Bullshit, the Card Game

Bullshit, the Card Game
Best viewed in 800x600 HiColor (16-bit) resolution or better with Netscape 3 while in a comfortable chair, sipping a piña colada.
Names. This is the game of names; it has more names than any other game out there. BS, Bullshit, Bull, Bull Shit, Boy Scout (what else would BS stand for?), Shit, Truth or Dare, Do or Die, On Your Word, Bluff, Yea Right, and I Doubt It. The point of the game is to empty your hand. There are two forms of the game presented on this page; the classic form, which everybody knows, and the new form, called Fourshit (or Fourskin).
Like Napoleon/Emperor/Nipple, Bullshit has names to match the scheme. I also call it Kenneth Starr, or Janitor.

Bullshit, traditional:

Deal: This is a truely simple game. Shuffle one to three decks, with or without jokers. There should be five or more people in a game, so long as every player is dealt more than five cards. Deal out the cards as far as they go. It does not matter if one player has one card less than another. A joker is either a wild card (never a lie) or a junk card (always a lie), whatever is determined as the cards are dealt. Rank is not important.
Play: The person with the Ace of Spades leads. (If there is more than one deck, a specific deck is predetermined as the starting card; i.e. "the red-backed ace of spades starts.") To play, the person plays and announces the number of cards he or she is playing and then states the rank, placing the cards face down on a pile in the center fo the table. In most circles, each player must truthfully state the number of cards being played. The first player must play aces, the second player must play twos, the third player must play threes . . . and the thirteenth player must play kings. After kings, aces are played again and the process recycles. The rank a player must both play and announce does not have to match the cards being played. If another player doubts the cards played were the right rank, he or she announces the name of the game (usually Bullshit), the announced number of cards is flipped. If the player had lied, the entire pile enters the player's hand. If the player was telling the truth, the person to call the name of the game takes the whole pile. The game ends when a player is out, although some circles play until there is only one person left (jokers should be removed from the game once there are three or fewer people left).

Fourshit

         Deal: Shuffle a single deck, with or without jokers. There should be four to six players in a game. Deal out the cards as far as they go. It does not matter if one player has one card less than another. A joker is either a wild card (never a lie) or a junk card (always a lie), whatever is determined as the cards are dealt. Rank is not important.
         Play: The person with the Ace of Spades leads. To play, the person plays and announces the number of cards he or she is playing and then states the rank, placing the cards face down on a pile in the center fo the table. In most circles, each player must truthfully state the number of cards being played. Unlike traditional Bullshit, each player must play the same rank as the person to lead. Once there is a call, a person picks up the pile. The person to that person's left then leads with any rank he or she wants. Again, each player must play (or pretend to play) the same initially led rank. If, at any time, a player has all four cards of a single rank, the cards must be removed from the game. A sly trick allowed in some circles is to keep a quadruplet in your hand until it is all you have. This way, people won't call you on your last card. After the next person has played, discard your four cards. Most circles allow you to keep a quadruplet only if you intend to break it, as some people actually want to do this.

         Along with Bridge, Napoleon (a form of Spades/Pitch), Hearts, Mao, Asshole (also called Dalmuti, Corporate Shuffle (with Dilbert), President-look, its a evaluationware comuter game now!), I see Bullshit as one of the best group (4+ people) games out there. Well, okay. So Bridge, Napoleon, Spades, and Hearts (the trick-based games) aren't silly/party games but rather games of real strategy. Bullshit, Asshole, and Mao are party games that require not thought but attention. As for small group (2-4 people) games, I see Canasta, Ginn/Ginn Rummy/Rummy 500, Egyptian War/Egyptian Ratscrew/Egyptian Ratfuck (a combination of War and Slapjack), and Hearts as the best (Hearts can be played with three people by removing the three of clubs).

Khopesh (khopesh@mindless.com)

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