A much-missed card game

ceres

About 8 years ago I used to play this card-based game with a bunch of people I don't really talk to anymore. I remember that the concept was pretty simple and we could all sit happily playing it for hours, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called. I start to lament its absence in my life every time I sit down to play Fluxx, which is also awesome but not the same.

It was Munchkin-like (but not Munchkin), and I'm pretty sure the basic concept was that you used the numbers on the cards to pull rank on other players each hand. I seem to remember an almost Hearts-like strategy to when you played what numbers, which I think you had to put down in groups, and the cards all had pictured on them whatever nobility was meant to match the rank of the card.

Annnnd all of that could be wrong because it's been so long, but I'm pretty sure I would recognize it immediately if I saw it, and nobody I know seems to remember what I'm talking about. Any help on this important matter of reliving my early 20's by playing fun games would be appreciated.

brain operator

The Great Dalmuti?

ceres

Oh wow, that's it!

Thank you!

Improvolone

Ooooh suuure, when ceres makes a thread asking for help she gets everything she needs in the first response.
I see how it is.

Regina Fong

No wonder you miss playing it, that is a great game. I don't know what became of my Dalmuti deck, but I still have the Dilbert version of the game (plays the same, just with office related titles and Dilbert characters on the cards).

ceres

Yeah you probably don't remember that camera lucida thread. That was brutal.

Forar

Soooo, what happens now? Do you have to tell yourself to lock the thread?

This is like when a tenant contact comes to get a new passcard and signs their own sheet. We're through the looking glass here...

Kate of Lokys

If you want the same basic game without needing to buy a custom deck, you could just play Asshole (also known as Janitor, when parents are around), which itself is a variation of Dai Hin Min.

The version I grew up playing used one standard 52-card deck for 2-4 players, two decks for 5 or more players. Red threes and jokers were the highest possible cards - one of them would beat any number of other cards, and end the round. Twos were next highest, and were special because you could play one less of them than the current number of cards in the round - for example, if someone played two kings, you could use a single two to beat it (though you could still be beaten by someone using a red three or a joker). The rest of the cards followed normal rank order, with black threes being the lowest.

ceres

Kate, that sounds really interesting... especially since the actual Dalmuti deck is up for $17. One of the things I remember thinking about it was that the cards were pretty though, so I'll probably end up springing for it anyway.

Regina Fong, if that game doesn't work "Dilberti" into the title it's dead to me.

Man, you'd think I never make threads here.