2006.02.21
Egyptian Rattle Screw: ERS
(This post originally appeared on my old website back in 2003. This past weekend we played a couple rounds up in Tahoe and I thought I’d repost the rules.)
Egyptian Rattle Screw is a fairly simple card game similar to War but with an actual element of chance. We often called the game Rat Fuck back in college because it was so easy to get destroyed by opponents with only a handful of cards. The pacing is fast. After the jump are the rules as we played. I had a great time playing ERS with gTodd and Nate, and whoever else was along at the time (often Fraggle, Joy and/or Zapski, and even my sister learned to play).
The rules of ERS are simple. It is similar to the traditional card game called War (highest card wins the round) but with a “royal” variation and an element of chance. Mind you this is not (apparently) the official version of the game. This version can be played by any number of players, though 3 – 5 is optimal, and four is ideal.
Cards are dealt all around face down. Any extra cards are placed face up in the center and are ignored first round. Players NEVER look at their cards.
The player to the dealer’s right starts, placing his first card face up. The next player places his card on top of the pile until it comes to the first person to place his card. Cards are flipped away from the player so he cannot see it first (otherwise he would have an advantage).
In the case that all the cards are numbered (2 – 10) then the highest number card wins.
The “royal” variation is simple. If someone puts a royal card down (Jack, Queen, King or Ace) then the next player has a certain number of chances to place a royal card of his own. If he doesn’t then the person who placed the last royal gains the pile regardless of any previous plays.
The number of cards to place in the case of a royal follow:
Ace: four cards
King: three cards
Queen: two cards
Jack: one card
As you can see, it is very VERY good to have Jacks in your pile as the following person only has one chance to play a royal of his own.
The element of chance is determined by the placing of doubles. Whenever any two same cards are placed one on top of the other on the pile, the first person to slap the deck gets the pile (like a seven on a seven). In our games we’ve found it necessary to remove rings (and sometimes watches) from our slapping hands to prevent damaging our fellows.
Note: if a player slaps when there is no double he must give each player one of his cards from the top of his stack.
The player who wins the pile places it at the bottom of his own stack and starts the next round.
The game is over when other players have no more cards. If someone runs out of cards and more need to be played (for example, on an ace) then the next player finishes.
A sample game between three players:
Doug: Two
gTodd: Ten
Nate: Six
(gTodd wins and starts the new round)gTodd: Four
Nate: Five
Doug: Queen
gTodd: Nine, Eight
(Doug wins this round as gTodd had two chances to place a royal and failed)Doug: Seven
gTodd: King
Nate: Two, Ten, Ten
SLAP
(Nate slapped the pile first and takes the pile)Nate: King
Doug: Three, Nine, Queen
gTodd: Jack
Nate: Ace
Doug: Six, Four, Six
(gTodd, anxious not to lose his Jack, mis-slaps and gives Doug and Nate a card from his pile. Doug continues)
Doug: Queen
gTodd: Jack
Nate: King
Doug: Nine, Nine
SLAP
(Doug slaps first and wins the piles. gTodd is heartbroken because he lost two Jacks, and Doug gloats)Nate: (playing his last card) Ace
Doug: (who only has two cards left) Six, Nine
(Doug is out of cards now, so gTodd has to place the last two cards on the Ace)
gTodd: Eight, Eight
SLAP
(gTodd slaps the deck first. Doug and Nate have no cards left. gTodd wins and lords it over Doug and Nate)
An additional rule we used is that when you are out of cards you are allowed to attempt to slap back into the game. Usually this doesn’t accomplish much, but sometimes a player has slapped in gaining royal cards and done well. However with this rule, if the player mis-slaps, he is out for good. Also, in the case that someone mis-slaps and has to give out cards, a player without cards (and eligible) recieves a card.
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One Response to “Egyptian Rattle Screw: ERS”
- douglas.nerad » It Is Far Less Clear… says (February 4th, 2007 at 12:41:03 )
[...] have many fond memories of the Front Room. I used to play open mic nights there, play ERS, studied, wrote, collected AE flyers, and met all sorts of interesting [...]
