1st player out: Greater Ruler

2nd player out: Lesser Ruler

next player out

next player outLast player out: Greater Peasant

gives 2 best cards

gives 1 best card

Ruler and Peasantan unfair card game for 4 or more playersAn adaptation of Dalmuti by Richard Garfield

Set up: Deck of cards with 2 Jokers. For more than seven players you can use two decks. Take out 3 Kings, 2 Queens and 1 Jack and set them aside.

Goal of the game: be the first player to get rid of all your cards. But in this game, there are rulers and peasants, and the peasants have to give their best stuff to the rich. That’s unfair!

Play: Each player draws a card from the deck. Highest untied card is the Greater Ruler player. Aces are low. The player on the right hand side of the Greater Ruler is the Lesser Ruler player. The player to the left hand side of the Greater Ruler player is the Greater Peasant, and the player to their left is the Lesser Peasant. In between the rulers and the peasants is the middle class. The Greater Peasant shuffles the deck together, and deals out cards starting with themselves and going clockwise (to the left). (The peasants can wind up with more cards to get rid of. That’s unfair!) After the cards are dealt, there is a tax: the Greater Peasant gives the Greater Ruler their best two cards. The Lesser Peasant gives the Lesser Ruler their one best card. That’s unfair! Then the Greater Ruler player gives the Greater Peasant any two cards they want, and the Lesser Ruler gives the Lesser Peasant any one card they want to give.

The Greater Ruler player gets to start and makes the first play (called the lead) on the first trick (one turn of the game). Usually when you have the lead, you play your worst card. A lead can be any one card, or pair, or three-of-a-kind, or four-of-a-kind. Then the player to the left of the last play can play the same kind of play (single, pair triple or quadruple) that has to be higher than the last play. But you never have to play – you can always choose to pass if you want, and save a good card for later when it will count for more.

Example: a player plays two 2s. The next player can play two 4s, but not one King, or three 7’s, even though the King or the 7 is higher than a 2. (So try not to break up your sets! They’re usually useful.)

When every player gets a chance to play and either can’t or passes, the trick is finished. The Greater Peasant has the job of cleaning up the cards (of course), and the last person who played gets to lead to start the next trick. (Usually getting rid of their worst card.)

The Jokers are the only card higher than the King. But they can also be a wild card; so, for example, you can play a Joker and a Queen as a pair of Queens. The other special thing about Jokers is that if a player has both of them at the start of a game, they can declare “Freedom!” (That means no taxes this game.)

The first player to get rid of all their cards wins, but play goes on until everyone is done. The first player out is the new Greater Ruler player, the second player out is next, etc., until the last

player out is the new Greater Peasant. The Greater Ruler doesn’t move, instead everyone else moves to their new seat. The Greater Peasant shuffles and deals again.

It’s fun if people play act a bit to fit their role at the table. “You there, peasant! Clean up those cards!”