My Experience as Youth Pastor

Bonus post today on card games. My Youth love card games. Specifically the game Mao. I'd love to tell you how to play the game but that is a violation of the rules. Technically telling you I can't tell you the rules is also a violation of the rules. The one rules you are allowed to say is "There will be no talking after the first card is dealt and that will be to you." Then the dealer deals out the cards and the game starts. There are a lot of rules and the only way to learn the rules is to play the game. I honestly really enjoy the game and impressed my Youth with how quickly I picked up the rules. Te problem is that I'm a bit bored with the game not that I know all the rules. Figuring out the rules was the fun part of the game.

This brings up some other games in a similar vein. Bartok is a game that starts with very few rules. You deal the cards and play the first card in the discard pile. Then play goes in clockwise order where each player must play a card in the same suit or from a different suit of the same face value or draw a card. The first person to play all of their cards wins. This is where it gets interesting. The winner gets to invent a new rule. This rule can be overridden by a unanimous vote of all players, otherwise it stays. The rules can be almost anything and remains a rule throughout. Each round a new rule is added making the game very complex until it is impossible to play anymore.

Fluxx is new one we played last night. There are several versions but here is one you can check out http://www.amazon.com/Looney-Labs-4098518-Fluxx-Version/dp/192978001X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1230564852&sr=8-1. The game starts with one rule. Draw a card then play a card. The cards come in 4 types. Rule cards: which add or change rules, goal cards: which set the goal for winning the game, action cards: which allow a specific action like drawing extra cards getting rid of rules etc, and keepers: which you play to your keep pile and usually are required to achieve the goal set by the goal cards. It gets somewhat confusing because the rules can keep changing during play as well as the goal.

Finally there is a game that I really want to play, but which will take quite a long time to play. It is a combination of the game Fluxx, Bartok, and Democratic debate. Basically you start with pick a card and play a card. Then you play a card, any card since there are no rules, and make up a rule. This rule can be debated, amended, and voted upon. Once a rule is ratified it goes into effect immediately. Through this process all rules can be made discarded and amended. The goal of the game can be changed at anytime, but only one rule or amendment can be proposed at a time. In theory the game could go on forever if players wanted by carefully altering the rules at the right times so no one would win.

Those are the games that we play, or at least that I'm interested in playing. Anyone else know any other fun card games?