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Weirdest thread ever.
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Background:
Growing up I went to a summer camp where the counselors all took nicknames for the summer, we never knew their real names. One guy went by Yoda, and he did happen to be vertically challenged and had a distinctive mouth... but anyway, he came up with a card game and named it Screaming Yoda since that's how we knew him.
Summary:
- deal face down cards, face up cards, and a hand to each player.
- play in turn, beating or matching the number showing. Pick up the pile if you can't (or won't) play.
- 2's and 10's can always be played, 2's "reset" the pile, 10's clear.
- play from your hand as long as the draw pile remains, then after clearing your hand play from the face-up, then the face down.
- scream Yoda and win.
Set up:
Just a deck of cards. For 5 players, deal three face down cards in front of each player. For three or four, deal four face down cards. Then deal a face up card in front of each player, on top of each face down card. Finally deal each player a hand of three cards.
Play:
Turn over the top card of the remaining cards. Each player, in turn, plays on the pile. You may play a card equal or higher than the card showing. Moreover, if you have multiple of the same card, you can play all of them at once.
For example, if there is a six showing, you can play any card higher than that. If you have two sixes, you can play both of them on the six (or two tens, if you have them, etc.)
Aces are high.
Twos and Tens are special. Twos can be played on anything, and anything can be played on twos. In essence, they "reset" the pile at the lowest number.
When you play a ten, which can also be played on anything, you remove all the cards in the pile from play, and then play again. Tens are therefore the most powerful card in the game.
Finally, if all four of the same number are ever in the pile at the same time, the pile clears as if a 10 had been played. For example, suppose someone plays two sixes on a four. Several more people play, then someone drops a 2. You also have two sixes, so you play both of them on the two. This clears the pile from play, and you get to play again (this doesn't happen very often).
The catch is, if you can't play (or choose not to play), you pick up the pile.
Phases of play:
As mentioned in the set up, each player has face down cards, face up cards, a hand, and there is a draw pile and the face up pile on the table. While a draw pile exists, you are in phase 1 of the game: no player may have fewer than three cards in their hands. If they have more than three cards, they can just play on their turn. If, after playing, they have 0, 1, or 2 cards, they must draw back up to 3. This continues until the draw pile is exhausted.
Phase 2: Once the draw pile is exhausted, players try to empty their hand of cards. Once they do that, they select from their face-up cards and play them. If they cannot play and pick up the pile, this becomes their hand again. They cannot play any more face up cards until they have emptied their hand again.
Phase 3: Once a player has used all his face up cards, he enters phase three. In this phase, he selects a face down card, not knowing what it is, and flips it over. If he can play it, all well and good. If not, he picks both it AND the pile up and continues playing to empty his hand again.
The Goal:
When a player has one card left, they're supposed to shout YODA! (like UNO). If someone else says it first, the player has to draw three new cards from the discard pile and lose their turn.
When a player plays his last card, he wins.
I hope that doesn't sound complicated. It's actually pretty fun and straightforward.
The finer points:
If the last card in your hand matches one of the face-up cards (and the draw pile is gone), you can play both.
