Games - The Great Dalmuti

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	Games - The Great Dalmuti

The Great Dalmuti is a card game designed by Richard Garfield and published in 1995 by Wizards of the Coast. It is a variant of the public domain game President, also known as "Asshole." The game was awarded "Best New Mind Game 1995" by Mensa, and was in Games Magazine's "1996 Games 100." The game fell out of print, but was re-released in 2005. The cards feature artwork by Margaret Organ-Kean.

Game Mechanics

Though based on a public domain game, the Dalmuti deck is non-standard. There are a number of each rank of cards (1 through 12) equal to that rank, so twelve 12s, eleven 11s, and so on. There are also two Jesters, which are wild cards.

The game plays best with 5 to 8 players, though more are possible. The first player plays any number of cards from his or her hand, that have the same ranking. The next player in line may pass (choose not to play), or play the same number of cards, but they must be a lower ranking of card. The goal is to "go out," by getting rid of all of one's cards.

The rank of the players is also important. The order in which the players go out determines the seating for the next hand, and therefore the order in which they play. The player in the lead after a particular hand is "The Greater Dalmuti," and the player to his left is "The Lesser Dalmuti." The player to the Greater Dalmuti's right is "The Greater Peon" and the player to that player's right is "The Lesser Peon." At taxation time, before each round, the Greater Dalmuti gives any two cards from his hand to the Greater Peon, who must give up his two best cards. The Lesser Dalmuti swaps one card with the Lesser Peon in a like manner. If a player is dealt both Jesters, he or she may call for an end to taxation. If that player is the Greater Peon, all players move to the opposite seats, with the Peons rising to the top. These ranks are also enforced for other aspects, such as clearing the cards after a round, determining who gets the most comfortable seat, or getting drinks or other social aspects. The rank can change every hand, so being particularly mean to one's lessers can come back to haunt one.

There are optional rules for scoring, but the game is generally played simply for fun.

Card Names and Ranks

Each card in Dalmuti has a medieval name. Each rank is represented by an equal number of cards to its rank, except for the two Jesters.

Corporate Shuffle

Dilbert's Corporate Shuffle was a Dalmuti spinoff based on the comic strip Dilbert
. Corporate Shuffle used the same mechanic, but set it in Dilbert's cubicle hell. The Dalmuti and Peon ranks were replaced by the Big Boss, Little Boss, Senior Intern, and Junior Intern. Taxation became Executive Bonuses, and Revolution became Corporate Takeover.

The cards have ranks 10 through 1 in those frequencies, plus two Dogbert wild cards that rank higher than all others. Corporate Shuffle also adds several special cards to the mix:

Twirling Wedgie, a card with value 6 which also allows the player to choose another player who may not play any further cards in that round.
Ratbert, a single card with value 11 (worse than any other card) with the special rule that any player who wins a trick
containing Ratbert must take it into their hand, unless no other cards were played in the hand or the trick winner played his last card in the round. Thus, this allows players a "free" chance to throw away a useless single, with the tradeoff that they'll have to offer the same chance to other players later in the hand.
Dogbert, World Ruler, a single card with value 0 (better than any other card) but which cannot be combined with wild cards to make a larger set. This continues the logical pattern of including fewer copies of better valued cards; the value 1 card can be paired with wild cards, thus a set of two 1s is possible, but this card cannot be placed into a set by any means and thus has the best value possible in the game.

Dalmuti's

In 1997, Wizards opened a series of game centers, with the flagship center being in Seattle near Wizards' corporate headquarters in Renton. The restaurant at the flagship center was called Dalmuti's.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Great Dalmuti ]

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