[Fallout NV] Caravan for Dummies

[Thomas Kaira]

Caravan can be very confusing, so I've attempted to better organize the rules of the game. Please tell me if this helps you better understand how to play:

---Before you play...

You must own at least 30 cards to play.

A 54 card starter deck (The Tops set) can be obtained from Ringo during the tutorial.

---Building a deck

Identical cards are allowed, but they must be from different sets of cards.
IE: You can place an Ace of Spades from The Tops set and an Ace of Spades from the Gomorrah set into
your deck, but not two Aces of Spades from The Tops set.

30 cards per deck.

---The Goal

Build three lines of cards, competing to have each "caravan" contain the highest bid (numeric value)
without going under 21 or over 26. The player who sells the most caravans (see endgame rules) wins the pot.

---Opengame Rules

To start, draw 8 cards and place one numeric card or ace of any suit on the table to start your caravans.

Discarding is not allowed during the initial round.
[bUG] The player can actually make unlimited discards during the initial round because the game does
not properly block the discard function and fails to give the opponent a turn if you do.

---Midgame Rules

Once the bids are started, you can spend your turn in three ways:

1. Play one card into your caravans and draw one card
2. Discard one card from hand and draw one card
3. Disband a caravan, removing it from the table

The second card placed on the caravan sets the direction, higher means all subsequent cards must be
higher, and vice versa for lower.

You may also place any card that matches the suit of the previous card so long as it is not the same
card (IE, you can't play a 3 of spades on another 3 of spades, but can on a 10 of spades). You may
also change the direction of the caravan by doing so (IE: 9 of hearts, 7 of diamonds, 3 of spades,
5 of spades, and the descending caravan is now ascending).

Face cards are not played normally, they are instead attached to the top card in an existing caravan
(placed to the side of it) to provide a special effect. Face cards may be played on the opponent's caravans as well as your own. See the card rules for more info.

---Endgame Rules

Once a caravan has reached a value between 21 and 26, it is "sold" and can no longer be modified.

However, face cards may still be attached, by either yourself or your opponent.

If the opposing player manages to obtain a higher numeric value on his opposite caravan than the
one you sold without going above 27, then you are outbid and the caravan sale becomes his.

The player who sold the most caravans when all caravans have been sold wins the pot.

If a caravan ties, the game continues until either player can sell it.

If either player runs out of cards, they lose automatically.

---Card rules

Numeric cards are worth exactly that number (10 of spades adds 10 to a caravan bid).

Aces are worth 1.

Attaching a Jack to a card removes that card and any other cards attached to it from the table.

Attaching a Queen to a card changes the caravan's direction and switches the current suit to
the Queen's suit.

Attaching a King to a card doubles its value. This effect stacks (two Kings triples the card, and so on).

Attaching a Joker to a card 2-10 removes all other cards of that number (and their attachments) from the table. The card the joker was attached to, however, stays put.

Attaching a joker to an Ace removes all non-face cards of the Aces suit and their attachments from the table (IE: placing it on the Ace of Spades removes all 2-10s of spades from the table), save the ace it
was played on.