Bartok card game

[Sam]

Hey all,

I want to create a computerised version of this game, though I'm not
really sure how to go about it. For those who don't know how the game
works, here's my attempt at a brief description:

It is very similar to the card game Uno, though played with a standard
deck of cards. An initial card is played off the top of the deck, and
then each player has to play a card of the same suit, or the same face
value in another suit. Whoever gets rid of all their cards first is the
winner.

The tricky bit is, the winner of a round gets to make up a new rule.
Some examples might be "when a club is played, skip the next player", or
"when a heart is played, the next player draws 2 cards", etc. So, I am
looking for a way to dynamically add rules to the game, without limiting
the possibilities too harshly. I could always just give a select few
rules to choose from, but then the game loses it's fun ;)

I've been thinking about it for a while, but no obvious path to take has
presented itself to me. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sam.

[Ben Finney]

On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 16:30:28 +1100, Sam wrote:

The tricky bit is, the winner of a round gets to make up a new rule.
Some examples might be "when a club is played, skip the next player",
or "when a heart is played, the next player draws 2 cards", etc. So, I
am looking for a way to dynamically add rules to the game, without
limiting the possibilities too harshly. I could always just give a
select few rules to choose from, but then the game loses it's fun ;)

Surely there are some restrictions on the rules that can be added;
otherwise, the first person to win a round could add a rule saying "I
win" and win the game immediately; or a rule saying "The next person to
play a card must bark like a dog and give me their house keys".

Can you give a reference to the restrictions on rules that can be added?
That would allow a better understanding of the problem to be solved.

--
\ "Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey |
`\ cage." -- Henry L. Mencken |
_o__) |
Ben Finney <http://bignose.squidly.org/>

[Terry Reedy]

"Sam" <st*******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:40**********************@news.optusnet.com.au ...

Hey all,

I want to create a computerised version of this game, though I'm not
really sure how to go about it. For those who don't know how the game
works, here's my attempt at a brief description:

It is very similar to the card game Uno, though played with a standard
deck of cards. An initial card is played off the top of the deck, and
then each player has to play a card of the same suit, or the same face
value in another suit. Whoever gets rid of all their cards first is the
winner.

The tricky bit is, the winner of a round gets to make up a new rule.
Some examples might be "when a club is played, skip the next player", or
"when a heart is played, the next player draws 2 cards", etc. So, I am
looking for a way to dynamically add rules to the game, without limiting
the possibilities too harshly. I could always just give a select few
rules to choose from, but then the game loses it's fun ;)

Have winner separately select condition (from lists of suit and rank) and
action (from a list). Number of possible rules is product of number of
possible conditions and actions. Condition in turn is combination of
'suit' (any, red, black, spade, heart, diamond, club) and 'rank' (any,
1-13, even, odd, face). Number, again, is a product: 7 * 17= 119 (- 1 for
any,any) for sample lists above. Multiply by number of actions and you
have more than 'a select few' possible rules. For even more, allow or-ing
of two ranks (3 or 7, etc).

Terry J. Reedy

[Sam]

> Surely there are some restrictions on the rules that can be added;

otherwise, the first person to win a round could add a rule saying "I
win" and win the game immediately; or a rule saying "The next person to
play a card must bark like a dog and give me their house keys".

Can you give a reference to the restrictions on rules that can be added?
That would allow a better understanding of the problem to be solved.

Obviously a rule like "I win" would make the game pointless. The idea is
to have fun in this game, rather than win money, so people wouldn't
really be motivated to end the game with a crappy rule like "I win".
"The next person to play a card must bark like a dog (snip the rest)" is
a pretty good rule though :-P Basically, the best rules are ones that
will confuse people. If you play out of turn, or ask a question about
the game (eg "who's turn is it?", "is it my turn?", "What does that card
mean?" you have to draw a penalty card).

Basically, anything "reasonable" is a valid rule. "Reasonable" isn't
something the computer will understand very well though. Other than
that, you can do whatever you want. Certain rules won't apply to a
version of the game on computer. For instance, there's no point in
saying "when the 5 of hearts is played, the next player must do the
hokey pokey", because unless you're playing with a video conference or
something no one else will be able to see it. So you can safely
eliminate rules that involve physical actions (like handing over house
keys etc).

I'm not aware of much documentation on Bartok, but as I said, there
really isn't much of a limit on the rules. That's what makes it
interesting to play.

Cheers,
Sam.