Corners! How To Play - a Comprehensive Guide. Written by Peter V. Costescu RPClasses.com

Transcription

1 Corners! How To Play - a Comprehensive Guide. Written by Peter V. Costescu 2017 RPClasses.com

2 How to Play Corners A Comprehensive Guide There are many different card games out there, and there are a variety of different objectives to those games. The objective for the card game Corners! is simple. The goal is to get the most points. There are many different rules to Corners, but do not worry! They can be organized, as shown below: 1. Getting Started Quick Reference Materials Checklist of Dealer Decisions Important Rules for Playing a Card Important Notes on Scoring Materials Setup Actions Information About the Cards Abbreviations Card Values and Ranks The Joker On Your Turn Where You Can Play A Card Drawing and Discarding Failure to Draw After a Legal Play Penalty for an Illegal Play Scoring Basics of Scoring Double Plays Triple Plays and Beyond Scorekeeping Ending the Game The Beginning of the End Ending Ending Starting the Next Round Tips and Strategies

3 1. Getting Started 1.1 Quick Reference Materials. These are a few lists that you can use as a quick reference. They list important concepts without going into too much detail Checklist of Dealer Decisions How many decks will be used (See step 1. in 1.3 Setup Actions) Whether there is a 15-second time limit for a player s turn (See 4.4 Scorekeeping) Whether jokers will be used (See 2.3 The Joker) Where to place the starting card (See 1.3 Setup Actions) If obstacles should be used, how many should there be, and where should they be (See 1.3 Setup Actions) What the playing surface should be (See 1.2 Materials) How big the playing area should be (See 1.3 Setup Actions) Which ending will be used (See 5.2 Ending 1 or 5.3 Ending 2) Important Rules for Playing a Card You must play your card next to a card that matches it in suit or rank Double/triple/four-way plays only need one legal connection via suit or rank You cannot play if there is an obstacle blocking you (you cannot move obstacles) Once you touch the table with a card, it must stay there (if it is a legal play) If it is not a legal play, you must withdraw the card, not place any other card, and not draw Important Notes on Scoring You must find the card on the opposite side of the column or row from the card you played. You add its value and the value of the card you played If that value is a multiple of five, you gain that number of points. If it is not a multiple of five, you DO NOT GAIN POINTS Repeat the procedure for all the columns or rows adjacent to your card 2

4 These are quickreference pictures for scoring 3

5 1.2 Materials. There are a few things you will need: A deck (or two) of cards (See step 1. in 1.3 Setup Actions) Ideally, there would be a person who is not playing to be the scorekeeper. However, if there is no scorekeeper available, one of the players can do the duty. (See 4.4 Scorekeeping) A playing surface (The playing surface can be a table, the floor, or any flat surface. The dealer chooses what the playing surface should be. He or she also decides its limits; see 1.3 Setup Actions.) Optionally some obstacles (e.g. books or boxes) (See 1.3 Setup Actions) 1.3 Setup Actions. These are the first steps to setting up the game after you have gathered your materials: 1. The dealer should shuffle the deck(s) before play. The dealer should decide if a second deck is used. For a group of two or three people, it is probably fine to have just one deck. However, with four to six people, two decks are best. Theoretically, any number of people could play Corners, and more decks would be added. For practical purposes though, the number of players should be limited to about six. It is ultimately up to the dealer to decide how many decks are played with. 2. Then, the dealer deals five cards to everyone. The pattern the dealer uses does not matter. (e.g., the dealer could give 5 cards to one person, then 5 cards to another, and so on until everyone has five cards). Players should keep their cards in their hands, so that other players can not see what cards they have. 3. After dealing, the dealer takes the top card off the deck and places it face up on the table. The position of the starting card is important, because cards will be placed on all sides of that card. The dealer can make the game more interesting by placing the card right by the edge, where there is no room for a card to be played next to it on that side. (If there is room between a card and the edge of the table, and a player wants to play a card there, and if the new card does not fall off the edge of the table, the play is legal). (See 3.1 Where You can Play A Card) 4

6 4. The dealer then places the draw pile somewhere out of the way, but still reachable by all players. If the draw pile gets in the way of plays, it can be moved. 5. The dealer may decide to place obstacles in the playing area. The obstacles act similar to the edge of the table; they block cards from being played. 6. The dealer must also decide the limits of the playing surface. For instance, if you are playing on the floor, you probably do not want the playing surface to cover the whole floor. The dealer will mark off some area as the playing surface, perhaps by placing a pencil or a stick. 7. The dealer must also decide 7.1. if a 15-second time limit is used for each turn (See 4.4 Scorekeeping) 7.2. if jokers will be used (See 2.3 The Joker) 7.3. which ending will be used (See 5.1 Ending 1 or 5.2 Ending 2) The person to the left of the dealer goes first, and play continues clockwise. Playing surface. This is an example playing area. All setup actions have been taken by the dealer. Note that there is an obstacle (the overturned box). In this case, the dealer has decided that the right limit of the playing surface is the right edge of the obstacle. The upper limit is the pencil. The edge of the table serves as the other boundaries. The starting card is not centered; the dealer put it in its position (which is very close to two of the edges of the playing surface) to limit plays on the right and lower sides of the card. Also note that the draw pile is out of the way in the lower left-hand corner. If needed, it can be moved. 5

7 2. Information About the Cards 2.1 Abbreviations. Shown below are abbreviations used in this manual. A = Ace K = King Q = Queen J = Jack 2 10 = 2 10 W = Joker (W stands for wildcard; see 2.3 The Joker) = Clubs = Diamonds = Hearts = Spades Example: 3 = Three of Diamonds 2.2 Card Values and Ranks. Each card has a different value, that is, the amount of points that it is worth. The rank of the card is its unique symbol. The suit of a card does not affect its value or rank. The rank and value of a number card are equal to the number on the card (e.g. 4 has a rank of 4 and a value of 4 points) The Jack, Queen, and King have ranks of J, Q, and K, respectively, and a value of 10 points The Ace has a rank of A and a value of 11 points Note: As will be discussed in On Your Turn, you must play next to a card that has either the same suit, or the same rank. Now, the ten, the jack, the queen, and the king cannot be played next to each other based solely on rank. A ten and a jack are worth the same number of points, but they have different ranks. They can obviously be played next to each other if they have the same 6

8 suit, but as far as rank is concerned, they are different. Do not forget, however, that a ten may be played next to a ten, a jack may be played next to a jack, and so on. This is illustrated by a picture in 3.1 Where You Can Play a Card. 2.3 The Joker. A joker is a wildcard. Like other card games, when you play it, you can turn it into anything you want. Unlike other games, the joker does not have to stay the same card for the rest of the game! On any other player s turn for the rest of the game, he or she may optionally turn the joker into a different card, in addition to playing their normal card. The joker stays the same card until it is changed. 7

9 3. On Your Turn 3.1 Where You Can Play A Card. On your turn, you normally play a card onto the playing area next to a previously played card or the starting card. You play on the sides of the cards. The card you play next to must have the same suit or the same rank as the one you are playing (remember, the Ten, Jack, Queen, and King do not have the same rank; they are only worth the same amount of points). You may 8

10 play on any of the four sides of the card; top, right, bottom, and left. You may not play diagonally (i.e. you may not place a card on another card s corner). You cannot play a card on top of someone else s card. Also, remember that the edge of the table (and possibly obstacles) will block you from playing. If a card is on the edge of the table, and it does not fall off, it is legal. If it falls off, it is treated as an illegal play, and you are penalized for it (See 3.2 Penalty for an Illegal Play). Note: The terms legal and illegal are applied to both plays and card connections. A legal play is a play that has a legal connection to at least one card that is adjacent to it. Two cards have a legal connection if they have the same suit, or the same number, or both. 3.2 Drawing and Discarding. After you play a card, you draw a new one, so that you always maintain the five cards in your hand. If, on your turn, you either cannot make a legal play, or choose not to play, you must discard one of your cards and draw a new one. Once the draw pile runs out, if there is a discard pile, the discard pile should be shuffled and used as a new draw pile. Once that pile runs out, the discard pile from it is shuffled and reused, and so on. If at some point the draw pile runs out but there is no discard pile, then the game is over (See 5.1 The Beginning of the End). 3.3 Failure to Draw. If you do not draw, you are penalized by skipping playing a card on your next turn and instead drawing a card to get back up to five. If you do not draw on that turn, you must draw two cards on your turn after that, but not play. Also, if by the time it is the offending player s next turn there will be no cards left to draw from (because it is near the end of the game and the draw pile and discard pile are almost empty), then the offending player should draw immediately. To catch people who are not drawing, players may ask how many cards another player has in his or her hands. 9

11 3.4 After a Legal Play. Once you have made a legal play (that is, touched a card to the table adjacent to a card that matches it in suit or rank), the played card must stay where it is. You cannot change your mind once you have touched the table with your card. 3.5 Penalty for an Illegal Play. The penalty for making an illegal play (that is, touching a card to the table adjacent to a card that does not match it in suit or rank, or having a card fall off the edge of the table) is to remove the card back to your hand and to not play a card that turn. Obviously, you do not draw. 4. Scoring 4.1 Basics of Scoring. After your card has been played, you determine how many points you gained. To determine that, you add the value of the card you played and the value of the card on the opposite end of the row or column of cards upon which you played your card. Once you 10

12 have added those two values, see if it is a multiple of five. If it is, you gain points equal to the sum you just calculated. If it does not add up to a multiple of five, you gain no points. 4.2 Double Plays. As the game progresses, and people play on the top and bottom sides of cards in addition to the left and right sides, the game grows in an up and down direction. Now double plays can be made, such as this one. Only one legal connection of suit or rank is required from the played card to an adjacent card, as shown in the picture. However, it is okay if there is more than one legal connection. 11

13 4.3 Triple Plays and Beyond. On some occasions, triple plays may be made, such as the one shown below. You can see that a card played in the middle of a row (or column) scores with both ends of that row. Points were also scored in the up and down direction. Theoretically, a four-way-play could made, which is the shown triple play but with a card on the bottom side, so that there is a hole where a card can be played. However, it is rather unlikely that that would ever happen. 4.4 Scorekeeping. After you have tallied up the points you received on your turn, you must announce to the scorekeeper how many points you received. If the player accidentally reports fewer points than he scored, no one is obliged to correct him. However, if he reports more points than he actually scored, the other players should correct him. The scorekeeper writes 12

14 down your points, and then announces those points back to all the players. At that second, the optional fifteen-second time limit to place a card on the table starts. The timer ends when the card touches the table. If one of the players is acting as scorekeeper, and the fifteen-second time limit is being used, another player can start the timer when the scorekeeper is about to play (by announcing the points of the player previous to the scorekeeper). 5. Ending the Game 5.1 The Beginning of the End. Since the draw pile/recycled discard pile is not infinite, it will eventually run out, and the number of cards in players hands will start to decrease because no one can draw. Gameplay stops when a player runs out of cards, that is, when a player plays the last card in his or her hand, and the scorekeeper has written it down and announced it back out. No more plays are made after this point. At this point, the ending the dealer chose at the beginning goes into effect. 5.2 Ending 1. In the first ending, the values of all the cards that are still in players hands are totaled up into one number. That number is then added to the score of the player who ran out of cards. Once that has been added, the round is over. 5.3 Ending 2. In the second ending, each player with cards left in his/her hands sums up the values of the cards in his/her hand and subtracts that value from his/her score for the round. The score of the player who first went out stands unaltered. After all the subtraction, the round is over. 5.4 Starting the Next Round. When the round ends (See 5.2 Ending 1 or 5.3 Ending 2), the person to the left of the old dealer is the new dealer for the new round. You should play as many rounds as there are people, so that the job of dealer continues clockwise until the person who was dealer first would be the new dealer. Do not play that round. Instead, tally up all the 13

15 points from all the rounds. The person with the highest total score wins the gameplay session. Example: There are three players. Player 1 is the dealer for the first round, so Player 2 (who is to the left of P1) is the dealer for the second round. For the third round, P3 is the dealer. After the third round, since everybody has been dealer, each player totals up his scores from all three rounds and the player with the highest score wins. 6. Tips and Strategies Corners! is a unique card game, with a very simple objective, which is to get the most points. There are three important rules to remember when playing Corners: Always connect via suit or rank (although only one legal connection is required for double/triple/four-way plays). The points you score must add up to a multiple of five to count. You must always draw after your turn, or you will be penalized. There are many pointers and tips too, such as: Play your highest value cards first near the end of the game, so that if someone goes out, they don t get those high value cards (or you don t have high values subtracted from your score, if you are using the second ending). Look for double, and even triple plays, as these can potentially score more points than single plays (which can only score a max of twenty points). However, always choose the play that gives you the highest score. Remember these few points, and you will score many of them! 14