87
« on: October 29, 2018, 05:41:48 AM »
For those of you who attended the 52 Plus Joker Annual Convention in Cleveland this month, some of us started playing a couple of card games that I learned as a child and seemed to have an awfully good time of it! So I'm sharing the rules of the two games here.
Second up is Shrinkdumfunnybuster! This was one of two games that I learned when I was somewhere in my tween years, taught to me by a lifeguard who'd co-invented it with a bunch of her friends one night while having a few beers. It's undoubtedly the more INSANE of the two games, invented while they were considerably more drunk than sober, though it still can be family-friendly (if the players remain civilized)! There's a good deal of memorization involved, so if you're forgetful, you're probably doomed, and it requires a great deal of politeness and attention. It's a very fun game that's a lot less about winning and a lot more about laughing your butt off as the craziness unfolds!
Minimum number of players: 3
Maximum number of players: you could play with as many as 20, but that's just nuts. I wouldn't make it more than 8 or 10. More than 5 or 6 is very difficult.
Object of the game: collect as many families as you can, in a manner similar to "Go Fish," while remaining very polite and avoiding talking to ghosts...
Names of the cards: you only play the game with twenty cards out of a standard deck - all the court cards (Jacks, Queens, Kings) and the Aces and Twos. These cards no longer have their usual names, however - they've all be renamed for this game, and you have to know their new names in order to play successfully!
The suit are now called "families." The spades are the Spademan family (that's three syllables, "SPAY-de-man"). The hearts are the Hearteman family (also three syllables). The clubs are the Policeman family (because policemen carry clubs, get it?), and the diamonds are the Shrinkdumfunnybuster family! (Just break it down - Shrink - Dum - Funny - Buster. It's goofy but not that hard to pronounce if you're not too inebriated!)
The cards in each family have their own new names. We'll start with the Spademan family. The King is "Mister Spademan Himself." The Queen is "Mister Spademan's Wife." The Jack is "Mister Spademan's Son." The Ace is "Mister Spademan's Donkey," because another word for donkey is ass, and that sounds a lot like Ace! Finally, the Two is "Mister Spademan's Donkey Cart."
This pattern continues through all four families. So following the pattern, the Queen of Hearts would be "Mister Hearteman's Wife." The Jack of Clubs would be "Mister Policeman's Son." The Two of Diamonds would be "Mister Shrinkdumfunnybuster's Donkey Cart," which is also the longest of any of the card's names!
How to play: play starts by dealing all of the cards one at a time in a clockwise pattern. Depending on the number of players, there may be a different number of cards in some people's hands - life isn't always fair and neither is Shrinkdumfunnybuster! The first player clockwise from the dealer is the active player. He or she chooses another player, then asks that player for a specific card from their hand. If they have it, the player being asked must offer it to the active player, who then takes it, adds it to their hand, and they continue playing, asking for another, specific card from any player who has cards. Any time the player being asked doesn't have the card being asked for, they say so, the active player's turn ends and the next person clockwise becomes the new active player.
Players are not permitted to lie about whether they have a card that is being requested. However, if a player asks for a card by not using the correct name, there is no obligation to produce the card - cards must be requested by their full, proper names!
Players are not permitted to conceal the backs of the cards in their hands - if they are holding any number of cards, the backs must be visible to all players. (The reasons for this become clear below!)
If at any time, you acquire all five cards of a single family, you may place those cards in front of you on the table and you've scored one family - those cards are no longer part of your hand. You do not lose any families you've scored for any reason in the game. But if you do not place the cards on the table, they are not yet scored, they are still part of your hand, and can be lost if for any reason you lose your hand to another player.
Thank You and Muggins: whenever a player receives any card(s) from another player, they must say "Thank you!" in a clear voice for all to hear before making contact with the card. (No, the player offering the card can't force them into contact with it!) If a player fails to say "Thank you!," any other player may call out "Muggins!" The first player to do so then receives that player's ENTIRE HAND (and also is required to say "Thank you!" before touching them, as they are receiving cards from another player).
Ghosts and Muggins: whenever a player for any reason has no more cards in their hand (either due to being called "Muggins" by another player, by handing their last card to another player who asked for it or by playing their last five cards into a family on the table), they become a ghost. Ghosts are still active players, in a way - they do not get to take regular turns, but if a ghost can get another, non-ghost player to speak to them (physical contact isn't permitted!), ANY player may declare "Muggins" on the player speaking to the ghost, including the ghost or any other ghosts - the first one to do so will receive that player's entire hand; if that player was a ghost, he or she is no longer a ghost as they now possess cards and may take turns again as normal!
Timing Disputes: with all this shouting of "Muggins!" going around, there will inevitably be disputes as to who said it first. If left unresolved, they drag the game's fun to a grinding halt. So if there is no clear majority among the players as to who declared Muggins first, the disputing players will play a round of "Rochambeau" (also called "Rock, Paper, Scissors") to settle the issue. If there are more than two players involved, the players will divide into pairs and hold a Rochambeau "elimination" contest until there is one clear winner. The winner will accept the cards - and is still required, as usual, to say "Thank you!," before making contact! The same rule can be applied if there's a dispute as to whether a player said "Thank you!" before contacting an offered card, or for settling any in-game disputes quickly to keep the fun rolling. And remember when settling disputes and asking around the table as to who saw what and when, don't talk to any ghosts!
Example: There are four players, in this order: Aaron, Bob, Charli and Denise. Aaron deals all twenty cards and every player has five. Bob goes first, asking Denise if she has "Mister Hearteman's Wife." Denise looks for the Queen of Hearts, has it, and offers it to Bob. Bob says "Thank you!," accepts the card, and because he was holding four other Hearteman family cards, plays the entire family in front of him. He's down to a single card. His turn continues.
Bob asks Charli if she has "Mister Spademan Himself." She doesn't, and tells him this. Bob's turn ends.
Charli asks Bob if he has "Mister Shrinkdumfunnybuster's Donkey." Bob is only holding one card, the Ace of Diamonds, which he now offers to Charli. Charli accepts - but fails to say "Thank you!" Bob and Aaron both call "Muggins!" Bob was a second quicker, however, and being the first, Charli offers Bob her entire hand. Bob says "Thank you!," before making contact and takes Charli's cards, leaving her as a ghost - her turn is now over and she will have no more turns this game unless she gets someone else's cards. Charli asks Denise "What time is it?," but Denise knows better than to talk to a ghost!
Denise starts her turn by asking Bob for "Mister Shrinkdumfunnybuster's Donkey." She knows he must have it - he just handed it to Charli, and she handed it back to him when she became a ghost. He has no choice but to hand it over, and she says "Thank you!," just before making contact with the card. Now she's stuck trying to figure out who's holding the other cards.
But wait! Aaron makes a major mistake, asking Charli about the five bucks he loaned her before the game! Before Charli or Bob get a chance to react, Denise calls "Muggins!" Now Aaron, red-faced, offers his entire hand to Denise, who accepts - but fails to say "Thank you!" Aaron is again too slow - this time, Charli swoops in, but so does Bob! They both seem to say "Muggins!," at the same time, so they agree to a quick round of Rochambeau - Charli wins. Denise, who just accepted Aaron's whole hand, hands all the cards she got from him and her own previously-held cards to Charli, who remembers just in time to say "Thank you!," before making contact with Denise's cards. Denise and Aaron, careless and cardless, are now ghosts - Denise's turn is over and Aaron doesn't get a turn.
Charli is now at a serious disadvantage. She and Bob are the only remaining players with cards. There are two ghosts, eager to get another card-holding player to talk to them. And it's Bob's turn! He surely must know all the cards she's holding, right? Well... Bob makes a blunder - he asks Charli for "Spademan's Wife." The proper name for the Queen of Spades is "Mister Spademan's Wife!" Charli doesn't have "Spademan's Wife," even though she does have "Mister Spademan's Wife," the Queen of Spades! She says no to Bob, points out the error he made in asking, and Bob, red-faced, loses his turn to Charli, who is now in a position to clean up and score the three remaining families...as long as she remains very polite and ignores Aaron when he offers to get her a soda from the 'fridge...
As stated earlier, it's less about winning, more about the wackiness that ensues along the way. For a more ambitious game, you can play tournament style, keeping a running total of families scored between deals and setting a goal of either a certain number of families scored to win or whoever has the most families scored by a certain number of deals. If you have no pens or paper handy, you can use the remaining unused cards from the pack as score tokens for tracking the number of families a player has scored in previous hands - place them face up in front of the player (so they don't get confused with cards in a player's hand) in a single stack, as you would stack cards in a column for Klondike or many other forms of solitaire.
Strategy: your mileage may vary, but here's a few ideas...
Politeness Counts: always, always, always say "Thank you!," even if you don't have to! Do it clearly so all the players can hear you and there's no dispute as to whether you said it or not, to avoid a possible Rochambeau showdown or worse, being called "Muggins!"
Pay Attention: some people have a tendency to not pay attention to what takes place when it isn't their turn. Not a good idea in this game! Watch who receives what cards - when your turn comes, if those cards haven't been scored yet as part of a family, you can ask for them yourself, knowing exactly who's holding them.
Wait, You Mean This Card?: there's nothing in the rules stopping you from asking for a card you ALREADY POSSESS. It will cost you a turn, to be sure, but it will also confuse more attentive players who are trying to track who has what! To avoid falling for this strategy, only track those card requests that are SUCCESSFUL and result in cards changing hands, and treat failed requests with at least some suspicion!
Avoid Being Auto-Ghosted: in a larger game with many players, or later in the game when one or two families have been played, it's easy to accidentally make yourself into a ghost by scoring the only family for which you're holding any cards. If you can keep track of at least one other card from another family, you should ask for and get that card AT SOME POINT BEFORE scoring your family. Just be careful on the card exchanges - losing your hand and becoming a ghost before you score those cards means losing the family and handing the score to someone else.
What To Do If You Are Auto-Ghosted: well, you just played the only five cards in your hand, scoring a family. No rule requires you to announce that you just became a ghost! You can't conceal your cards, but you have no cards to conceal - pretend you're holding some and ask another player for a card as if it was still your turn, preferably a player who has a lot of cards and isn't paying enough attention to the game! Be ready to pounce and call "Muggins!," before anyone else beats you to the punch, and you'll be back in the action again - but remember to be polite and say "Thank you!"
Show Posts