Julian Egelstaff
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Here's another solitaire variant to throw into the mix. The emphasis in this variant is to keep it simple and as close to the two player game as possible. You play against an "opponent" which has really simple rules for what they do on their turn. There's a lot of text here explaining it all, but trust me, the flow of the game is really fast and it's really simple to play.
*** Setup:
Layout the cards in the normal way, Fool at the bottom, King and Queen at the top, all the tiers in the middle. The order of the cards within a tier doesn't matter.
Only use one of each card!
*** Order of play:
Your opponent plays first (see below for how that works), and then you take a completely normal turn, just like in the regular game. Then your opponent gets another turn, and so on, alternating until the end of the game (see below).
*** Opponent's turn:
On your opponent's turn, you will remove one of the available cards from the table, and it becomes one of your opponent's cards. To determine which card is removed, you roll one die. Then you count out that many cards from the left-most card in the highest tier that your opponent could claim on this turn.
For example, at the beginning of the game the opponent can only roll three dice, and so you start counting from the left-most card of the first tier. If your opponent has the Farmer, then they have four dice available this turn, so start counting from the left-most card of the second tier. If your opponent has the Farmer and a Charlatan, or the Farmer and a Hunter, or any other combination of cards that would put five dice in play, then start counting from the left-most card of the third tier, and so on.
Count out the number of cards equal to the number you rolled on the one die. So for example, at the beginning of the game, if the first tier looked like this:
Farmer - Guard - Serving Maid - Philosopher - Laborer
If you roll a 2, your opponent takes the Guard card.
If you roll a 5, your opponent takes the Laborer card.
If you roll a 6, your opponent takes a Charlatan card.
Note that if you roll a number greater than the number of cards in the highest tier that your opponent can take from (ie: 6 in the example above), then you simply move down to the next tier. Since the only thing lower than the first tier is the Fool/Charlatan, your opponent takes a Charlatan.
*Note also, your opponent always takes Charlatans right away, they do not take Fool cards and then turn them into Charlatans.*
Another example...after a few turns, some cards have been taken, and based on your opponent's cards, they can put four dice in play, and the first and second tiers look like this:
Merchant - Hunter
Guard - Serving Maid
If you roll a 1, your opponent takes the Merchant card.
If you roll a 3, your opponent takes the Guard card.
If you roll a 5, your opponent takes a Charlatan card.
If you roll a 6, your opponent takes a Charlatan card.
Note that when you roll a number greater than the last card available (ie: 6 in the example above), your opponent takes a Charlatan card (and remember, they take Charlatans right away, they never take Fool cards).
*** End of the game:
You win the game as soon as you roll seven of a kind, thereby winning the King!
You lose the game as soon as it is your opponent's turn, and your opponent can put seven dice in play (making the fifth tier the highest one they can draw from). Do not roll for your opponent's turn in this case...you have simply lost!
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The design of this variant is based around a very simple idea: the opponent is a "clock" and you are trying to get seven of a kind before your opponent gets enough cards to put seven dice in play. That's it.
Because the cards your opponent gets are determined randomly, the game has a nice feel to it, similar to a two player game. This is a dice game after all, so some randomness seems like the right way to go, rather than having a hard limit of turns, or some other pre-determined limit.
But, even though the cards the opponent gets are determined randomly, the opponent will inevitably get cards that put more dice in play. As you and the opponent take the available cards, the number available to your opponent will shrink, and this means that on your opponent's turn, lower and lower die rolls will result in the opponent acquiring Charlatans, which automatically boost your opponent to the next tier.
It's also nice that a simple die roll adds the cards to your opponent's hand; it's really easy to just count out the cards, and the highest available tier is determined exactly like in the regular game.
The only exceptional difference from the regular game is the fact the opponent never takes Fool cards, which is simply a way to speed up the clock. If you want an easier game, disregard that rule and have your opponent take Fool cards, and when they would take another Fool, turn the Fool card they took last time into a Charlatan.
Good luck!
--Julian
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