| Designed by | Matt Arnold, sometimes published under the pseudonym Nemo T Rathwald |
| Players | 4-10 |
| Length | 10-15 minutes |
| Extra Material | None |
A fast-paced elimination game for large groups, adapted from a East European card game sometimes called "Shithead" (also called Palace, Karma, China Hand, or Idiot).
There are no winners. There is exactly one loser.
Do you have a Decktet? Do you want a table full of ten people to gasp in suspense, cheer, and high-five? Do some of the players want to not really think too hard except when someone tells them they broke a rule and everyone laughs? Play this.
Some groups enjoy using call-and-response or ritualized commentary when particular events occur. (See the variants section.)
Setup
Thoroughly shuffle together two complete Decktets. Including or excluding the extended cards works fine. It's not worth sorting them out if they're already in there.
Each player (four to ten players minimum; larger groups are strongly preferred) creates a personal tableau as follows, without looking at any face-down cards:
- Place four cards face down in a row in front of you.
- Place one random card face up on top of each face-down card.
- Draw four cards into your hand. You may look at your hand.
Place the remaining cards face down as a shared draw pile in the center of the table. For many players, the draw pile may be split into multiple physical stacks for reach, but it is treated as a single pile: if one stack runs out, replenish it from another.
Before play begins, each player may exchange up to two cards from their hand with up to two of their face-up tableau cards. These exchanges are simultaneous. Once the game begins, face-up tableau cards are fixed.
Game play
Objective and general structure
The objective is to be the first player with no cards remaining anywhere: no cards in hand, no face-up tableau cards, and no face-down tableau cards.
You may not play from your tableau while you still have cards in your hand. Tableau cards only become relevant once your hand is empty.
On your turn, you must first attempt to play. After playing, if you have fewer than four cards in hand and cards remain in the draw pile, draw until you have exactly four cards. If the draw pile is empty, you do not draw.
Turn order and the central pile
All played cards go into a single central played pile, except for Aces.
If the central pile is empty, the active player may play any legal card or combination of cards.
If the central pile is not empty, the rank you may play is constrained by the topmost card(s) of the pile. On your turn, you must do exactly one of the following:
- Meet it: play one or more cards of the same rank as the top rank of the pile.
- Beat it: play one or more cards of a higher rank than the top rank of the pile. Aces are normally high (but see the trump rules).
- Eat it: if you have no legal play, take the entire central pile into your hand. Your turn then ends, and the pile is empty for the next player.
If you play a rank legally, you may play any number of cards of that same rank from your hand as a set.
Special card rules
- Twos: A Two may be played on any rank. Any rank may be played on a Two. Since Aces are otherwise high, Twos function as the lowest rank and effectively reset the sequence.
- Sevens: If the previous play was a Seven, the direction of comparison reverses. Instead of beating with a higher rank, you must beat it with a lower rank. As soon as a non-Seven is played, normal upward comparison immediately resumes.
- Four of a kind: If the fourth card of the same rank is played consecutively into the central pile, the pile "blows up." All cards in the pile are removed from the game and set aside. The player who caused the blow-up immediately draws up to four cards (if possible) and then takes another turn.
- Aces and trump: Any Ace played blows up the pile. Just like with four of a kind, the player who blew up the pile takes a free turn after this one.
When playing multiple Aces, the active player chooses which one is played last.
The last Ace played is not removed from the game. Instead, it is placed face up in the center of the table, separate from the played pile and visible to all players. This Ace establishes the current trump suit.
Any previously established trump Ace is included among the cards that are blown up and removed from the game.
While a trump suit is active, any card bearing the trump suit is considered higher-ranked than any card that does not bear the trump suit, regardless of printed rank. Cards that bear multiple suits count as trump if one of those suits matches the trump suit.
Important trump suit interactions to watch for:
- If the previous player played at least one trump card, the following player's trump cards must still meet it or beat it.
- Trump cards are not always playable on a non-trump Seven. Trump doesn't mean "always playable", it means "higher", and Seven demands lower.
- If you play multiple copies of a rank, all cards played must be legally comparable. For example, if you play a trump Five on a non-trump Six, you may not also include non-trump Fives in the same play.
Endgame: running out of cards
Once the draw pile is empty, players no longer draw up to four cards. Hands may shrink naturally.
If the last cards in your hand match the rank of one or more of your face-up tableau cards, you may play them together, subject to the normal legality rules, including trump restrictions.
Once you have no cards in hand and no face-up tableau cards, you enter the final phase. On your turn, choose one of your face-down tableau cards at random and reveal it.
– If the revealed card can be played legally, play it immediately.
– If it cannot be played legally, you must eat the entire central pile, adding it to your hand. The revealed card remains face down.
Losing the game
The first player to successfully get rid of all of their cards is safe. Play continues until only one player remains with cards. That player is the loser.
The extended deck
As mentioned in Setup, including or excluding the extended cards works fine.
The Excuse may be played by any player at any time. When played, it skips that player’s turn entirely. The state of the central pile does not change, and the next player must respond to whatever rank was in effect before the Excuse was played.
Variants
Consider replacing the special "play lower" rule for Sevens. When the top rank of the played pile has at least one card bearing a Wyrm, the next player may only beat it by playing lower instead of higher. Sevens are no longer special. Whether to use this variant depends on how much the players can tolerate paying attention to suits.
Callback script
This game is extra fun using a Rocky-Horror-style callback script, especially when a group knows each other well. The following are suggestions. Be considerate to the potential sensitivities of players who you don't know well.
- Someone goes out: "First non-loser!" or "Second non-loser!" or "Third…" and so on. All non-losers high-five the new non-loser.
- Two Nines: Sing to the tune of West Side Story's "Tonight": "Two nines, two nines, they played their best two nines!"
- Three Kings: Sing "We three kings of orient are!"
- Three Sixes: Chant "Satanismyfriend, Satanismyfriend" very quickly.
- Blow Up: Everybody yells BOOOOOOM! Or quote "Tick Tick Boom" by the Hives.
- Ace Of Suns: Sing just the words "I'll follow the sun" quoting the song by the Beatles, or "Black hole sun, won'tcha come" from Soundgarden.
Get creative with it.