Draw 4 Wild
"It's been forever since I've played Uno," she said.
"Me too," I said. "Perhaps we should take a look at the rules just to freshen up? I don't even remember how many cards each player gets at the beginning."
"Sure. Okay.
"Here it is. It says we start with seven cards each."
"Hm. Okay. For some reason I remember ten cards, but I guess it doesn't matter."
"Yeah, me too, actually. But seven works. Hey. 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. I thought you kept drawing until you got one?"
"I thought so, too?"
"Draw Two Cards – When this card is played, the next person to play must draw 2 cards and forfeit his turn. So that skips the other player?"
"It sounds like it, but we always just went ahead and let the other person go. A lot of times they get screwed anyway if they don't have that color and have to draw even more."
"Yeah, I know. Wait. Scoring?"
"Scoring? What scoring? The person who gets rid of their cards first wins, right?"
"Yeah, but according to this, they also get points depending on what the other person has in their hand."
"Weird. That sounds like too much work."
"I know, right?"
"Old rules?"
"Old rules it is."
I started an unofficial Uno rules survey when I got home, and it turns out all but one of my friends I've asked so far played by same the rules I remembered and not the written rules. Most had never even heard of the only-draw-one-card rule, and almost none had heard of the scoring rules.
If it hadn't been for that one dissenter, I seriously would have thought that the rules had been rewritten in the past few years (see The Game of Life). Of course, my friend's initial reaction provided what's probably an adequate explanation of what's going on here: "You mean you actually read the rules? I don't think I've ever read them — my friends taught me."
So apparently the "real rules" to Uno are only an urban myth, spread with a virulence that even outpaces the legitimate rules to the game.
I'd be curious if anyone plays Uno the completely official way. . . .
"Me too," I said. "Perhaps we should take a look at the rules just to freshen up? I don't even remember how many cards each player gets at the beginning."
"Sure. Okay.
"Here it is. It says we start with seven cards each."
"Hm. Okay. For some reason I remember ten cards, but I guess it doesn't matter."
"Yeah, me too, actually. But seven works. Hey. 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. I thought you kept drawing until you got one?"
"I thought so, too?"
"Draw Two Cards – When this card is played, the next person to play must draw 2 cards and forfeit his turn. So that skips the other player?"
"It sounds like it, but we always just went ahead and let the other person go. A lot of times they get screwed anyway if they don't have that color and have to draw even more."
"Yeah, I know. Wait. Scoring?"
"Scoring? What scoring? The person who gets rid of their cards first wins, right?"
"Yeah, but according to this, they also get points depending on what the other person has in their hand."
"Weird. That sounds like too much work."
"I know, right?"
"Old rules?"
"Old rules it is."
I started an unofficial Uno rules survey when I got home, and it turns out all but one of my friends I've asked so far played by same the rules I remembered and not the written rules. Most had never even heard of the only-draw-one-card rule, and almost none had heard of the scoring rules.
If it hadn't been for that one dissenter, I seriously would have thought that the rules had been rewritten in the past few years (see The Game of Life). Of course, my friend's initial reaction provided what's probably an adequate explanation of what's going on here: "You mean you actually read the rules? I don't think I've ever read them — my friends taught me."
So apparently the "real rules" to Uno are only an urban myth, spread with a virulence that even outpaces the legitimate rules to the game.
I'd be curious if anyone plays Uno the completely official way. . . .