Machiavelli

International (without Joker)

104

From 2 to 5

Machiavelli is a typical Italian game, aimed at participant with quick reflexes and with spirit of observation. It is based on the capability of manipulating other’s strategies and changing them for one’s own benefit.

The goal is to get rid of the 13 cards in your possession, by forming combinations or attaching them at opposing combinations.

First thing first, the players need to establish who will be the dealer for the first hand. The player who is entrusted with this task takes all the cards, shuffles the two decks together, and subject the resulting deck to the cut by the first player on their right.

The dealer then hands out 13 cards each. This is done clockwise. The dealer gives each participant one face-down card at a time, for thirteen consecutive rounds and serving themselves last.

The first player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Combinations are given by the set of at least between cards of equal value and different suit, sequences must be made up of cards of the same suit in a consistent and uninterrupted order of values. The Ace in the constitution of the sequences, can find position before the 2 or after the King.

The hand player can perform a series of actions that must follow a precise sequence. The first stage concerns the possibility of “acting” or “operating”.

The player can either drop, face-up, any valid combinations or sequences on the table, or attach his own cards to other players’ already laid combinations and sequences. In the operational part of the game, those who are in charge can change substantially the picture of what is face-up on the table, manipulating as they like what already exist to build a suitable situation for following plays. If a player succeeds in making good combinations or sequences, or even just attaching a single card to existing play systems on the table, they finish their turn and folds.

If a player does not operate in any way, they must draw a card from the stock and then pass the hand without further action.

In the Machiavelli is mandatory the draw of the deck only if one does not operate and there is no constitution of a discard pile.

If a player, started to act on the table by playing or changing the structure of the existing game, realizes that they have misjudged their own assessments and cannot perform properly, they put all the cards back in place as originally, draw the ones they have played and draw as penalty the top three cards of the deck.

The player who manages to get rid of all their cards first wins.

When a player plays the last card, ending the hand, the other participants evaluate the cards left to their own: usually it is agreed before the start of the game, for a fixed penalty value for each card left in hand, but some prefer to tie the amount to the value of the individual card, or the category to which it belongs.

A game is divided into several hands, at the end of which it is considered winner who has the lowest score. There would be four, but it is a good rule to agree on a number equal to the number of players so that all can be the dealer. The game can also be played on the basis of a score threshold; whoever is left under this threshold at the end wins. In this case, the penalty may be proportionate to the exclusion round.