(This text is not complete, but I posted it just to let people get started.)

The Spirit of Mao

How to Start Your Own Game

I am writing this text to allow you, gentle reader, to start your own game of Mao. What I will do is, not tell you the rules, but convey the spirit of the game so that you, too, can have fun. You see, the particular rules themselves aren't as important as how you play. I will attempt to pass on the *important* aspects of the game.

Mao is fun. This is the overriding aspect of the game, and supercedes all other aspects including the official rules. Despite the harsh and unyielding nature of the rules, you have to do something about the game if it's no longer fun. Officially, for example, a player entitled to create a new rule can make any rule at all, such as "every time the Queen of Spades is played, you have to pay a hundred dollars," or perform a demeaning action, or some other thing that's patently unfair. As one of my friends said, "Yes, you're allowed to put in that rule. We'll just never play with you again, that's all."

Does this mean that the game changes to accommodate weaker players? Well, yes, as much as it can within the framework of the game. Compare it to chess, where a beginning player might be allowed to take back a move or have a handicap advantage. But you wouldn't actually change the *rules* of chess --a knight is still a knight, for example, and if the beginner loses, he loses.

Keep all this in perspective as I describe the other aspects of the game:

Mao is consistent. The rules form the backbone of Mao, so you have to make sure they are enforced consistently. This means that you cannot fail to penalize a player because you feel sorry that s/he is getting too many cards. If you do so, it may prevent the other players from correctly figuring out the rule.

Also, you have to be constantly vigilant in enforcing your rule. Suppose you have a rule where whoever plays a Queen has to sing. Someone plays a Queen of Hearts and you forget to call the penalty because you were too busy trying to figure out someone else's rule. Now it's too late because two other players have already taken their turn. Players will then eliminate the possibility that your rule is "Sing for every Queen" because there was a Queen played that didn't require singing. You now have two choices:

1. Call a Point of Order. You can say, "I should have called a penalty when the Queen was played, but we'll let that pass this time."
2. Change the rule so that it's still consistent. If this is the first time someone has played a Queen, you can change it to: sing only if it's a black Queen that's played. (You should not change it to: you don't have to sing if it's the first Queen and it's a Queen of Hearts and the player is a brown-haired male.)

Mao is creative. The rules don't necessarily have to be that when you play a certain card, you have to do something. It could have to do with turn order, or the way you sit or stand. Some rules even modify other rules. For example, a friend's rule once required that words in a phrase be out of order, such as "Failure to a penalty card take!" (Anyone who didn't follow this rule was penalized with "Failure to like Yoda be!" after the Star Wars character.) I classify rules into four types:

1. Find the trigger. For example, when a club is played on a heart, you have to say, "Killer!" (because the player clubbed a heart) The players have to figure out when they have to say the word.
2. Find the action. Example: whoever plays a Queen has to touch his/her own chin, or else they get penalized for "Failure to be a Thwiggel-thwoggel." If you make sure you touch your chin casually, as if just doing out of habit, you can go for quite a long time while the other players try to figure out why they keep getting penalized while you don't.
3. Remember the rule. These rules are easy to figure out, but when there are ten or twelve rules active, it can easily slip from the mind out of carelessness. Sometimes even the basic rules can be forgotten, as my sample games show.
4. Just plain silly rules. These include singing, imitating barnyard animals, or whatever is suitable for your group at the moment.

Use Points of Order Points of order are irreplaceable for clarifying any situation that has become muddled. Someone you thought had failed to play might have, for example, drawn a card without playing one. Someone might have said something unclearly. Or perhaps you just want to make sure about a new secret rule: "Now, Chris, you did not call any penalty when this card here was played, right?" Also good for when games are interrupted by phone calls or when nature calls.

Of course, you need to observe the rules for Points of Order (see my sample game for this) --you wouldn't want to make it too easy now, would you?

Will the New Rule Be Playable? New players are always surprised by this, but one of the more difficult aspects of Mao is choosing a good secret rule when you win! Factors to consider are:

1. Is it fun? This includes not only the nature of the rule but how difficult it is. You don't want it too hard, or else you will be the only one escaping the penalties! The late Martin Gardner, in describing the game "Patterns" in Scientific American, said that you know you have a good "lateral thinking" type creative rule when some players get the rule easily and others take forever to figure it out. (Make sure it's not always the same players who get the rule easily, or else it could simply be background bias; eg. when playing with math majors and literature majors, don't always put in heavy mathematical rules.)
2. Will I remember to enforce it? Another reason not to make the rule too hard: when someone else figures out the rule, that player can enforce it, decreasing the chances of you slipping up and forgetting. Hard rules sometimes occur because the trigger seldom happens (eg. when four Aces are played in a row), in which case you might actually forget to enforce the rule when it does happen.
3. Will it work with previous rules? For example, if playing a Queen already triggers another rule, you may want to think twice before making it the trigger to your rule. Other examples may be more subtle --for example, a face card (Jack, Queen, King) might trigger your rule --but if the Queen already triggers another rule, again you're doubling up on the Queen.
4. Will it work with future rules? A friend of mine once made a rule: say the initials of the words instead of the words themselves. Instead of "Failure to Say, 'Have A Nice Day!'", one might be penalized by "F T S, H A N D!" This was all very fine and dandy until someone won and needed to put in a new rule. Now, the players needed to figure out the new rule based on just the initial letters of the penalty! Fortunately, the new rule was: cancel the Initial Letters Rule!

Guess! Try different ideas! I have seen players, especially new players, hesitate to do anything because they might be penalized. They would rather not do anything and be penalized for Failure to Play Within Five Seconds. That's not the idea! In fact, if I were trying to figure out a bunch of difficult rules, I would forgo the hope of winning and just try anything and everything to help me determine what the rules are. In my version of Mao, when someone eventually wins, everyone starts over again with the same number of cards. But more importantly, you can easily catch up once you have the advantage over the other players of knowing the secret rule.

Good luck with your own game of Mao!