Pointless College Stories: Out on a Limb, VIII
I mentioned a couple of card games which were stories onto themselves. Here's the other:
One Saturday evening, a guy I hung out with at the dorm, Jason, asked if I wanted to come out with him to the Beehive Coffeehouse. I had just started hanging out with him after he introduced me to Illuminati and since I hadn't seen too many sites in Pittsburgh at that point, I agreed to tag along.
He was heading out there to catch a showing of some Grateful Dead concert in the attached theater. I did not share the interest and opted to hang out in the coffee shop itself. When he disappeared, I sat with my tea for a little while soaking in the atmosphere of the place.
About ten minutes later, a couple of people at the next table asked me if I wanted to play a card game. At that stage, I was already playing a lot of cards at the BUB so the invitation was music to my ears and I quickly joined them. I asked them what they wanted to play and the replied Mao.
My curiosity piqued because I hadn't heard of the game before and asked them how to play. They said it was simple: Number on number, suit on suit... when you get to one card, say "Mao"... kind of like Uno. I think I remember asking myself why they didn't just call it Uno then.
That question got answered when they started with call-outs on specific plays and odd card mechanics which no one would explain to me. This was a vastly different game and reminded my a lot of dragon poker (Robert Asprin also being recently discovered).
And the so game went on. I tried my best to follow the action and understand how the card interacted with each other. Before I knew it, Jason was standing next to me and had been for roughly ten minutes. The movie had finished and he was checking in with me to see what I wanted to do. I asked if we could hang out for a little while longer so that I get a better feel for the game and he agreed, stepping away to get himself a drink.
Another thirty minutes pass and I think I have a lot of it down. I tell my new friends that I need to leave and they thanked me for joining them. They also told me two other rules that were part of the game but hadn't happened yet.
When we got back to campus, I reviewed the rules in my head so that we could give the game a shot at the BUB some time. It was well received but it wasn't strong enough to break the front-runner at the time. What was nice was that there were a number of rules generated that were BUB specific.
After the migration to the main campus, I introduced this game to friends at the Jawbone while Squid and Elwood played. It was the perfect game because it could involve a lot of people and yet not consume all of your attention. In fact, being inattentive made the game more interesting. Normally the deal would switch off to whomever won the last game, but it soon became habit that I just dealt each hand because I was the only one who seemed to put any effort into the sequence of play.
A side note... the group once thought it would be funny to remove all the spades from the deck. I won't say why they did this, but it was a supreme act of genius to pull one over on the dealer. I think I gave the perpetrator a couple dozen penalty cards to show my gratitude.
One Saturday evening, a guy I hung out with at the dorm, Jason, asked if I wanted to come out with him to the Beehive Coffeehouse. I had just started hanging out with him after he introduced me to Illuminati and since I hadn't seen too many sites in Pittsburgh at that point, I agreed to tag along.
He was heading out there to catch a showing of some Grateful Dead concert in the attached theater. I did not share the interest and opted to hang out in the coffee shop itself. When he disappeared, I sat with my tea for a little while soaking in the atmosphere of the place.
About ten minutes later, a couple of people at the next table asked me if I wanted to play a card game. At that stage, I was already playing a lot of cards at the BUB so the invitation was music to my ears and I quickly joined them. I asked them what they wanted to play and the replied Mao.
My curiosity piqued because I hadn't heard of the game before and asked them how to play. They said it was simple: Number on number, suit on suit... when you get to one card, say "Mao"... kind of like Uno. I think I remember asking myself why they didn't just call it Uno then.
That question got answered when they started with call-outs on specific plays and odd card mechanics which no one would explain to me. This was a vastly different game and reminded my a lot of dragon poker (Robert Asprin also being recently discovered).
And the so game went on. I tried my best to follow the action and understand how the card interacted with each other. Before I knew it, Jason was standing next to me and had been for roughly ten minutes. The movie had finished and he was checking in with me to see what I wanted to do. I asked if we could hang out for a little while longer so that I get a better feel for the game and he agreed, stepping away to get himself a drink.
Another thirty minutes pass and I think I have a lot of it down. I tell my new friends that I need to leave and they thanked me for joining them. They also told me two other rules that were part of the game but hadn't happened yet.
When we got back to campus, I reviewed the rules in my head so that we could give the game a shot at the BUB some time. It was well received but it wasn't strong enough to break the front-runner at the time. What was nice was that there were a number of rules generated that were BUB specific.
After the migration to the main campus, I introduced this game to friends at the Jawbone while Squid and Elwood played. It was the perfect game because it could involve a lot of people and yet not consume all of your attention. In fact, being inattentive made the game more interesting. Normally the deal would switch off to whomever won the last game, but it soon became habit that I just dealt each hand because I was the only one who seemed to put any effort into the sequence of play.
A side note... the group once thought it would be funny to remove all the spades from the deck. I won't say why they did this, but it was a supreme act of genius to pull one over on the dealer. I think I gave the perpetrator a couple dozen penalty cards to show my gratitude.