06.26.07
Aletheic
Last night Claudine and I had a few friends over for a game night. I did a particularly bad job of planning it, so many people I would have wanted to come either couldn’t do so because notice was too short or weren’t invited at all because I am a lousy, forgetful friend.
Thanks to those who did make it: Jared Williams, Carlos Almendárez, and Lauren Clymer.
Anyone who’s ever been to one of my game nights before has probably played, or at least heard of, Mini Mao. For those who aren’t familiar already, I usually sum up Mini Mao thusly:
- The object of the game is to find out the rules of the game.
- The object of the game is to make other people have fun.
- The object of the game is to not be an asshole.
Kevan Davis created Mini Mao, which is itself a variant of Mao incorporating some of the principles of a Nomic.
By Kevan’s description, Mini Mao is a card game, usually played with a deck of normal playing cards, though not restricted to that medium. Last night was the first time we’ve tried to test that boundary, by incorporating a deck of Uglydoll cards and a normal deck of playing cards into a single, mixed deck.
Our findings: playing with a greater variety of cards only adds to the total amount of fun to be had. In other words:
cards++ => fun++
Rules that were developed and used last night (not in order):
- Primo: Threes must be played face down. Author: Jared.
- Icebat: When playing a blue monster, the player must growl. The player must not growl while playing a non-blue monster. Author: Claudine.
- I don’t know: Something to do with even diamonds. Author: Jared.
- Yipiee: I actually don’t know. Author: Jared.
- Ox! Ox!: When a player plays Ox, they must jump twice, exclaiming “Ox!” each time. Author: Claudine.
- Menage: Something about threes. Author: Carlos.
- Company: Three-eyed monsters and threes had to be played face-down. Menage is deprecated. Author: Carlos.
- Trail mix: When playing any number card except nine, the player must say “trail mix”. Author: Lauren.
- Odd-Eyes: If a monster is played on a number, the number of eyes on the monster must be odd or even to match the odd-or-even-ness of the number card. For this rule, aces count as ones, jacks as 11s, queens as 12s, and kings as 13s. Author: Danny.
- Say it Proud: The player playing a card must call out the card’s name while playing it. Author: Danny.
Next game night, I’m planning on procuring a set of mahjong tiles to use instead of cards. Theoretically, we could use any objects instead of cards, but mahjong tiles (or dominoes, failing that) give the added benefit of easy 3D construction. in the discard pile. Ooh…now I’m getting ideas involving Lego pieces.