Welcome, to Triple Topper!
This is as lightning fast as Egyptian War, except use Triple Topper cards. The object is to win the whole deck.
Note there are 2 different versions, one with a Squares deck, and one with a full deck.
Equipment: Squares deck with joker(s) optionally added.
Players 2 to however many you can fit around a table and all have equal access to a center pile without putting someone at a geographical disadvantage.
Set up:
1. Select order and dealer randomly. Dealer shuffles and asks person on right to cut. The dealer deals them out face-down, 1 at a time, as close to the whole deck that can be evenly dealt out. Put any remainder face down in the center.
2. Everyone turns over their top card face up for all to see. Whoever has the highest number goes first. All players place the card they just showed face down on the bottom of their stack. If there is a tie for the highest, those involved with the tie will continue to peel face up cards and bury them face down to the bottom until there is one leader. This person is the first starter
Play:
1. Staring a pile.
1a. The pot starts as uncontrolled and undefined. Whoever has the honor of stating the pile puts down art least 2 cards according to these rules: (he's called the "Starter".)
1b. At the beginning of each round, the pot is uncontrolled. If the first card is a Joker, the pot is undefined. The first card is that isn't a Joker makes the pot defined. a reference card.
1c. The starter lays cards until the pot is defined. Then he lays another card and follows the starting card all future card are tureatly like this when the pot is uncontrolled:
2. 3 things can happen based on what card is laid on a defined yet uncontrolled pot:
2a. If it matches NEITHER in color or suit, his turn is over and it passes to the next player who lays one card at this point. The pot is still uncontrolled.
2b. If it matches either color or suit, the pot is controlled by the winner, where different rules are in place.
2c. If at any time, there is a match of any 2 variables on 2 cards back to back, or if there's a single match on 3 cards back to back to back, or if a Joker appears anywhere except when the pot is defined, anyone can slap it and claim the pot. Whoever's hand is lowest and most directly on the pile wins. The pot can be as small as 2 cards or may be larger.
3. If someone is in control, the next player tries to take control. The number of chances is on the number shown on the card that was used to take control from 1 to 4. That person, takes cards and shows them face up one by one until either:
3a. The number of chances or the pile of cards run out, in which case, the person in control takes the pot, and places the pile face down underneath his current stack. It is usually suggested to hold your cards in your weak hand (left hand for right-handed players) so you can quickly put the cards underneath, play, and catch opponents off guard.
3b. One of his cards matches whatever top card was previously played (either his own or the controller’s) in either color or suit, in which case that person is in control, and the next person must try to take control according to rule 3.
3c. There is a slappable combination described in rule 2c, in which case whoever slaps it first wins the pot.
4. If someone correctly slaps the pot, they receive all the cards in the center.
5. Note it is possible to wrongly slap. In that case the wrong slapper (bottom most if there’s more than one) places 3 cards face down to the center, to be taken by the winner of that pot. After the penalty, play resumes where it left off. Note someone can bury a slapping combination in hopes of adding to the center stack. One could do this by quickly playing another card on the slappable combination. But if it happens to continue the combination, the late slap is legal For the purposes of the delayed slap, a Joker always counts as an exact triple topper of what was beneath it.
6. An illegally laid card has one of 2 different penalties.
6a. If you go too quickly and bury a color or suit match that may or may not be a slap, that match doesn’t count, because you acknowledged there was no match.
6b. If you go at the wrong time, the wrongly placed card is placed face down, as a penalty card, and the correct order is restored
6c. If you put down too many cards, or the wrong card, or 2 at a time, or go in the wrong order, and someone slaps at your card at what appears to be a legal slapping combination, the successful slapper gets 3 cards from the person who played in error. who puts it on the bottom of his pile.
6d. If an illegal card was played and there was what would have been a wrong slap slapping combination, even if it were legal, the single illegal card, and the slapper’s next 3 cards are placed as penalty.
6e. Hurry up rule (optional): if 3 seconds go by and no one plays, the person who should have played the first card of his turn as a penalty. It cannot gain control, counts as one of your 1-4 cards, and that person can’t slap while that penalty card is played until the next card. If the delay is at the start of the turn, if no mutually agreed time out is called, the first 2 cards are played and the second card is subject tot he rules above, because that’s the first card that can control or be slapped by the penalized person.
7. When you have no cards, you may either give up, or slap from beyond the grave. Staying where you are, with hands in the normal position as if you were holding cards, you can slap at any legal slapping combination. If you slap correctly, you get all the cards in the pot and is treated like a regular slap win. If you incorrectly slap, you must wait until a another slap attempt is made by one of the other players, or a legal slap combination was passed up, before you can slap at a combination again. To show a legal slap combination that is passed up, stop the game (unless there’s 2 slapping combinations in a row, then slap then show if someone complains your slap was illegal.) and show the missed legal right after the second consecutive, or once the slap is covered and is seen there is no second slap right away.
8. When only one person has cards left and he legally makes his normal play after the the last opponent runs out of cards, and it isn’t a slap, or if he wins the slap, or if only one person has cards at the start of a pile, he/she wins.
Armageddon:
Rules are the same except:
1. You use a full deck with optional jokers.
2. A legal control combination is a double match, with Black, Blob and Question mark being wild matching whatever it tops, or if it’s the same wild, whatever that wild represented before. If there is no natural value below the card, the black, blob and question mark is considered a separate match, so a red heart ? followed by a green heart ? at the beginning is a legal match. In this case of an undeclared question mark wild, the next person makes a 5 card play if the matching card is a question mark and there is no number below it.
3. A legal slapping combination is a triple topper, or 3 cards that match in the same double topper way, back to back to back with wilds considered (like 3 red circles, or any wilds equaling red circles), or 4 cards with the same single variable back to back to back to back, with wilds considered, like 4 three’s.