Game: UNO

Thread: Re: Get ready for increased popularity...

Steampunk — 2008-11-23T06:47:32+00:00

I heard he and Ayers were big players between Politburo sessions!

Thread: Re: Get ready for increased popularity...

Sigrdrifa — 2008-11-19T04:16:28+00:00

Yuglooc wrote:
... I read a recent article stating that Uno is a favorite in USA President-elect Barack Obama's household. Thus there'll eb a lot of Uno played in the White House!

Not if the new puppy eats the cards...

Thread: Re: Get ready for increased popularity...

GROGnads — 2008-11-19T04:15:23+00:00

R-E-A-L-L-Y-?

Thread: Get ready for increased popularity...

Yuglooc — 2008-11-19T04:00:15+00:00

... I read a recent article stating that Uno is a favorite in USA President-elect Barack Obama's household. Thus there'll eb a lot of Uno played in the White House!

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ealdrich — 2008-10-29T06:19:29+00:00

Late 1970s U.S. edition box front.

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ealdrich — 2008-10-29T06:17:48+00:00

Late 1970s U.S. edition.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

ackmondual — 2008-09-19T05:05:29+00:00

How I played Uno most recently b/c that's the only set of rules that I can remember, nothing from over 10+ years ago.......

The Draw +2 CAN stack

The Wild +4 canNOT stack. Instead, the cards either go to the next player or the player who played it. What was mentioned above, if the player who plays the +4 does have the next color available, then the other player can call his bluff by looking at his cards. Whoever was wrong takes 6 cards instead

.........

What I learned recently....
Draw +2 canNOT stack

The Wild +4 did indeed say u can't use it if u alr have the next color, but never said you can look at the cards. It was either implied or not done since it'd be too powerful to know what someone had. It seems later rules removed the bluffing elemnet

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

ejmowrer — 2008-09-18T14:50:54+00:00

beejay777 wrote:
for those that have played the stacking rule i need clarification - i was recently playing with someone and we got down to one card each and she played a draw two (hence had no cards left) however because you can stack i figured i could place myne down therefore she pick up 4 and i win. thoughts?

Beejay, I don't think you're going to be able to get an official concensus on that question, because the rule in question is not an official rule. It's a popular house rule (ie "made up"), but never was part of the original game. I think you're best option is to just decide between the two of you what to do in that case. That decision will be as good as any.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

beejay777 — 2008-09-18T05:57:50+00:00

for those that have played the stacking rule i need clarification - i was recently playing with someone and we got down to one card each and she played a draw two (hence had no cards left) however because you can stack i figured i could place myne down therefore she pick up 4 and i win. thoughts?

Thread: DIRTY UNO

gordon1018 — 2008-07-08T17:49:58+00:00

I just recently learned a new way yo play Uno that I really think added to the game.

They called it "dirty Uno" It's similar to the "Crazy Uno" posted here with a couple differences.

-When a Zero is played of any color, you pass your entire hand to the person in the direction of play (If it's moving clockwise, you pass left, Counter-clockwise, Right)

-When a Seven (7) OF THE CURRENT ACTIVE COLOR is played, the person who played it has the option to trade hands with any player in the game.

-If an IDENTICAL Card is played on top of it's pair (i.e. a yellow five na Yellow five) the person that played the original card has to draw as many cards as the number shown from the pair. Special cards (Wild, Draw Two, etc... don't do anything in this case)

-When playing identical cards it will only be an available play if the person playing the card immediately follows the person that played the original of the pair. For example, John plays a green 3; then Sally draws a card and declares "no play"; the next in line is Tim and he plays a green 3 also; because there was a person in between, Neither Sally nor John will have to draw three cards. Play simply continues as normal.

This last rule is where things are made much better. Usually the basic strategy is just to get rid of all your high cards first, BUT if you do, you risk having to draw a ton of cards. You need to keep track of what;s been played so you don't get stuck drawing nine cards.

There's no sweeter revenge than someone making you draw nine cards and then playing a zero to hand them all to them the next turn.

Try it out. It was a lot of fun, and I hadn't played Uno for a long time.

ENJOY!

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nanami — 2008-06-26T13:57:17+00:00

Action cards from a "cheap" UNO deck (note the designs).

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handofachlys — 2008-06-02T02:42:05+00:00

Playing Uno by Deviant-Anomaly (permission recieved)

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handofachlys — 2008-06-01T19:03:08+00:00

Children Playing Uno in Mongolia by Lukas (permission recieved)

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handofachlys — 2008-06-01T18:49:30+00:00

Uno by Ena Escañan (permission recieved)

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handofachlys — 2008-05-28T18:20:19+00:00

Uno by Alex Osorio

Thread: Re: A game for kids, not geeks.

bryces — 2008-05-24T19:52:15+00:00

I have to say that Uno and it's special edition variants (particularly the Nintendo version) is often brought out when I am on narrow boat holidays with a group of (adult) friends. Its perfect to play around a small table, everybody knows how to play and it doesn't need a huge amount of brainpower after a hard day's working locks!

I love it because of it's simplicity, not despite it. It's like I can watch and enjoy both Schindler's List and Indiana Jones - both have their place in the right context.

Steve

Thread: Re: A game for kids, not geeks.

baba44713 — 2008-05-10T10:28:00+00:00

Actually, UNO ain't THAT bad. It does have its uses.

I can agree the basic game sucks though (if you are older then 4). But the Lightning variant with a lot of players is great fun indeed.

Thread: Re: A game for kids, not geeks.

oldfan — 2008-05-09T19:31:13+00:00

Nice review. This game gets lots of plays with my family (all adults), mainly to see how many times you can mess with your brother/sister/in-law and get away with it. The only house rule we play with: you are NOT allowed to sit next to your husband/wife/sig. other...

Thread: Re: A game for kids, not geeks.

jentinma — 2008-05-09T17:12:59+00:00

jhuntin1 wrote:
For groups of older gamers (adults as well as older children), I recommend UNO Attack! It adds enough randomness to make the game interesting enough to keep the older ones around a while longer.

I have to agree. UNO Attack! is much better. I always get excited to see nine cards come shooting out of the machine, even if it is me getting the mix.

Even then, there are many better games out there that can be played in a similar length of time. However, people seem to have an instictual sense of how to play Uno, so Uno Attack may be easier to explain.

Thread: Re: A game for kids, not geeks.

jhuntin1 — 2008-05-09T17:03:49+00:00

For groups of older gamers (adults as well as older children), I recommend UNO Attack! It adds enough randomness to make the game interesting enough to keep the older ones around a while longer.

Thread: A game for kids, not geeks.

jentinma — 2008-05-09T16:25:24+00:00

I have been playing a lot of games with my kids recently, and the current favorite of the two year old is this old classic. It may not be the game best targeted towards the BGG audience, but it still has a place in our house. In this review, I will briefly go over game-play, but the focus will be on the conclusions and who will generally enjoy the game. I will also review a number of house rules variations.

Components: This is a card game, and the game comes as a card deck divided into four suits along with wilds. Suits are divided by colors which are well suited for color blind people despite the inclusion of both red and green. These colors in this game are different enough for the color clind that they can still be distinguished.

Setup: The cards are shuffled, and each player is dealt seven cards. One card is flipped face-up to form the discard pile.

Game Play: Each player takes turns playing or drawing cards. Play begins left of the dealer and continues clockwise until a “Reverse” is played, when play order reverses. ON a players turn, they play a card that matches the previously played card in color or symbol (number). A wild (black) can be played on any card, and a new color is then selected. If a player does not have a playable card, they draw one card. If it is playable, they may play the card. Otherwise, play proceeds to the next player. If a “Draw Two” or “Draw Four” card is played, the next player draws the indicated number of cards rather than playing a card. Play continues to the next player.

When a player is down to a single card, they must say “Uno”. If another player catches them not saying “Uno”, the player must draw three cards.

End of the Game: When one player is out of cards, the hand is over. Score can be taken for multiple hand play. Cards are worth face value. Wilds are worth fifty, and other cards with words are worth twenty points. The lowest score wins. Players can play a set number of hands or to a certain score.

Variants: These variants are from rules we had in our house or from an official House Rules variant.

Add on draws: In this variant, after a Draw Two is played, the next player can play a Draw Two. The third player must then either play a Draw Two or draw the cumulative total of the draws played (four, six, eight, etc.). This variant encourages players to hoard the Draw Two cards for defensive purposes. It works well when playing with no young children, and we always play with this rule when scoring.

Reverse and Skip Draws: When a Draw is played, a Reverse or Skip can be played to change who must draw the cards. A Reverse makes the person who played the card draw the cards and a Skip makes the next player draw. This rule is generally only used in combination with the “add on draws” rule above. This makes the game a little more complicated than I like for a simple game, and players must pay attention carefully to whose turn it is, how many cards are at stake, and what colors are on top. We generally don’t play with this rule.

Quick play: Since the deck is essentially a double deck of cards, there are two of each card, with the exception of zeros, in the deck. If a player holds the exact match in color and symbol for the card played, they may play this card out of turn if they play it before the next player gets their card down. This rule tends to increase the pace of the game since players are both trying to get rid of cards as well as play their cards before someone else can match. This rule is especially used when playing with two combined Uno decks for more players. This is another standard when playing without young children.

Draw until you can play: When a player cannot play a card, they must draw until they get a card they can play. This tends to make the game longer as players now tend to draw more cards when they can’t play. This is especially prominent in making players who are close to winning draw more cards. That being said, we still generally play with this rule.

Pass hands on Zero: Every time a zero gets played, the player trades hands with another player. This rule adds chaos to the game, and we generally do not play with this rule.

Conclusions: This is a very simple game, but it is also a classic. Like most classics, this gets a bad reputation on BGG partially because it is overly simplistic and there are very few meaningful choices to be made most hands let alone on any particular turn. But the important thing to remember is that hard-core board gamers are not the target audience. This game ahs found lasting appeal in the general population, and it still has a place in my family. It works very well for playing with small children, ages two to five. Our seven year old no longer plays with us most of the time because he wants meatier games. Every time we get out a game, our two year old asks to play, and he asks for Uno specifically. Thus, I have been playing a lot of Uno recently.

There is essentially no strategy in this game. Players play what they can, and if they have a choice of cards, they will either play to decrease their score or to make play later more possible (playing duplicate numbers). There is almost nothing in the way of strategy or tactics. Unlike many card games where the entire deck is dealt, there are frequently hands where only a fraction of the cards are gone through and other hands where the deck is gone through multiple times, so counting is not generally of any use. As a result, this is generally a game of luck without many useful decisions.

The basic game makes a great introduction to gaming. It works very well when playing with young children (two to four). However, the game is very basic, and that has led to a variety of house rules. Many people who are not geeks also use the house rules because the basic game is just too simple. I do not recommend playing the basic game unless you are playing with very young children. Then the game is about spending time together and teaching turn order and etiquette, such as being a good loser and winner. The house rules will make the game more complex, but they will never make this a good, let alone great, game. I can really only recommend this game for play with children, and then the house rules really aren’t necessary or even desired.

This game scales up well, but it is really not meant for play with two. Without a third person, the draw, skip, and reverse sequences do not work well. One player can then play multiple cards without the second player having a chance. Once again, this is primarily driven by the luck of the draw.

Overall, this is a great game for young children, but it does not work well for older gamers.

As a side note (and note related to the game), the two year old has a pair of pants with a symbol that looks like the one on the Skip card on one leg. He calls them his Skip pants, and he asks for them whenever they are clean.

Rating by Number of Players:
No kids:
2: 2
3: 3
4-6: 4
7 and up: 2

With kids:
2: 4
3: 5
4-5: 6
6 and up: 1 (The little ones get restless between turns.)

Thread: UNO - Oh...

FNH1 — 2008-05-03T16:25:52+00:00

At a recent car-boot sale I finally got round to picking up a copy of UNO. This game has been around for years and I've seen it numerous times and always bypassed it. This time however the games had been rather thin on the ground at the car-boot and so out of desperation I picked up UNO.

This is a vanilla version, that is it is not one of the 30,000 themed versions of the game but rather a plain set. It is copyrighted 1999 and produced by Matel.

It is a card game of 108 cards and comes in a small box about the size of two normal decks of cards pushed together.

The 108 cards inside come in four coloured suits that are numbered 0 to 9 with many duplicates. Each suit also has a number of special cards which I'll get to shortly.

In addition to the coloured suits there are a bunch of black or as they are described "wild" cards.

Objective : Get rid of all of the cards in your hand.

Play is simple and straight forward. The Player going first lays out a card, players have to follow suit or match the number on the card. If you cant play a suitable card, then you must take a card into your hand.

So far the game sounds rather dull, but wait ... it gets more interesting.

You can play a "Wild" card, it has no colour of its own and can follow any other card. When you play it, you declare the colour that must follow. Also, some of the wild cards, force th next player to take additional cards and miss thier turn.

Some of the coloured suit cards have special effects. These can force the next player to take two cards and miss a go, another changes the direction of play and another forces the next player to skip their turn.

Special Rule : When you play your second to last card, you must shout "UNO" before your card hits the discard deck. Sounds straight forwards, but often as you get caught up in the speedy game play you will forget, and if anyone notices you have to take two cards.

Scoring : As soon as someone empties their hand they win the hand and score points for the cards in everyone else hands. Suit cards are worth thier face value with special cards scoring much larger numbers.

The rules state that you should keep playing hands until someones score reaches 500. In my games, a single hand scores from 40 to 150 points.

In my family, playing is fast and furious with laughs and cheers which is a good thing because the game itself is abstract and rather bland. I suspect that a pasted on theme can make quite a difference.

The set I have here also included a number of blanks which I suppose are for use as replacements should any get damaged. Yet the Grognard in me wants to mark them up as "+2 to Charge" and "+1 Defensive Bonus"...

Thread: Uno - game #2 - [session report]

ackmondual — 2008-03-06T08:51:35+00:00

A 'variable game'. Players stepped in and out to tend to other things, so we had up to 9 players and as little as 6 players later on. I believe we played 3 rounds. With that many people, people don't appear finish 'out' as often.

Unlike my last game (details here (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/296763), this game went much better. I still lost, but at least I scored MUCH better than that last game. I never played out, nor got to shout "uno", but at least I came close with 2 cards left on several occassions. I had my shares of the wrong side of +4 Wilds and +2 single colors, but the former only affected me 4 times the entire game and half the time, I had a +2 to counter a +2 card (note, we play it such that in order to avoid drawing 2 cards from the +2 card, you need to playa +2 card of your own, which gets compounded to the next player/victim). I actually got reversed skipped at least 8 times AFAI can remember! The player to my left would play a reverse card. When it got around to the player on my right, he would then play a reverse card. Too frustating and too much bad luck! Despite that, I still did well. I didn't have anywhere close to half the deck or some high # of cards when someone finished. My high cards were out of my hands most of the time. My lower range scores certainly reflected that: 19, 11, and 50 (dang reverse ad draw +2 card)

On other notes, 2 players were penalized 2 cards for not saying UNO when they should've. Another player played a +4 wild and lost the challenge. Not a big risk when the person claims not to have that color when he's got around 16 cards in his hand. Another player kept challenging the Draw +2 single color cards. Unfortunately, we had to explain that that can only be done on the wild +4 card.

In the end, to me, the game's more about the table talk (gossiping, socializing... NOT the type forbidden in the rules), so while it's not a very 'strategic' game, it's still just as engaging. That, and when you got a huge crowd, Uno fits the bill without resorting to team games.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Rainbow Snake — 2008-02-28T22:37:02+00:00

Starsunsky wrote:
I think stacking draw 2 is only a house rule, "the progressive Uno".

Actually, BGG keeps another entry for the UNO House Rules.

Aha! thanks, yes there it is! :-)

Progressive Uno: If a draw card is played then the "victim" can play the same type of card thus passing the result on to the next player.

Seems kinda an oxymoron that Mattel would produce Official House Rules

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Starsunsky — 2008-02-28T17:23:28+00:00

I think stacking draw 2 is only a house rule, "the progressive Uno".

Actually, BGG keeps another entry for the UNO House Rules.

Thread: Re: Uno - [session report]

oldfan — 2008-02-28T17:11:27+00:00

In the standard deck, it IS a Draw-4 Wild, but the cards will tell you that, no big deal. And the "beat a Draw-2 with another Draw-2" or other face cards is a house rule that I guess is pretty popular, but we've never played it that way. Which, by the way, leads to the excellent suggestion that spouses/significant others should never sit next to each other while playing UNO...According to the rules, if you forget to call "UNO" but no one catches you before the next person plays a card, you're off the hook (otherwise, draw 2 cards, hoser!). But, good luck getting away with this in my family!

Thread: Re: Uno - [session report]

Teriyaki Donuts — 2008-02-28T16:14:12+00:00

ackmondual wrote:
Haven't played this in a while. Unless you play this often, the smaller rules slip by you. It sure did with me. Apparently....

-you can only "beat" (avoiding the draw) a +2 card by playing another +2 card. Playing the same color is allowed
-you can NOT "beat" a +2 wild draw. Just gotta suck it up
-The non-draw cards like reverse can allow u to put a card down if it matches the same color and/or same type.
-Some circles are strict NOT being able to win a round without announcing "UNO" whenever u have one card left, but we let players go for forgetting that. It did occur with one player in one situation.

Wow, I'm not sure if I have been playing it correctly. I've always played that a player can never avoid drawing when a Draw 2 is played on them. I'm not sure what a +2 Wild Draw is. Is this the +4 Wild Draw? Are the rules for this from the base set or one of the themed decks?

The handheld electronic version actually has an "Uno" button that you are required to hit when you have one card left. If not, the AI can call you on it and force you to draw cards. You can also hit the button when you see another AI does not call Uno. Calling "Uno" is a requirement whenever we play.

Anyway, it's nice to see a session report for a game that often gets neglected here.

Thread: Uno - [session report]

ackmondual — 2008-02-28T08:14:43+00:00

Haven't played this in a while. Unless you play this often, the smaller rules slip by you. It sure did with me. Apparently....

-you can only "beat" (avoiding the draw) a +2 card by playing another +2 card. Playing the same color is allowed
-you can NOT "beat" a +2 wild draw. Just gotta suck it up
-The non-draw cards like reverse can allow u to put a card down if it matches the same color and/or same type.
-Some circles are strict NOT being able to win a round without announcing "UNO" whenever u have one card left, but we let players go for forgetting that. It did occur with one player in one situation.

Game summary
-4 or 5 rounds we played?
-I never won any rounds
-No single player won more than one round
-some player got a score of 56, and actually cussed! That's a good 'experienced Uno player' standard to go by (how many points to NOT accumulate, not the cussing part )
-my points per round were 20 through 50 for the first few rounds.
-One of the later rounds went bad for me. Player to my right played a +4 card. That got me two +4 cards and a +2 card. That wouldn't be so bad, except the timing WAS bad. Someone finished the round, so that left me a penalty of 133 on that round alone! 50 + 50 + 20 + 7 + 6 sure did a number on me.
-If I was gonna be behind, I activated my own side goal of seeing if I could get a record "high score", which is to say a bad score to keep things as interesting
-Yet another round left me with a bunch of the 'special' draw cards. I decided to save the +2 for in case I needed to counter that. Despite getting rid of 4 normal cards, the case never came up for that draw card, so that added 20pts unnecessarily.
-the "unlucky one" at one point, by our estimates, had nearly half the deck in her hand! Bad karma? Either way, the +2 and +4 draw cards really piled it on.

final scores
The scores I can remember were:
58
69
365 (the unlucky player with half the deck)
and me: 265

Don't know how many rounds we played, but I assume it was the standard number. I didn't come in dead last. I didn't do good either, but it was still a fun time, which I'd take over a win anyday.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Rainbow Snake — 2008-02-20T05:22:55+00:00

Salt-Man Z wrote:
The actual Draw 4 restriction is that you may not play a Draw 4 if you have the correct color in your hand. You are still allowed to play a Draw 4 if you have a matching number. (Normal Wilds can be played at any time.)

Yep, I can see that now that I have the official rules.
I'm still suspicious that someone sneaky infiltrated new rules into the Uno canon, but I'd better mind my own business or I'll receive a visit from the Uno Secret Police!!

Settlers of Catan? Cranium Zigity ? Hmmm although I am a fan of ordinary Cranium and play Carcassonne (which is supposed to be like Settlers of Catan), my current favs are the card games Bang!, Fluxx and Give Me the Brain!.

Ooh how freaky, cool to see the last poster is a fan of Give Me the Brain! too. Seems supplies of that game are drying up. Shops here in Australia haven't been able to get stock of it for years.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Salt-Man Z — 2008-02-20T03:42:53+00:00

The actual Draw 4 restriction is that you may not play a Draw 4 if you have the correct color in your hand. You are still allowed to play a Draw 4 if you have a matching number. (Normal Wilds can be played at any time.)

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Teriyaki Donuts — 2008-02-19T22:27:21+00:00

Methinks Cranium Zigity will allow you to stack your Draw 2's.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

ejmowrer — 2008-02-19T07:33:20+00:00

Sounds like you need some "Settlers of Catan" lovin'. Forget about those childhood games :P

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Rainbow Snake — 2008-02-19T06:54:07+00:00

ejmowrer wrote:
Rainbow Snake,

Yeah, it's not really a matter of being 'able' to play for points. That is how you are supposed to play. It is not a variant, it's the base game.

Oooh ... perhaps as kids we just decided it sounded too hard and then promptly forgot Or perhaps our folks taught us how to play and thought we couldn't cope with it.

There are scanned (PDF) copies of the Uno rules at
http://service.mattel.com/us/instruction_sheets_results.asp?...

Gak! They have scoring information there, as well as the rules about when you're allowed to play wild cards. Hmmm must be the "new" rules

ejmowrer wrote:

As with Uno, Monopoly is MUCH better if played by the intended rules, including nothing for landing on free parking, and mandatory auctions for properties.

The wuh? ... mandatory auctions? pffft ... looks like I'm going to have to relearn all my childhood games!

I don't really enjoy Monopoly any more since playing with a bunch of crazed real-estate/financial types all trying to offer complex deals to the other players "I'll give you 10% of the rent on these properties, plus houses on these properties and ..." etc, and heatedly trying to use such to outbid each other. Wasn't so fun.

Thread: Re: Have the Rules Changed?

droberts441 — 2008-02-19T05:41:42+00:00

Dmart wrote:
According to my early version of UNO (appears to be early 1980s), the rules state that only one card is drawn. I believe that this has always been the rule (and commonly misplayed as you indicate).

Thank you.

Thread: Re: Have the Rules Changed?

Dmart — 2008-02-19T04:17:08+00:00

According to my early version of UNO (appears to be early 1980s), the rules state that only one card is drawn. I believe that this has always been the rule (and commonly misplayed as you indicate).

Thread: Have the Rules Changed?

droberts441 — 2008-02-19T03:57:33+00:00

The version I have is from 1998. The one I had as a child is long gone (or my brother has it).

I was poking around the Mattel site, and their rules (2001) are slightly different. Besides something about a blank card (which I have never seen (must be like those Risk Mission cards)), the 2001 rules say you have to draw FOUR if you don't say "UNO" in time, while my version (1998) says you have to draw TWO if you don't say "UNO" in time.

My question is totally different. When I realized they changed the rules for that rule, I wondered if they had changed the rules about drawing cards if you can’t match the up card on the discard pile from the version I played as a child.

When I was a child, I think we played that you had to KEEP drawing cards from the DRAW pile until you had one that matched. My rules (1998) and the new rules (2001) say you only draw ONE card from the DRAW pile, and if you can play, you play it, but if you can’t, the turn passes to the next player.

The way I remember playing as a child are the same rules as Crazy Eights which UNO is based on. When I bought this to play with my son, I figured we were only playing a house rule when I was a child, similar to how I used to play Free Parking with Monopoly, so I didn’t think anything about it, and accepted the correct rules. Now I am wondering if they had changed this rule as well from the original 70’s version.

Does anyone out there still have a 70’s era version of the UNO rules and can tell me whether the rules have always been draw only ONE card, or whether it used to be KEEP drawing until you have one that matches?

Thanks in advance.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

tonyfung1205 — 2008-02-18T03:08:10+00:00

I enjoy playing the UNO and Monopoly only with the originally intended rules. In UNO, there is no big strategy but there are suble tactics and bluffing or risk-taking elements. In Monopoly, you cannot control the dice, but there are still plenty meaningful decisions to formulate strategies, and which awards good tactical plays... provided that it's played with 4 players where the total initial wealth/cash makes a good game even if you are out of dice luck. And it is exactly what I mentioned about Monopoly to a newspaper interview yesterday.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

ejmowrer — 2008-02-18T01:08:11+00:00

Rainbow Snake,

Yeah, it's not really a matter of being 'able' to play for points. That is how you are supposed to play. It is not a variant, it's the base game. You should find a copy of the rules and try it out some time. It won't work any miracles, I still think it's only an OK game, but you might find that you like the real rules better than this common variant that's floating around.

I COMPLETELY agree with you about Monopoly. Again, it takes a mediocre game and makes it worse by making it drag on endlessly and takes what skill there is and diminishes it. As with Uno, Monopoly is MUCH better if played by the intended rules, including nothing for landing on free parking, and mandatory auctions for properties.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

xman@pcisys.net — 2008-02-18T00:51:25+00:00

Oh, I didn't know you could play Uno for points. I tend to play Uno as a light introductory game, often when there are young children in the group. Randomness can make kids feel more equal with adults

Like the stacking variant you described earlier, playing "a hand" of Uno is a house rule (actually a house victory condition.) As designed, original Uno is won by the first player to score 500 points. The player who goes out at the end of a round scores the value of opponent's unplayed cards...very similar to most domino games. Number cards count their number value, special cards count for more. This almost always requires playing multiple rounds to determine a winner. Playing so you can manage your opponent's score is just about the only strategic element of Uno.

Granted, the "one hand" variant is widely played. The reasons you mention probably explain why. Still, playing "one hand" Uno really does eliminate most if not all meaningful decision making from the game. Given that, I'm not sure that any stacking variants really change the game you are playing!

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Rainbow Snake — 2008-02-17T23:12:09+00:00

xman@pcisys.net wrote:

Your friends are playing by a house rule, and it might be a regional one because I've never come across it. If it is important to play by the official rules, then the "stacking" thing you describe shouldn't be used. Frankly, it makes an already random game more random. I don't really see a problem if your friends play one hand just to see who can go out first, but if you are playing for points this seems silly.

Oh, I didn't know you could play Uno for points. I tend to play Uno as a light introductory game, often when there are young children in the group. Randomness can make kids feel more equal with adults

xman@pcisys.net wrote:

The wild card restriction, however, is legit and makes for fun bluffing opportunities. This rule forces players to keep high-value wild cards in their hand longer, increasing the chances that they will be "caught" when an opponent goes out.

"High value" wild cards? I think my Uno deck only has normal Wild and Wild Draw Four cards ... unless you mean values assigned as part of a point playing variant?

ejmowrer wrote:

This rule probably stems from the VERY common misconception that the game is over after one round and that whoever goes out first wins.

?
I'm guessing by "one round" you mean from the dealing until the first person goes out. Hmmm okay I thought that game was now over and that person was the winner... and then you promptly begin a new game to see if someone else can win... hmmm If you're not playing the point scoring variant, then I'm not sure how you'd track a game over several "rounds". Since I see this as a light game, I don't usually play for points and there's no ranking system showing people how badly they did over the course of the evening. You win some, you lose some.

ejmowrer wrote:

...given Uno Attack, which is the most ridiculously lame idea I've ever seen in a card game. Why people are CRAVING a way to make the game 100% luck based is beyond me. I don't understand the desire to play a game that is completely decided by random chance.

Heh, I have both Uno and Uno Attack amongst many other interesting games. Believe me, Uno Attack is the most frequently demanded game from both kids and adults. It's not *my* favourite game - I wish they'd be clamouring for something else, but since some of my favourite games do have random elements, I understand that people love seeing random misfortune dumping on the other players. Also as mentioned earlier, a high element of luck helps kids feel more equal with adults.

I also get irritated in Monopoly where people swear that you win a lottery when you land on "free parking", despite it just being another unofficial variant I hate. Grrr!

heheh Actually I think those are the only two games I know where people insist on playing with unofficial rules that I despise.

I'm not normally so cantankerous you know!

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

ejmowrer — 2008-02-17T17:42:48+00:00

It is most definitely a house rule. This rule probably stems from the VERY common misconception that the game is over after one round and that whoever goes out first wins. This misconception probably stems from shoddy packaging, which results in the actual rules and box being thrown out once the box itself disintigrates. This usually happens after about 2-3 plays.

When keeping score it absolutely makes no sense to hoard draw twos and draw fours because if someone goes out and you've been saving them in order to 'stack' onto someone else, you're out of the game because you just got a billion points (which is bad).

I hate this stupid house rule version that has spread like wildfire. It ruins and already mediocre game by making all strategy completely pointless. It is my fear that the makers of Uno will notice this trend and further enshrine it by making it an official variant. I wouldn't not be surprised at this, given Uno Attack, which is the most ridiculously lame idea I've ever seen in a card game. Why people are CRAVING a way to make the game 100% luck based is beyond me. I don't understand the desire to play a game that is completely decided by random chance. At least with the real Uno rules, you can see who is playing what colors and how many, save certain cards in your hand if you think someone is about to go out, and expect not to get SIXTEEN FRIGGIN CARDS because you had the misfortune be at the end of a chain of draw fours.

Sorry, big rant here, I know. I've had it with people losing the rules to a game or playing those 'public domain' games and the rules shifting over time. I have all but refused to play games with certain family members unless we have the rules handy to clarify the many arguments from 5 different people about what they are all absolutely positive (and in disagreement about) the rules are.

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

bvongunten — 2008-02-17T16:20:12+00:00

Hi there

Around here we always play with stacking.

In a 4 player game i once started with a draw 4 and ended up with taking 16 cards up myself :-(

Greetings from Switzerland

Bernhard

Thread: Re: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

xman@pcisys.net — 2008-02-17T16:14:28+00:00

I'm not an Uno expert, so take the following comments with a grain of salt.

Your friends are playing by a house rule, and it might be a regional one because I've never come across it. If it is important to play by the official rules, then the "stacking" thing you describe shouldn't be used. Frankly, it makes an already random game more random. I don't really see a problem if your friends play one hand just to see who can go out first, but if you are playing for points this seems silly.

It is possible that another version of Uno (there are many) employs this rule in conjunction with some other mechanisms. Some versions of Uno allow for hand swapping, so a player stuck with a gigantic hand might be able to dump it on somebody else. Maybe there's an Uno expert out there who can address this.

The wild card restriction, however, is legit and makes for fun bluffing opportunities. This rule forces players to keep high-value wild cards in their hand longer, increasing the chances that they will be "caught" when an opponent goes out.

Thread: Normal rules? stacking draw 2? restricted wilds?

Rainbow Snake — 2008-02-17T13:57:06+00:00

I must have started playing this game around 1980 (gulp -that's 28 years ago!). I don't recall any disputes amongst my friends and I about how the game was played.

But now, years later, I'm wondering if the rules were officially changed - if they brought out version 2.0 or whatever.

These days heaps of people, everybody I encounter, swears that it's a normal rule of Uno that "draw twos" can stack. That is, when a "draw two" is played, the next player gets the opportunity to play another draw two if they have one, passing an additional 2+2 penalty onto the next player ... unless the next player also has a draw two ... which makes a "draw 6" for the next player ... unless they have a draw two ... etc ...

Apparently the same thing can happen with "draw fours" - it's possible for someone to get hit with a "draw 12", or more.

Until recent times when I got back into game playing, I'd never heard of this Uno rule. I'd just played the normal rule of the next player having no opportunity to play - they just have to draw the cards and miss their turn.

I'm puzzled that everyone seems to think this is a standard rule of Uno. I was thinking perhaps the Uno rules had been officially changed - but I just looked on their site and there's no mention of this rule. People have told me "but stacking draw-twos and draw-fours is the best thing in the game" but personally I hate that rule, I think it's overly mean to whoever ends up having to draw 8, 12 ... 16 cards. I think the game is better without it.

Also ... looking at the official rules now, I've noticed a rule saying that you can't play wild/draw four cards if you have any other card that you could have played instead, with some challenge/penalty mechanic. Is that a new rule? It's new to me, we always felt free to play wild cards whenever we wanted, sometimes picking the same colour in play

Image

eiknip — 2008-01-27T19:28:22+00:00

Additional variation cards

Image

aquarian — 2008-01-06T17:00:53+00:00

Finnish Uno cards, presumably from the early 80's

Image

ccmonter — 2008-01-03T01:35:03+00:00

The kids play by their own rules.

Thread: Re: A Session Remembered

rarbelaez — 2007-10-22T15:14:15+00:00

Nice review. And nice writing too. You sure capture in words the true meaning of gaming for many of us.

Thread: A Session Remembered

Jatoha — 2007-10-22T12:34:04+00:00

Uno—A Session Remembered

Everyone has some sadness in their childhood. Mine came in the form of my parents’ divorce when I was seven. This was in 1972 when divorce was not so common and I was the only one I knew whose parents weren’t living together. Somehow, I always have a need to mention that, like I started a trend or something, “hey, my family was divorced when being divorced wasn’t cool!!!”

We had temporarily moved to the family vacation cottage. It was a square little house nestled on the shore of a lake so small, I could row a boat all the way around it when I was seven. It was built in the 1920’s and was only updated a few times since then. We did have indoor plumbing and a shoebox of a kitchen. It had one large bedroom, otherwise known as the upstairs, a lovely screened in porch, a yard the size of a compact car and no tv.

There was no TV.

Now, this was before I learned to ride a bike, something I didn’t accomplish until fourth grade. So, with no yard and a younger brother who was still chewing on toys rather than playing with them, I was left to follow my big brother around. What he did was fish.

I was a real fishergirl then, I could catch a whole bucket of them and clean them, too! I don’t quite know how much you would have to pay me to clean a fish now, but I will say, it would have to be A LOT. However, back then, I could bait a hook, snag a bluegill or catfish, scale ‘em, gut ‘em, the whole works. Only now, do I realize that mom depended on those fish for supper. Yes, we ate a lot of fish and a lot of oatmeal.

So, with this new life came a lot of excitement and adventure, but under it all was a dreary sadness that just didn’t really ever go away. Memories of my mom at that time are dim and blurry. I think we were all half asleep and shell-shocked.

That’s not to say that there weren’t moments that were bright and hopeful. One of those moments that I remember most came in form of a little card game.

One day, my mother brought home a little red box with a foreign word on the cover, Uno. I had never heard the word before. Keep in mind, these were the days before Dora the explorer and, lest you forget, we had no TV.

We quickly learned it was the Spanish word for one and that night after some fried blue gill, we sat down to play. I remember being very please when I realized that this game was almost the same as Crazy Eights. I loved Crazy Eights almost as much as Old Maid, but not quite as much because I loved the ballerina card in the Old Maid deck.

Soon, though, we learned that this game had a lot more going for it than Crazy Eights. We thought the “skip” cards were funny, the “draw four” wild cards were hilarious, the “Reverse” cards were hysterical and catching your brother not saying “Uno” was a blast. This game went completely against the rules that we were used to, the turns switching back and forth.

We could all play this game, my younger brother included. I remember playing over and over again way into the night and I remember laughing very hard. All of us, laughing hysterically every time another “reverse” card was played. I can’t forget what a relief and a joy it was to see my mother laughing as we all laughed and there was no mention of bedtime.

So, really, as far as the session report goes, that’s all I got: laughter at a “reverse” card and a delayed bedtime.

This session stays with me as a testament to what is great about gaming. I can’t think of another way at that time that all of us could participate in one activity together and have as much fun. This is a story about gaming, and not Uno. I’ve unfortunately since come to loathe playing Uno for other reasons, which is a story for another day.

But on that day, I saw the glimmer of a promise that our ‘broken little family’ would still go on. That there was still a chance for hope, laughter and joy in our life and maybe more opportunities for fun and games in the future.

As much as I dislike Uno now, I still have a soft spot for the old box, red with black cards. I bought one at a garage sale a couple years ago, I keep it on my shelf and when I come across it, I don’t ever want to play it, but it does always make me smile.

Thread: Re: UNO for grognards – a tale of Love

filwi — 2007-09-20T07:22:56+00:00

Very true, although for me it wears out real fast nowadays. I can play a couple of hands but then I get bored.

Thread: Re: UNO for grognards – a tale of Love

HavocIsHere — 2007-09-19T20:20:23+00:00

Maybe your wive does not like your *taste* in games? Ahahah!
Humor aside, Uno is certainly not a stellar game, but is not broken, and can even provide some fun when played as intended and whith the right crowd.

Thread: UNO for grognards – a tale of Love

filwi — 2007-09-19T10:03:16+00:00

Before I begin this review, let me tell you something of me. I'm happily married to the most intelligent, gorgeous, kind and understanding woman on the planet. My life is bliss except for one thing: I'm a gamer and my wife is not.

How a woman who's so smart, inquisitive and fun to be with can't like games, I have no idea. Sufficient to say that for the past number of years I've been searching for the Holy Grail: a game my wife would like.

As any quests this one is fraught with peril and many a dead end. No thanks! went out the door. She took a look at Railroad tycoon and laughed. Monopoly is a no-no for us both. Dozens of games have met ignoble fates at her hand.

My hopes rose when she once suggested a game of Lost cities but were then wrecked on the harsh rocks of reality when I realized it was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Then came UNO. No need to be ashamed of it, we've all played UNO at some point in time. And this time it came with friends, German friends...

For all those of you now imagining me playing Carcassone and Puerto Rico: they're not that kind of German. But they did have a copy of UNO and some odd rules to go with it.

Here's the deal; UNO with German rules:
Get rid of all the cards, if you don't you get points. Least points at the end of the night wins. Number cards are worth their number in points, black cards are worth 50 points, other special cards are worth 20 and the weird UNO-on-both-sides cards they've got are worth 100 points.
You play as usual except: Draw 2 and draw 4 cards stack, 0 shifts all hand one step in the direction of play (i.e. give you hand away, get another player's hand), playing an UNO card lets you choose a player to change hands with and if you've got a card that's a duplicate of one just played you get to throw it in as an immediate turn.

It's simple, banal and ridiculous. And my wife liked it, liked it so much that she even suggests it when they come over – and invites other people over for UNO-nights.

Hallelujah! My wife's become a gamer… A one game gamer… of a game I hate.

For I hate UNO. There are no dice in UNO, no tanks, no leadership rolls, no +2 assault bonuses. There are no resource cubes, no shipping, no pauses and everyone I play with sorts their hands like crap (they even have the gall to say the same thing about me).

My wife is now a gamer, and I love her dearly for it. I love her when she wakes, I love her when she sleeps. I love her at night, at dawn and when I should be working but daydream of her. I love her with all my heart and all my soul, but why, oh, why should she have to love UNO?!?

Thread: Re: Correct way to pronounce "Uno"?

boltongeordie — 2007-07-30T07:40:47+00:00

"oh-no, oh-god-no"

Thread: Re: Correct way to pronounce "Uno"?

Stephen Glenn — 2007-07-30T03:46:53+00:00

[kray'-zee-ayts']

Thread: Re: Correct way to pronounce "Uno"?

fullerbd — 2007-07-29T23:27:57+00:00

"oo-no" (as in food & too) is correct

Thread: Correct way to pronounce "Uno"?

EndersGame — 2007-07-29T23:20:10+00:00

So what is the correct way to pronounce Uno? Wikipedia has this to say:
Despite being developed in America, Uno is officially pronounced exactly the same way as the Italian and Spanish word for "one", uno.
Of course, we all know that everything on Wikipedia is entirely true [/end sarcasm]. But if this information is correct, what would be the correct pronunciation? Is it "yoo-no" with the first syllable pronounced "you"? On the other hand if there is no "y" sound, is the "oo" sound in "oo-no" similar to the sound in "food" or "too", or is it similar to the "oo" sound in "good" or "book"?

Thread: Review of the CAR-GO version of UNO

Geosmores — 2007-05-20T13:08:04+00:00

Game Review - CAR-GO UNO

Let me start by saying that this is not a review of the game UNO, pretty much everyone is familiar with the game and you either like or not. This is a review of the CAR-GO version of UNO. What makes the CAR-GO version different from other versions? Unlike some of the themed versions of UNO this version does not come with any new rules or cards. The packaging is what makes this version unique.

The concept was to create a version of a travel version of a family classic that could easily be taken and played on long car trips. This was achieved by creating a container that would fit inside of a standard automobile cup holder. The game comes in a cylinder container about 2 inches in diameter and 10 inches tall, about the size of Venti Starbucks cup.

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This container comes apart with storage area for the components and instructions. The round cards are stored on a spindle in the container that is also used as the draw stack during play, and the instructions are stored in a small compartment in the lid. The lid is also used as the holder for the discard stack. While this basically works as a container that does fit in the automobile cup holder, some of the finer points of the design fall a little short.

The container has a lot of unused space, almost the half the container is not used. The container could be about half the size and still do everything it does now. Or this unused space could be used to hold a pencil and paper for keeping score. The biggest problem with the design is the cards themselves. First they are round, not a really big deal, but it does make shuffling a bit of a problem. But the main issue is the thickness of the cards, they are very thin cardstock, slightly thicker than paper. Unless you are very carefully they can be easily bent, which I think will happen after a couple of long car trips.

So at a price point that is about 50% more than a standard UNO deck I feel that the CAR-GO version of UNO is really not worth it. While a standard UNO deck will make playing the car a bit more difficult they will hold up longer, take up less room, and be better suited to play with at locations other than the car.

Thread: Humor video: World Series of UNO

EndersGame — 2007-04-20T22:53:01+00:00

This is worth watching. Really!

Youtube Video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=biNXzYOxmb8

Thread: Re: UNO: A card Game I Actually Like

jamesdavis — 2007-02-10T09:05:50+00:00

TMuscle wrote:
Your right. Generally that game is really bad but there is depth and strategy that is needed in it. Sometimes it can be a great game. Sometimes it's not. I also find it rare to find people that actually find UNO. I mean most people i've met don't really like it. Nice review.

Thanks for your nice comments.

At the moment pretty much the only type of game I get to play multiplayer apart from settlers are card games. So ive figured rather than not playing these sorts of games and hardly ever gaming, I have made it a 'quest' to find some decent games in this category. So far UNO is number 1 and is lots of fun (sorry for the pun), while the others I have played are not very good games in my opinion. While I would rather play other games, because of the people I get to play with it means Im stuck with these sorts of games. I might as well make the best of the situation.

After playing a great many most just fall down after 1 or 2 plays for me. And so far it just stands up where every other card game falls down, its because you can do more than just just put the next number in sequence down or colour etc. These special cards add quite alot to this game, I would say that if there wasnt these special cards UNO would be a very boring game like the rest of them.

I have to try more of these varieties of games, so if anyone has some suggestions please let me know

Thread: Re: A Strategic Primer

nashja — 2007-02-09T22:08:45+00:00

Thanks for the excellent summary. I could perhaps add one favorite strategy practiced by my children

Cry when dad plays a +2 or +4

Although probably a mid-level strategy, it is rather effective at reducing the odds of being a repeated victim of the dreaded +2. Experts at this technique will pout first before releasing a real flood of tears.