Game Rules
Click here for the home page.
Click the name of the game below to see the rules that will be used.
Overall Winner's title: King (or Queen) of Games.
Two-Player Board Games
Articulate
The rules that will be used are explained at Drumond Park.
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Carcassonne
The rules that will be used are explained at Rio Grande Games.
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Chess
The rules that will be used are explained at FIDE Handbook: Laws of Chess.
Players will have 20 minutes each on a chess clock, unless the game is being played to resolve a draw, in which case players will have 10 minutes each on a chess clock.
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Draughts
The rules that will be used are explained at English Draughts Association.
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Go
The rules that will be used are explained at British Go Association.
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Ingenious/Mensa Connections
The rules that will be used are explained at Fantasy Flight Games. Standard rules will be used.
This FAQ clarifies some of the rules.
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Reversi/Othello
The rules that will be used are explained at British Othello Federation.
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Samurai
The rules that will be used are explained here.
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Scrabble
The rules that will be used are explained at Hasbro.
The word list that will be used to decide disputes is the Collins Scrabble Words 2005.
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Settlers of Catan
The rules that will be used are explained at Catan.com.
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Card Games
Cheat
The rules that will be used are explained at Pagat.com.
The variation will be played that allows players to play the same rank, the rank above or the rank below the card announced by the previous player. For instance if the player before you played some cards an said "two tens," and you do not wish to challenge, you have a choice of playing jacks, tens or nines.
The only other unbreakable rule will be that if you are caught cheating, you must admit it (i.e. cheating by, for example, hiding cards or putting down more cards than you say is acceptable if you don't get caught).
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Hearts
The rules that will be used are explained at Pagat.com.
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Knockout Whist
The rules that will be used are explained at Pagat.com.
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Poker
The rules that will be used are explained at Compendia Traditional Games.
Each player will start with chips nominally worth £50. The minimum bet will start at £1 (the small blind therefore starts at 50p, and the large blind starts at £1). Each time a player is knocked out, the minimum bet will increase by £1.
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Shithead
The rules that will be used are explained at Pagat.com.
The Special Cards that will be used are: 2 (resets the pack), 5 ("invisible" - can be played on any number and has no effect), 7 (the next player must play a card ranking 7 or less), 8 (skips a turn), 10 (burns the pack - playing a set of four cards of the same rank also burns the pack), J (reverses direction).
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Spit/Speed
The rules that will be used are explained at Pagat.com.
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Top Trumps
The rules that will be used are explained at The Ultimate Top Trumps Reference Site (Trumps rules).
If you choose this game, you are welcome to bring your own Top Trumps deck. If players cannot decide which deck to use, a deck will be randomly selected by the organiser.
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Uno
The rules that will be used are explained at Mattel.
A winning game score of less than 500 points can be agreed by the players in advance if playing time is limited.
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Pub Games
Connect Four
The rules that will be used are explained at Masters Traditional Games (under the name "The Captain's Mistress").
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Hive
The rules that will be used are explained at HiveMania.com, where you can also play online.
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Jenga
The rules that will be used are explained at Wikipedia (7 January 2010 18:40 version).
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Liar's Dice/Bluff
The rules that will be used are amusingly illustrated at Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
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Mikado/Pick-up sticks
Giant Mikado will be used, with each stick being worth:
- Mikado (striped) (1 stick): 20 points.
- Mandarin Yellow (2 sticks): 15 points.
- Mandarin Black (4 sticks): 10 points.
- Bonzen (blue) (8 sticks): 5 points.
- Samurai (green) (8 sticks): 3 points.
- Kuli (red) (8 sticks): 2 points.
The sticks are bundled upright on the ground and released. If players agree, the release can be redone.
A turn comprises taking as many sticks as possible, one by one, without touching or moving any other sticks. If another stick is touched or moved, the turn ends (and the last stick touched is left).
Sticks must be taken using only hands, unless a player has got the Mikado stick in which case he or she can use the Mikado stick to assist.
When all the sticks are taken, the player with the highest score is the winner.
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Rummikub
The rules that will be used are explained at Rummikub, where the game can also be played online.
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Sjoelen (Dutch-style table shuffleboard)
The rules that will be used are explained at Dempsey Woodworking.
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Yahtzee
The rules that will be used are explained at Grail, where the game can also be played online.
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Parlour Games
1000 Blank White Cards
The 206 Stockwell Road house deck and house rules will be used.
The deck will comprise approximately one-third blank cards. Each player will start with four pre-written cards and one blank card. The framework (unchangeable) rules will be:
- The game ends when the deck is empty and each player has had one more turn
- The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game
- Cards cannot:
- Eliminate players from the game
- Skip more than one of a player's turns
- Allow a player to take more than five cards from the deck/discard pile
- Make player spend money or do anything dangerous, illegal, humiliating or generally nasty
- Be rewritten
- Mention specific players
- Prevent players from writing what they want on blank cards
The rest of the rules are essentially irrelevant because of the nomic nature of the game. See the Wikipedia entry for more information.
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Battleship
The rules that will be used are Dom Bragge's rules at Wikipedia.
The "strategic" version of the rules will be used, i.e. for each round players are entitled to fire as many shots as they have ships left unsunk.
Ships cannot touch - this includes sharing a vertex.
Players must have the same number of turns (this allows for the possibility of a draw).
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Charades
The rules that will be used are explained at Travel with Kids.
Each player will put 10 items into a hat (secretly) and one one-minute round per player will be played (assuming teams are even). The team with the most points after all rounds will win.
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Fictionary/Balderdash/Call My Bluff
The rules that will be used are explained here.
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Hangman
The rules that will be used are explained at PrintActivities.com.
Players will take turns playing until one person succeeds and the other fails, sudden death style.
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Livewire
The rules that will be used are explained at FICTION on the WEB.
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Mafia
The rules that will be used are explained at The Original Mafia Rules.
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Pictionary
The rules that will be used will be the same as the Charades rules described above, except players will draw pictures instead of doing charades.
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