History UsefulNotes / ExampleMaoGame

Anne thinks of a new rule to add to the game. She decides to switch the functions of the Ace and 8 cards, such that the Ace now reverses the turn order and the 8 now skips turns. The other players don't know this yet, but they will soon find out something has changed when they try to play those cards. Anne takes all the cards and shuffles them to start a new round.

* Claire has never played Mao before and does not know anything about the game they.

Anne's turn is next. She plays the '''9 of Diamonds''', and thus has no cards left, which means she must say 'Mao' to win the round. However, the 9 of Diamonds also requires her to say "That's the badger". Importantly, this is a situation where the order of speech '''does'' matter - when saying "Mao", it must be the last thing said. Fortunately, Anne knows this.

This is a fictional example game of TabletopGame/{{Mao}}, to give people a rough idea of how a game is played.

There are four players:

* Claire has never played Mao before.
* David has never played Mao before, and, like Claire, does not know the rules.

They're playing a fictional version of Mao called 'Toronto Mao'.

->''Anne piles three decks of playing cards untidily onto the table around which all four players are sitting.''

->''Everyone takes five cards from the untidy stack.''

->''Anne takes a card from the stack and puts it down, face up, to begin the game's play pile. It's the '''5 of Diamonds'''.''
->''Anne plays the '''3 of Diamonds''' - a valid play since you're allowed to play any card of the same rank or suit as the previous.''

->''Bob's turn is next. He also knows which cards are valid to play, so he plays the '''Queen of Diamonds'''.''

->''Claire has immediately broken a rule by asking what the rules are, so Bob takes a card from the stack - a penalty card - and gives it to Claire.''

->''Claire plays the '''2 of Diamonds'''. This is a valid card, so her turn ends.''

->''David's turn is next. He plays a '''3 of Spades'''. This is not valid to play on a 2 of Diamonds (neither the suit nor rank match), so Anne takes the invalid card, and a card from the stack (his penalty card), and gives them to him.''

->''Bob believes that Anne just broke a rule by explaining that rule to David, as explaining the rules is forbidden. He gives Anne a penalty card.''

->''Anne, however, knows that she has not broken any rule here, since the rule she told David is one of the free rules that newbies are permitted to know (and which she gave at the start of the game). She therefore gives the penalty card to Bob, since this is a bad call.''

->''Bob waits for a moment, then gives another penalty card to David.''

->''David picks up a card and takes it into his hand.''

->''The turn order has come back to Anne. She plays an '''Ace of Diamonds'''. The Ace makes the next player, in this case Bob, miss a turn. Bob knows this, so he does nothing.''
->''It is therefore now Claire's turn, but Claire doesn't know what the Ace does and assumes Bob hasn't played yet.''

->''Bob waits ten seconds, then gives Claire a penalty card.''

->''Bob gives Claire another penalty card.''

->''In this version of the game, saying things that are untrue can be penalized, so Bob gives Claire another penalty card.''

->''You can probably see at this point why some people hate Mao. It's probably best to stress to newbies that they're expected to learn by trial and error, and that they shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes.''

->''Claire plays the '''Jack of Diamonds'''. The Jack allows any player to call out a suit, which will be the new suit that has to be played. Claire doesn't know this of course, but Anne and Bob both do.''

->''Bob had wanted to call Clubs, but Anne beat him to it. Claire and David don't know what just happened, although David has a suspicion. He tries playing the '''3 of Spades''' again.''
->''The '''3 of Spades''' is now valid, since Anne called Spades. However, there is also a rule that any player who plays a Spade has to say the name of the card.''

->''Bob gives David a penalty card.''

->''Bob gives David another penalty card.''

->''Anne plays a '''4 of Spades''', since David's turn ended when he played the 3 of Spades.''

->''Bob feels a little unsure about the way Anne made that call. He gives Anne a penalty card.''

->''Anne gives him the penalty card back.''

->'''Anne''': That's still valid. In the Toronto version of this game, you can say it how you want, as long as all the words are in the correct order. I could say "the Four of la la la Spades la la la" if I wanted.
->''Notice that Anne avoided saying the name of the game (Mao) as this would result in a 3-card penalty for her if she did.''
->''Anne gets ready to give Bob a penalty card for not playing within ten seconds, but Bob is experienced enough that he doesn't get caught out by this. He quickly plays an '''8 of Spades'''. The 8 reverses the order of play, so it's now Anne's turn again. However, she first gives Bob a penalty card, because in his haste, he forgot a rule.''

->''Claire doesn't realise the turn order has just been reversed, so she plays a card, believing it to be her turn. Anne gives her a penalty card.''

->''Anne plays an '''8 of Hearts''', reversing the turn order again, so it's Bob's turn now. She also has only one card left, which requires her to say "Last card." ''

->''Bob plays a '''9 of Hearts'''.''

->''Claire's turn is next. Claire is now totally lost as to whose turn it is, but she guesses it's hers. She plays a '''Jack of Hearts''', which, like before, allows a player to call out a suit.''

->''Anne has changed the suit to Diamonds. Since she also called Last card on her last turn, she only has one card left, so this means her last card is almost certainly a Diamond.''

->''David's turn is next. He plays the '''King of Diamonds''' ''.

->''Anne's turn is next. She plays the '''9 of Diamonds''', and thus has no cards left, which means she must say 'Mao' to win the round. However, the 9 of Diamonds also requires her to say "That's the badger".''

-> ''Bob puts down his cards.''

->Anne thinks of a new rule to add to the game. She decides to switch the functions of the Ace and 8 cards, such that the Ace now reverses the turn order and the 8 now skips turns. She then takes all the cards and shuffles them to start a new round.

The game would carry on from here as before, but with the addition of Anne's new rule.

->''Bob gives Anne a penalty card.''

->''Anne gives the penalty card to Bob, since this is a bad call - that is, Bob takes the penalty that he was giving to Anne.''

->''The '''3 of Spades''' is now valid, since Anne called Spades. However, there is also a rule that any player who plays a Spade has to say the name of the card, which David didn't know.''

There are four players: Anne, Bob, Claire, and David.

Anne is an expert Mao player, and is the one who is getting the game started.
Bob has played before, so he knows what to expect.
Claire and David have never played Mao before and do not know the rules.

->''Anne plays the '''3 of Diamonds'''.''

->''Bob's turn is next. He knows that you can play a card of either a matching suit or rank as the last played card, so he plays the '''Queen of Diamonds'''.''

->'''Bob''': Any one.

->'''Anne''': You get penalised if it's bad.

->''Bob gives Claire another penalty card.''

->''Claire plays the '''Jack of Diamonds'''. This card allows people to call out a suit, which will be the new suit that has to be played.''

->''The 3 of Spades is now valid, since Anne called Spades. However, there is also a rule that any player who plays a Spade has to say the name of the card.''

->''Bob looks a little unsure. He gives Anne a penalty card.''

->'''Anne''': That's still valid. In the Toronto version of this game, you can say it how you want, as long as all the words are in the correct order. I could say 'the Four of la la la Spades la la la' if I wanted.
->''Anne gets ready to give Bob a penalty card for not playing within ten seconds, but he quickly plays an '''8 of Spades'''. The 8 reverses the order of play, so it's now Anne's turn again. However, she first gives Bob a penalty card.''
->'''Anne''': Failure to say 'The Eight of Spades'.

->''Claire doesn't realise the turn order has reversed, so she plays a card. Anne gives her a penalty card.''

->''Anne plays an '''8 of Hearts''', reversing the turn order again, so it's Bob's turn now. She also has only one card left, which requires her to say 'Last card.' ''

->''Anne has changed the suit to Diamonds. Since she also called Last card on her last turn, this means her last card is almost certainly a diamond.''

->''Anne's turn is next. She plays the '''9 of Diamonds''', and thus has no cards left, which means she must say 'Mao' to win the round. However, the 9 of Diamonds also requires her to say 'That's the badger'.''

->Anne thinks of a new rule to add to the game, then takes all the cards and shuffles them to start a new round.

-> '''Anne''': Yep.
-> Anne thinks of a new rule to add to the game, then takes all the cards and shuffles them to start a new round. -> '''Anne''': Beginning new round, with new rule.

->''David's turn is next. He plays a '''3 of Spades'''. This is not valid to play on a 2 of Diamonds (the suit doesn't match), so Anne takes the invalid card, and a card from the stack (his penalty card), and gives them to him.''

-> Anne thinks of a new rule to add to the game, then takes all the cards and shuffles them to start a new round. She deals out five cards to every player again.
-> '''Anne''': Beginning new round, with new rule.

Claire and David have never played Mao before.

This is an example game of TabletopGame/{{Mao}}, to give people a rough idea of how a game is played.

->''Anne has now successfully won Mao, which means that she can think of a new rule, and re-enter the game with that rule in play, able to penalise others for breaking it until they figure out the rule. The game continues without her for a few minutes, before she picks up five starting cards and says 'Re-entering the game with new rule'.''

The game would carry on from here as before, plus Anne's new rule.

Note: in general, a person will not win Mao this quickly, even if they have played before. If they did, they would probably just carry on without introducing a new rule, to allow the newbies time to figure out the basic rules.

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This is an example game of {{Mao}}, to give people a rough idea of how a game is played.

Note: in general, a person will not win Mao this quickly, even if they have played before. If they did, they would probably just carry on without introducing a new rule, to allow the newbies time to figure out the basic rules.

->''Anne has changed the suit to Diamonds. Since she also called Last card on her last turn, this means her last card is almost certainly a diamond.

->''David's turn is next. He plays the '''King of Diamonds'''.

->''Anne plays an '''Eight of Hearts''', reversing the turn order again, so it's Bob's turn now. She also has only one card left, which requires her to say 'Last card.' ''

->'''Anne''': Hearts!
->''Anne has changed the suit to Hearts, which makes no difference since it already was Hearts. However, Bob now knows her last card must be a Heart, because she obviously wanted to stop them changing the suit.''
->''David's turn is next. He plays the '''9 of Diamonds''', which is valid (same rank). It is also a card which requires the player to say 'That's the badger'.''
->''Bob gives David a penalty card.''
->'''Bob''': Failure to say 'That's the badger'.
->'''David''': That's the badger?
->''Anne's turn is next. She plays the '''9 of Hearts''', and thus has no cards left. She must say 'Mao' to 'win' this round.''
->'''Anne''': Mao.

Note: in general, a person will not get Mao this quickly, even if they have played before. If they did, they would probably just carry on without introducing a new rule, to allow the newbies time to figure out the basic rules.