The Lethe

Now you may, rightly, be thinking “what the fuck?” But I promise, it’s actually really good. Now, how do you make Tag more competitive? How do you make it appeal to the assuredly sedentary and nerdy target audience of this compendium? You know, the truly lifeless losers like myself with no hope of mustering the energy or will to play a real game of tag. Well, we made it a card game! Well, sort of. It’s more a game that happens to include cards. I’m really not selling this, huh? Honestly, truly, this is the best game we’ve made. We’ve played it on several occasions and really had fun. Recommended for 4-6 players, but can be technically be played with anywhere from 3 to 8, probably. Maybe even more. Based on an old board game I’ve seen but pared down and converted into an intuitive card game.

Setup

Shuffle your deck of cards as much as you deem is necessary. Choose the person you think is the biggest loser to start as ‘It’. Or, if this is too friendship-destroying, simply give it to the eldest of your group.

The Turns

Start each turn by dealing number of cards equal to the number of players minus one face-up, centred between all the players. So, if you have 5 players, deal 4 cards, yeah?

Then, you will all, on the count of 3, indicate what “action” you want to take simultaneously.

The Actions are as follows:

Tag: This is signified by pointing at someone. In principle, it’s quite simple, but there are a couple clarifications. Don’t get lost in the weeds. If you are ‘It’, you can only take this action. If you are It, being It passes to the person you are pointing at (unless they Block). If that person also takes the Tag action, it will be passed to the person they are pointing at (unless that person blocks). The Itness will only pass once, meaning that if you Tag someone, then they Tag you back, it will not, in fact, turn into an infinite loop. You are unfortunately just It again.

Grab: This is signified by placing you hand flat on the table, as if going to grab the cards. If successful, you will be entered into the draft for the cards at the end of the turn, an opportunity to earn points. However, if you are Tagged while taking this action, you lose your turn and become It.

Block: This is signified by crossing your arms over your body. If you block and someone (who is It) Tags you, being It will stay with that person. This is considered a successful block and as such, you get the last card remaining on the table after the draft. This is guaranteed, even if that means that a Grabber doesn’t get a card. If you block and are not Tagged by someone who is It, you get nothing.

Ending the turn:

The end phase starts with any players who took the Grab action taking one card at a time, starting from the left of whomever started the turn as It. If there was a successful block this turn, this will continue until there is one card left on the table, which will be given to that player.

Turns continue until there are no more cards left in the deck.

Scoring

At the end of the game, players will check the total score of the cards they have collected. This is calculated as follows:

Base Values:
Aces through Fives are worth 1 point.
Sixes through Tens are worth 2 points.
Jacks through Kings are worth 4 points.

There are sets that offer bonuses, added to the base value of the cards:
Pairs give an additional 2 points.
Triplets give an additional 3 points.
Full sets of four of a kind give an additional 5 points.

Consecutive cards (does not have to be the same suit) in sets of over three give points equal to the number of cards in it. e.g. If a player has the Ace of hearts, the two of spades, the three of spades and the four of diamonds, these may be placed into a set worth 4 additional points.

Cards cannot be a part of several sets simultaneously. i.e. A card cannot be part of a pair, and a set of consecutive cards.

And that’s it! You calculate, you tally up points, and whoever got the most wins! Congrats! Hope you enjoyed the game :]