Mao: a wonderfully infuriating card game
The twist? Newcomers don't get to know any rules of the game.
Mao is probably the most frustrating card game ever. It's incredibly addictive, though, and has taken over my school. I'd classify Mao as 50% card game, 50% social experiment. It's incredibly fun.
how do you play?
Wikipedia explains it better than I do. But it is basically Crazy Eights on steroids. Here is a short list of the basic ruleset that my school tended to play with:
- 6s, when played, skip the next player's turn.
- 7s, when played, require the person who played it to say "Have a nice day" to the player who will play next.
- 8s, when played, reverse the direction of play.
- Any spade, when played, requires the person who played it to say the name of the played card in full.
- Point of order is in effect (no excessive verbosity).
- A player must announce "Mao" when they only have one card left in hand.
why is it so fun?
Then fun part about Mao: you start with a basic ruleset. Once one player wins, they have the sole discretion to add any (reasonable) rule that they want, and they don't tell anyone the new rule[1]. This rule can change gameplay dramatically. Here are a few rule examples:
- 5s, when played, restrict the next player to playing face cards of the same suit of the played 5.
- Qs, when played, restrict the next player to playing cards that are prime (ie. 2, 3, 5, 7, J, K).[2]
- Players cannot use personal pronouns ("I", "me", "myself", "mine", etc.) in point of order.
As you can tell, Mao is not your typical card game. Mao is so fun mainly because it gives you the opportunity to watch other people get frustrated. It's extremely entertaining to watch how newcomers deal with the hardship of not knowing any of the rules. Some people stay quiet and observe the actions that other players take. Some people speak loudly in frustration, only to receive more cards for not talking with a point of order in effect. Some people flip tables. But most people love Mao.
Don't believe me? Gather a group of friends, and play a couple rounds of Mao. It's truly a wonderful game.