties? You’ve attacked something I greatly appreciate and I may have overreacted. How 'bout a truce?
Look, the whole purpose of my post was to attempt to demonstrate why trick-taking games are fun and challenging. I’m not arguing that UNO isn’t fun. I’ve spent many a happy hour with the family playing it.
But I get much more pleasure and mental stimulation from playing bridge. Yes, you win tricks because the card you play has a higher value than the card your opponent(s) plays. But the point of the game is knowing WHICH card to play WHEN. I enjoy this mental challenge. I’m sorry, but equating duplicate bridge with war is just facile. Would you say that checkers and chess are pretty much the same because they both involve moving pieces on a board with squares on it?
What I’m trying to suggest, in perhaps a too abrasive manner, is that there is a dimension of trick taking games that you may have overlooked. Why is matching colors or numbers inherently more fun than trying to play the highest ranked card in a round? Most newspapers publish a daily or weekly newspaper column about bridge (usually right next to the chess column). Who would care to read this material if the game was just glorified War?
Open your mind a little bit and you may be pleasantly surprised.
Also, I DID recommend Gin Rummy. I didn’t just jump into your thread to insult you. In my book, Gin is the greatest of the two player card games, followed closely by Cribbage.
If you have a lot of people, say 5 or more, Tripoli is a lot of fun. It combines poker, rummy and a weird sort of board game type thing. I don’t know whether they still sell it, but it’s worth checking out.
Ever heard of FizzBin??
Fizzbin? What is that.
PS. Frank. I hate trick taking games. Please take your griping somewhere else.
dorkusmalorkusmafia: I second the opinion about Spite & Malice. It’s definitely more fun with 3 or more players.
Some friends of mine invented a version of Uno they call Speed Uno. It’s just like basic Uno with two important variations. If you see a card played, you can play a duplicate anywhere in the rotation. E.g., you’re sitting three players from me and play a red 7. I have a red 7 in my hand and can immediately play it, thus bypassing the other players. If you have two or more of the same card in your hand, you can play them both at the same time. It’s really fun to go out by hitting someone with 2 Wild Card – Draw Four.
For games that involve some outlay of cash, I recommend Legend of the Five Rings, Magic: The Gathering, and Illuminati. L5R doesn’t involve a huge cash investment to put together a good deck and Magic offers some starter decks that are quite good for beginners.
Milbourne (hope I spelled it right) is also a fund game.
Speed UNO! Now that is a variation I should play. I think that would be best with at least 3 people but more likely 4 or 6. It would be even more fun to play it stackable so draw 2’s and 4’s all add on to eachother.
As for the other games, I really like Mille Bornes or as we lovingly called it “Male Porn.” The other games you mentioned are fun but difficult to find people to play with here for a couple of different reasons.
See if you can find Road Kill, a game best described as “Mille Bornes with weapons.”
So sorry to offend your delicate sensibilities.
Fun, yes, but bloody well violent. I have the scars to prove it
Two card games I’ve enjoyed playing that aren’t trick based are:
Class Struggle - also known as President, Scum, Asshole, in which the quicker you get rid of your cards, the better position you’ll be in to make the game worse for others. It’s also the inspiration for The Great Dalmuti.
Also, the rules listed in the links are different than we play. Our rules:
- Deal is counter-clockwise, so that the low scum gets the most cards, and the king gets the most.
- You must play if you can, instead of being able to choose.
- You can play a greater number of cards if you wish. In other words, if the last cards played were two sevens, you could play three nines, if you wanted. Other rules will restrict you to only being able to play two cards.
Seven Card Divine Mao - or just Mao - an Uno-like game where the fewer people who know the rules, the better. In fact, no one can be told what the rules are, they must experience them for themselves.
I agree with Frankd6… it seems kind of odd to dislike a whole family of card games because playing them requires “taking tricks”.
Whatever…
Have you heard of Pit? It’s a fun game where you trade comodities. I also recommend a game called Racko which is a lot of fun. Neither of these require taking those nasty ol’ tricks, yet are still very fun.
E3
If you want a really cool patience (1-player) game which requires skill AND luck, I highly recommend Spider. I am absolutely hooked on it at the moment.
However given that it requires two decks of cards, it’s probably best played virtually, ie on a computer. Otherwise all the dealing would become really boring, and take up so much space.