Everybody knows Uno – that game you played as a kid with a huge stack of cards (remember trying to shuffle that thing?) with a bunch of friends, where you take turns stacking cards on top one another following rules on value or color, and the player who discards all his cards wins. Simple, intuitive, and Draw 4 Wilds ensured kids developed early rivalries.
It eventually fell out of favor for more sophisicated card games that employed more strategy and probably involved money as well (and if you’re a dork like me, you bought and played with Magic: the Gathering cards). Eventually, the only time you ever played this clever little game was with your 7-year-old cousins.
So it was a bit of a surprise that we revisited the classic game at the graduation party for some of Sui’s friends. Given that there were a bunch of people who didn’t really know each other and couldn’t take alcohol to save their lives (myself included), a clean and sober game of Uno is actually pretty fun and perfect for accomdating everybody.
Each player is dealt 7 cards with the remaining ones placed face down to form a DRAW pile. The top card of the DRAW pile is turned over to begin a DISCARD pile. The first player has to match the card in the DISCARD pile either by number, color or word. For example, if the card is a red 7, player must throw down a red card or any color 7. Or the player can throw down a Wild Card. If the player doesn’t have anything to match, he must pick a card from the DRAW pile. If he can play what is drawn, great. Otherwise play moves to the next person. When you have one card left, you must yell “UNO” (meaning one). Failure to do this results in you having to pick two cards from the DRAW pile. That is, of course if you get caught by the other players.
Once a player has no cards left, the hand is over. Points are scored (see scoring section) and you start over again. That’s UNO in a nutshell.
It’s actually pretty slow, systematic, and in one word, boring. Your younger self probably enjoyed guessing what the guy with the Uno card had in his hand, was delighted to even see a function card (anything non-numerical) get played, and gave little thought in deciding between two cards to play in your hand. Nowadays, though, the game needs a few more tricks to spice things up:
- Cut rule: If you’ve got a card of the same color and value (including colored function cards), you can cut in front of the next player if your card hits the table first. Play resumes from your position.
- Stack rule: You can play any card of the same value (e.g., three 7′s, two Reverses) at the same time as one card.
- Chain rule: When the player before you plays a Draw 2/Wild Draw 4, you can play a Draw 2/Wild Draw 4 yourself and the next player will draw the sum of cards. Of course, he can play another Draw card and pass the potato onto the next player.
- Freedom rule: Do anything you want with your hand; all the rules that say you must play a card if you can play one are null and void.
With those rules in, the game actually speeds up a lot and requires a bit more strategy; for example, sometimes you do want to purposely take a 8-10 draw chain just so you have ammunition later, or sometimes you purposely draw cards trying to get a stack of the same number cards in your hand to lay down all at once (without the need to call Uno). Hands get filled and emptied quicker, so the game flows much more dynamically.
Somebody grab a deck, it’s Uno time.