Game: O'NO 99

Thread: O'NO 99 Rules

sirkerry — 2008-10-22T19:07:56+00:00

O'NO99
© 1980 International Games, Inc.
All rights reserved

INSTRUCTIONS
PLAYERS 2 to 8.
The object of O’NO 99 is to avoid totaling 99 points or more — the total number of points that would cause you to lose that round of play.

The game consists of 54 special cards and 24 tokens as follows:
Three each 2’s through 9: for a total of 24 cards
Four “Hold” cards
Six “Reverse” cards
Ten “Ten” cards
Four “Minus Ten” cards
Two “Double Play” cards
Four “99” cards
Twenty-four tokens

Hold, Reverse, Minus Ten and Double Play cards are “Special Helper” cards. With one or more of them in hand, a player may be able to avoid hitting the total of 99 points or over (See helper cards play).

THE O’NO 99 CARD: CANNOT BE PLAYED.
If you are dealt — or draw the O’NO 99 card, you must keep it and not play it. This leaves you only three good cards to play.

The O’NO 99 card can make the game harder to play, especially if you have two or more of them in one hand.

In the event that you have only O’NO 99 cards in your hand, when it is your turn to play you automatically lose, you cannot play (See O’NO 99 Option).

SELECTING DEALER.
Players may either mutually agree on a dealer or select a card, Using only numbers 2 through 10. Holder of the highest number becomes the dealer.

THE DEAL.
Dealer shuffles cards and deals each player 4 cards, one at a time, face down, starting to the dealer’s left. Remainder of the cards are placed face down in the center of the playing area, within every player’s reach. This is now the draw pile. In the event that the draw pile is exhausted before the hand ends, the dealer will reshuffle all exposed used cards to form a new draw pile. If players are using the token option for scoring and this is the first round of play, the dealer will give each player 3 tokens (See scoring).

THE PLAY.
Player to the dealer’s left will start by selecting a card from his hand, and playing it face up directly in front of him, calling out the card or number value. The same player then immediately draws another card from the draw pile.

Example: The first player plays a 9, calls it out. . . then immediately draws another card to replace the 9 card before the next person plays, the second player plays a 7, calling out 16. Thus the game continues by adding, subtracting, reversing, holding or playing double until one player eventually hits or exceeds the magic 99 number, ending the round. Note: You should always have four cards remaining in hand after each play (See penalty for failure to draw).

Note: If the draw pile runs out before play ends, reshuffle all played cards to form a new draw pile.

HOW TO PLAY THE HELPER CARDS.
The HOLD card, when played, maintains the point value passed to that player and passes the same point value to the next player. The REVERSE card,when played, holds the point value passed, and “reverses” the same point value and play-back in the opposite direction. Note: When two players are playing, and a reverse card is played, play does not revert back to the player playing the card. In a one-on-one game, the reverse card acts as a hold card (See Hold card play above).

The MINUS TEN card, when played, subtracts ten points from the point value passed to the player and passes the point value—ten points lower—to the next player. It is possible for the point value to be minus ten if a Minus Ten card is played first. In this case the next player adds on to the minus ten going back up toward zero or could play another Minus Ten card making the point value minus twenty. There is no restriction on when you can play the Minus Ten card.

Note: A minus 10 card may be played if the total is 0, then making the total a minus 10.

The DOUBLE PLAY card, when played, keeps the point value passed the same, and causes the next player to make a normal play plus one additional.

Example: Player number one passes 57 points to opponent number two, player two employs a Double Play card, keeping the total at 57 points. Player number three must now double play. Player three’s first play is a 9 card, making the total now 66 points. Then player three draws a card to replace the 9 card and plays again as usual. The Double Play card in most cases is a good helper; However, the player affected may, on his first play, use a Reverse Card, thus reversing the Double Play back. Play could continue between two players reversing, until eventually, one player will ultimately have to play double, or the player affected by the Double Play card, may play a Hold card on the first play, thus holding the Double Play card and passing the double play to the next player. Note: A player affected by the Double Play card may not play another Double Play card on his first play.

SCORING.
The dealer gives each player three tokens before the game begins. Each time a player loses a round, one token is taken away. If all three tokens are lost, a player is allowed to lose one more round. On a fourth loss, that player is completely out and the game continues until only one player is left (See option).

SCORING OPTION.
This is numerical scoring with the lowest score winning. A player is selected to keep score for all players (500 points is a suggested total for the game). Once a player reaches the total or greater, he is out and the play continues until only one player is left.

Example: Player #1 plays a 5 making the point value to player #2, 97 points total. If player #2 doesn’t have a Helper Card, he must play his lowest numbered card, making the point value 99 or greater, then he must draw a card to replace the last card played to end the round. A player may not say I will take the 15 point penalty for not drawing. He must draw. The only exception would be that if the affected player has all O’NO 99 Cards in hand, when it is that player’s turn to play, the hand is automatically over. He does not discard and draw.

Variation: The game can also be played where if one player reaches or exceeds 500 or the designated total, the game is over and the lowest score wins. Note: In the event of a draw, the tied players continue until one wins, having attained the lowest score.

Scoring works as follows:
Number cards count as face value.
Player that reaches 99 points or greater adds 25 points to his score.
Penalty for 99 card in hand — 20 points each.
Hold, Reverse, Minus Ten and Double Play cards — 15 points each.
Player with less than four cards in hand at end of game adds 15 points for each missing card (See penalty).

O’NO 99 CARD OPTION.
You have the option to play the 99 card when your point value ends in 0.
Example: If you are the first player your point value is 0, and you may get rid of ONE 99 card, the point value to the second player remains 0, and he may also do the same; if the point value to a player is 40, that person may play a 99 card and pass the point value of 40 to the next player who could also repeat the action. Only (1) 0’ NO 99 card may be played during a player’s turn.

PENALTY.
Once a card is played, another card must immediately be drawn before the next player begins. Failure to do so will mean a player has one less card in hand. Once that hand is over, the player will be assessed additional points if the point option for scoring is in use.
Example: If a player forgets to draw a card, he then has only 3 cards in hand. If one or two of them are 99 cards, the player may have only one card in hand that is playable.

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Kerbster76 — 2007-12-24T07:06:22+00:00

The back of the card

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Andre_g54 — 2007-09-06T08:49:36+00:00

O'NO 99 Card Game 1980 by: iGi (makers of UNO)

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wolf08 — 2006-10-22T17:44:09+00:00

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EndersGame — 2005-09-28T12:45:52+00:00

Sample numbers cards for O NO 99 card game

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EndersGame — 2005-09-28T12:45:52+00:00

Reverse side of O NO 99 game box, introducing the game

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EndersGame — 2005-09-23T13:07:46+00:00

Close-up of the dreaded O No 99 card!

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EndersGame — 2005-09-23T13:07:40+00:00

The special cards in the O No 99 card game

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EndersGame — 2005-09-23T13:07:37+00:00

Components for O No 99 card game

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EndersGame — 2005-09-23T13:07:34+00:00

Box for O No 99 game

Thread: Re: 2x question - what if back-to-back 2x?

cyoder — 2005-08-19T03:20:53+00:00

According to the rules:

Note: A player affected by the Double Play card may not play another Double Play card on his first play.

So that should prevent two DPs from getting played in a row. If an affected player were to play a number card followed by a DP, though, I imagine that the second DP would only count x2 for the next player (not x4).

(Hope the response wasn't so late as to not be helpful! )

Thread: O'NO 99

beauka — 2005-07-27T07:06:19+00:00

So you decided to take the time to click on a review of O'NO 99 and read it. If you're thinking about playing this game, you may want to turn your monitor off and stare at a blank screen for twenty minutes instead. You'll get more enjoyment out of it.

I am truly surprised at the current standing of this game (a BGG rating of around 5 with 27 ratings as of this review). While it does involve adding (and some subtracting) of whole numbers and could therefore be called educational, the big drawback is that there are so many more educational better and fun games available! If you want a teaching game, just go out and pick up one of the dozens of other educational games available that are actually fun and enriching.

Gameplay

In the game of O'NO 99, each player puts one of the four cards from their hand onto the play stack each turn and draws a replacement. Most cards have a value of anywhere from two to ten, along with a few assorted special cards to be explained below. Players add the value of their card to the cumulative sum of the stack until someone reaches 99 points or more, which is not desired. The goal of the game is to not be the person to hit 99 points or more. However, the special cards are so powerful and plentiful that, if played by experienced players, the game boils down to absolute 100% luck. How fun!

The special cards include:

1.) Hold Cards. If you play this as your card, the stack retains its current value and continues to the next player.

2.) Reverse Cards. If you play this as your card, the stack retains its current value and continues to the next player in the opposite direction. This is the same as a Hold Card in a two player game.

3.) Double Play Cards. If you play this as your card, the stack retains its current value (another Hold Card) and continues to the next player. They must then play two cards from their hand instead of just one.

4.) Minus Ten Cards. These cards subtract ten off of the stack total instead of adding points.

5.) 99 Cards. These cards can only be played if the stack total is a multiple of 10. If you draw one of these, it can stay in your hand the whole game and drastically limits your options for the rest of the game since you will effectively have one less playable card in hand. Indeed, you can get rid of these if your opponent somehow foolishly lets the stack value be a multiple of ten (10,20,30,40, etc). If you do manage to play one, the stack retains its current value and continues to the next player. (Wow, yet ANOTHER card that does the exact same as a Hold Card)

There are so many things wrong with this game that I don't even know where to begin. Firstly, you can see that the Hold Cards are extremely underpowered compared to the Reverse and Double Play Cards. All three have the effect of the Hold Card, except the last two add extra abilities (although in a two player game, which is likely to be the only number of players you'll ever be able to find willing to play this game more than once, the Reverse Cards are exactly the same as Hold Cards).

The 99 Cards are extremely restrictive, and you often find a player holding two or three, and even four is possible, meaning that player can no longer play for the rest of the game unless she gets passed the stack at an exact multiple of ten. Also, if you forget to draw a card on your turn, you play with one less card for the game's duration. So theoretically, you could have two players each with only two cards, both of them 99 Cards! I'm sure it has never happened, but I sure do love games that have the capability of an absolute perfect standstill!

Other seemingly un-playtested rules and perplexities include:

1.) Hefty penalties for holding a 99 Card or having less than four cards in hand at the end of the game. So not only do you play with a handicap the whole time, you also get hosed at the end of the game too.

2.) The 24 tokens included in the game serve absolutely no relevant purpose. The rules state that players should track losses and any player with four losses is out of the game, but it seems like these tokens were added onto the game in order to bulk up the contents list instead. Use paper and pencil, or better yet, just don't play this game more than three times.

3.) The entire game is flawed. Everyone I know who has played this game even just once has learned that the optimum play is to save all special cards until the very end. As long as you can play a valued card without hitting 99 or more points, you should hold onto the special cards. There is no point to playing a random Hold Card or other special card at any other time, because no other time matters in this game. What's the point of forcing someone to play two cards while the stack is at 47? How is not having to play a card at 81 going to help you? Only the last few plays make ANY difference on the outcome of the game. For all intents and purposes, it could be called O'NO 35 or O'NO 212, because the fluff between the first few points and last few points has no effect on the game. You may as well start the game at 85 and play to 99.

I am not generally this harsh on a game, especially a mass-marketed one that was created long before the days of our current paradise of German and strategy games. However, I find this game so bad and poorly designed that it's actually insulting to the other crappy mass-marketed cheap games from that era.

Thread: ONO'99

Tarrant — 2005-06-25T00:21:18+00:00

Wow. Such an old game, and not a single review.

I'm going to be honest and say I like this game, and always have really enjoyed it. If you told me I had to rate it (and at some point, I probably will), I doubt I would give it more than a 5 or a 6. And there is a lot of luck involved - in fact, that's pretty much all there is. But the "suspense" involved at the endgame, combined with the fact that it is an incredibly fast game, make it worthwhile to play a few rounds when you just want to sit and have some random, almost brainless, fun (even if you do have to use your brain for some basic mathematics).

That said, there is one change I would make that makes the game more fun (IMO) that I describe below.

ONO'99 consists of 52 cards, although I have always used two decks (yes, I'm one of the few people in the world that, as a kid, not only bought this, I bought it twice). There are numbers from 2 through 10, and a "-10" card. There are also "HOLD", "REVERSE", "DOUBLE PLAY", and "ONO'99" cards.

The object of the game is to keep the "running total" below 99. Every player is dealt a hand of four cards, and a player's turn is simple - play a card, then draw a card to bring the hand back to 4. Every card played adds to a running total (which starts at zero each hand). If it's at 8, and someone plays a 10, then it becomes 18, etc. "HOLD" cards are essentially worth zero, "REVERSE" are zeros that reverse the direction of play (think UNO), and "DOUBLE PLAY" cards require that the next player play two cards before play moves on (these are particularly nasty).

ONO'99 cards are placeholders, count as zero, but can only be played if the running total is a multiple of ten (0, 10, 20, etc.). If a player, to his incredible dismay, gets a hand of 4 ONO'99 cards, they lose the hand.

If, on a player's turn, they cannot play any card that keeps the running total below 99, they lose. The "official" rules say that the game then ends, and that person has a strike - the game provided poker chips for the purpose, which are handed out before the game, and removed as players get strikes - 3 strikes, someone is out of the game and no more hands are dealt to that player.

However, my group has found it much more entertaining to completely ignore the strikes and continue play when a player is "out" until ALL players but one cannot keep the running total below 99, and name that player the "winner" of the hand. This ensures that when someone is out of "strikes" they aren't sitting there while everyone else is dealt a hand each round.

Now, this isn't that complex a game, and every hand is really a matter of luck as to whether or not your draw enough low numbers (2's especially), REVERSEs, HOLDs, and DP's to live once the total gets to above 90 or so. There's no point whatsoever in playing a "good card" until the total is high enough that you are forced to do so (otherwise, simply play a number and increase the running total).

One could almost say "Just start the total at 98 and go from there" because the game really starts once the running total is >90 - that's when the HOLDs, the REVERSEs, the DPs come out, and you're always hoping that after you play a card, that you draw one that is useful.

There is a tiny bit of strategy in the proper use of a REVERSE vs. a HOLD - REVERSE it back to someone, and they have to play ANOTHER one of their "good" cards without anyone else having to play one, rather than it going around the table and everyone using one (or losing).

However, for the most part, we're talking laughs as people yell out "Awwww" and throw down their hands because they didn't draw that last HOLD they needed to stay alive, and other players are saying "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE" as they go to draw their replacement cards, hoping for one that extends their life. It gets quite intense when the running total is high, and played with the variant above (go until all players but one have "busted" out) is fairly entertaining.

This is a game that I should dislike. There's little strategy, it takes only a few minutes per hand to play, requires addition, and is all luck. But for some reason this game has, for something like two decades, always had a place in my collection of card games, and I've never found a group, gaming or casual, that disliked it when they just needed to kill 20-30 minutes.

Thread: 2x question - what if back-to-back 2x?

PieMan — 2004-12-06T00:40:48+00:00

What happens if there are back-to-back double-play (2x) cards played? Is that like passing along a 4x?

We played it that way, but I'm curious if that's the right interpretation.

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Tycho — 2004-08-14T13:23:53+00:00

Gibsons Games 1988, new box and three revised card faces