User:Pozzetti-holt/wallpaper

Wallpaper(cards)is a competitive card game where the goal is to reach 500 points. The scoring is based on hand rankings, similar to poker, but the tactics and structure differ considerably. The game is played with 52 cards made up of 10 cards in each of the 5 suites plus 2 jokers. Typically the suites are made up of the traditional spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds, but with the addition of blooms or doves. Players find that getting a 8 suited whist deck and thinning it out is the easiest as the pack is then more versatile than the official wallpaper pack.

Gameplay
The cards used are ace through to ten, with ten as the highest card. The use of a joker acts to further power the card it is twinned with but cannot be used on its own. Multiple hands are played, at the end of which each player calculates their score and adds it to the previous rounds. The first to 500 wins.

Each hand starts by dealing 6 cards from a shuffled wallpaper deck to each player. The remainder of the deck is placed, facedown, in the centre. Left of the dealer starts. The player chooses a card which he either sees as an asset or a card which he aims to lose. He then chooses an opponent from the other players. He lays down his card and states his intention. E.g. [on playing a 9 of spades] ‘I nine you with my nine of spades’ The opponent now has a choice of what card to play. If he can follow suite he must. By playing above the 9 i.e. with the 10 of spades, he will claim the card and add it to his hand. However, he could play a card lower than the 9, in which case the original player claims the card and adds it to his deck. If the opponent cannot follow suite, he may trump the card by playing a heart or instruct the player to ‘Paste off’ or pick up a card from the remainder of the pack. Once the challenge is complete, the play moves to the player on his left.

To gain points the players must construct sets of cards in their hand. Each of these has their own attributed value and at the end of the hand the combination of these sets gives the players score. To call ‘Wallpaper’ thus ending the hand, a player must have a hand made entirely of ‘sets’ in which no cards are used twice and no cards are left over. On top of this, the hand must be worth at least 30 points. Calling ‘Wallpaper’ has the added bonus of 50 points; however, it does not ensure that the caller has achieved the highest score. It is quite feasible that someone else’s hand scores higher than the caller’s. When making these sets within ones hand, the joker is seen as a wild card, i.e. taking the role of the players desired card. The joker, however, is not a wild card during play.

The joker works in tandem with the card of the player’s choice, from within his hand. To attack your opponent with a 9 of spades combined with a joker means that instead of forfeiting one card, the player must forfeit all cards in the chosen suite [spades] under the challenging number [9] to the player. However, if the opponent holds a higher card in the same suite than that which has been played with the joker they can claim the joker as their own. Only the joker is forfeited. Similarly if the opponent doesn’t hold any cards of the challenging suite a trump can be played to claim the joker. If the opponent holds no trump, or doesn’t desire the joker, they can choose to instruct the player to ‘Paste off.’

There are some bonus scoring hands. If at any time a player is holding a hand solely of hearts, ‘Double Wallpaper’ can be called. This totals the 50 points for calling Wallpaper, plus an additional 50 points for the hand of trumps. If the trumps are a flush, or straight, these points are added too.

If a player looses every card in their hand, they are entitled to call ‘Stripped Wallpaper.’ This holds a point score of 50 for the ‘Wallpaper’ and an additional 50 for the lack of cards.