189 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
189 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
From mirk@warwick.UUCP Tue Apr 18 17:45:56 1989
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From: mirk@warwick.UUCP (Mike Taylor)
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Subject: A brilliant new card game (long but fabulous)
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Disclaimer: This game invented by Carver/Hodge/Lessacher/Taylor
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Rules for "Enid" - A card game for 2 to 5 players
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=================================================
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The game of Enid developed over a number of late nights towards the
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end of last term and start of this; it is based on the classic
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card-game "Blackjack", but we hold it to be more educational, since it
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has strong influences from the fields of computer science, piscatorial
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zoology and english literature.
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For the benefit of those readers not acquainted with the relatively
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pedestrian game of Blackjack, a summary follows. Those who already
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know this game can skip straight to the section detailing the ways in
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which Enid differs from Blackjack, after the dashed line.
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In Blackjack, each player is dealt a hand of seven cards, and the
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remainder of the deck is placed face down on the table, except for one
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card which is turned face up. The first player to get rid of all his
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(or her; throughout this article, masculine pronouns are used in a
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non-gender-specific sense) cards is the winner. A player loses a card
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by placing it face up on top of the current face-up card; it must
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follow either suit or rank except in special circumstances mentioned
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below.
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Play starts with the player to the left of the dealer, and passes to
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the left until one player has one. Any player unable to take his turn
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must instead draw the top card from the face-down deck. When this
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deck is exhausted, it is replenished from the stock of face-up cards.
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This is "natural" Blackjack. As it stands it is a rather dull game;
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thus it is enhanced by the addition of "magic" cards. That is, cards
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of certain rank have special effects. These are:
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Ace: The player playing an ace nominates a new suit, which
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the next play must follow.
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Two: The next player is forced to pick up two cards unless
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he is able to lay another two, in which case the
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player after must pick up four cards. If he is able
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to play another two, he may do this instead, in which
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case the next player picks up six, etc.
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Seven: The direction of play is reversed.
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Eight: The player who laid the eight MUST immediately follow
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it with ANY OTHER CARD in his hand; the second card
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need not follow suit or rank as in the usual case.
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It the player is unable to follow an eight (ie. it was
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his last card) he must draw from the deck.
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Ten: The player may lay any or all cards from his hand which
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are of the same suit as the Ten just laid.
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Jack: A black Jack causes he next player to pick up seven
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cards, unless he can follow with a red jack (which
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neutralises the blackjack) or another black jack, in
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which case the next player must draw fourteen cards,
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unless able to lay a red jack.
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Queen: The next player is skipped.
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King: The next two players are skipped.
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One last rule is that a player with only a single card left must say
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"Last card" as soon as he has laid his last-but-one; otherwise he must
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pick up seven, in an astonishingly witty way.
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This, then, is the usual game of Blackjack. Some regional variations
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exist in the exact powers of the magic cards, but those listed above
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are typical, and make a balanced and witty game.
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/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
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In a different league altogether, however, is Enid. This builds on
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the usual rules in a number of ways. Firstly, the suits are renamed;
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no longer are they Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds, but Carp,
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Sturgeon, Halibut and Dalmations. (The dalmation is, of course, not a
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fish, but is included for historical reasons). Secondly the card
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ranks are renamed after eminent computer scientists:
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Black Ace: Rob McMahon (Warwick computer Unit's SuperGuru)
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Red Ace: Jeff Smith (Warwick computer Department's Guru)
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Two: Marvin Minsky (AI pioneer and researcher)
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Three: Denis M Richie (Co-inventor of C and UNIX)
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Four: Brian W Kernighan (Co-inventor of C)
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Five: Tarski (aka. "The Boring One")
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Six: Alan Turing (Pioneer of computational theory)
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Seven: Alonzo Church (as in the Church-Turing thesis)
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Eight: Aho/Sethi/Hopcroft/Ullman (Authors who only ever
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work together)
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Nine: Terry Wogan (Not really a computer scientist)
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Ten: Terry Winograd (Natural language researcher)
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Black Jack: Mark Rafter (Warwick C++ guru)
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Red Jack: John Buckle (Warwick frisbee guru)
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Queen: Julia Dain (Warwick compiler-design guru)
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King: Ken Thompson (The inventor of UNIX)
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Obviously, people form other establishments may wish to rename the
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Aces, Jacks and Queen after local people. For historical reasons, the
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red aces are always referred to as "Jeffy-pheasant(sic) without
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/cs/res", the King as "Kendall Mint Thompson", and the Queen EITHER as
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"Julia Dain", "Julia Ordain", "Julia Hors d'Ouvre" or "Julia Hors
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d'Ouvre which must be obeyed as all times". The Ten may be referred
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to as the "Terry Winograd", "Terry who Mage can't pronounce", or "The
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block who wrote SHRDLU". Mage can't pronounce "Winograd".
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To encourage the use of these new names, each card played must be
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named by the player as it is laid, without reading it off a list.
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This is difficult at first, and tends to discourage the over-use of
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the eight, but in time becomes second nature. Any player unable to
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name his card is forced to draw from the pack, and the card's "magic"
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effect, if any, is nullified.
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Whenever a Denis Richie or a Brian Kernighan is played, the player
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must make up a middle name, beginning with the appropriate initial,
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which may not be re-used later in the same session of play, on pain of
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being forced, once again, to draw from the deck. The middle names may
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not be proper nouns unless they are really good ones.
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Whenever an Alonzo Church is played, reversing the direction of play,
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the player laying the card must shout triumphantly at the player who
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*would* have played next, had the Church not been played: "Haaargh!
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Be Alonzo Churched! (a bit)".
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Anybody playing a black Alan Turing may force the next player to
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compose and recite a limerick, the first line being chosen by the
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player laying the Alan Turing, unless this player can follow the
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Turing with another black Alan Turing, which passes the limerick onto
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the next player, or a red one, which cancels it entirely. If it
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doesn't scan or rhyme properly, or is just no good, the other players
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may elect to force the poet to draw from the deck anyway.
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The card from which the game draws its name is, of course, the Enid
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Blyton. This card is always a nine, and its suit during any game is
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determined by the suit of the first card to be turned over at the
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start of the game. The enid is a kind of "smart-bomb" among cards -
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it can gets its possessor out of almost anything, for instance a Mark
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Rafter can be annulled not only by a John Buckle (to the ritual cry of
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"My John Buckle casts your Mark Rafter to type VOID!"), but also by
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the Enid Blyton. Similarly, the Enid can cancel any number of
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consecutive Marvin Minskys, or indeed Alan Turings.
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Another property of the Enid Blyton is that if the player laying it is
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able to name it correctly, then all other players are immediately
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forced to draw from the deck, thus making the Enid a useful weapon on
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the player with only one card remaining. (Incidentally, in this game,
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Blackjack's traditional call of "Last card" is replaced by "Last St.
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Francis of Assisi". Forgetting this results, predictably, in being
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forced to draw seven cards from the deck)
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Naming the Enid is a more difficult task than it may seem, since each
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time it is correctly named, the player playing adds another middle
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name onto the list, which starts empty at the beginning of the session
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of play (Note: it is *not* re-zero'd between games - only at the
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start of a whole new session) Once four of five such middle names
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have been added, it can become quite difficult to remember them all
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(They must of course, be in the right order)
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An example of a growing Enid, taken from the very first ever game of
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Enid that we played, is:
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Enid Blyton
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Enid Flamboyant Blyton
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Enid Flamboyant Disjoint Blyton
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Enid Flamboyant Disjoint Ornithological Blyton
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Enid Flamboyant Disjoint Ornithological Aestheticism Blyton
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A player attempting to lay the Enid, but unable accurately to name it
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must draw a number of cards from the deck equal to the current tally
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of middle names, and forfeits the right to add a new middle name.
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Well, there you have it. Curiously enough, this isn't *just* a set of
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silly rules, but does actually make a frogging good game - it keeps us
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amused for hours, and well repays the time taken in learning its
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rules, which are, of course, fairly fluid. I strongly urge you to
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have a go.
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If you play this game, please email me with any comments, ideas for
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new rules, particularly good middle names for Enid Blyton, etc. My
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address is in my signature at the bottom of this article.
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______________________________________________________________________________
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Mike Taylor - {Christ,M{athemat,us}ic}ian ... Email to: mirk@uk.ac.warwick.cs
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Unkle Mirk sez: "Gm Gm F#7 Bb Cm->Gm Eb->Gm F F; Gm G#7 Bb C Eb C Bb Dm->D Gm"
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