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Pips: Original Playing Card and Dice Games

Milk Run


Players:  2 or more (best with 2-4)
Average Duration:
10 minutes - 2 players
25 minutes - 3 players
40 minutes - 4 players
Equipment: 1 deck of cards per player, including two jokers per deck
 
Object: To make 30 deliveries of chocolate milk and 30 deliveries of strawberry milk while impeding your opponents from doing the same.


The Game

The object is for a player to make 30 deliveries of chocolate milk and 30 deliveries of strawberry milk. The black cards (spades and clubs) all relate to the delivery of chocolate milk. The red cards (hearts and diamonds) all relate to the delivery of strawberry milk.

The Deal

Shuffle as many decks, with jokers included, as there are people playing. It's possible to be short a deck, but it's more convenient to have more cards rather than fewer.

Six cards are dealt to each player. The remaining cards make up the stock pile, which is placed in the center. Next to it is a discard pile, initially empty.

The Play

On a player's turn, he draws two cards. Usually, he will draw both cards from the stock pile, but he is permitted to draw one from the stock pile and one from the top of the discard pile. He may not draw both cards from the discard pile, although he may draw one card from the stock pile and look at it before deciding whether or not to draw the top card from the discard pile as his second card.

After drawing, he plays two cards, one after the other, and then his turn is over. Playing a card consists of either placing the card on one of the piles in front of him, playing it to one of any other player's piles, or discarding it.

Each player has a work area of six piles in front of him, all initially empty. Three are for managing the deliveries of chocolate milk -- and therefore only black cards may be played to them -- and the other three are for managing the deliveries of strawberry milk -- and therefore only red cards may be played to them. The piles are arranged according to the following diagram:

Delivery Limit Pile
(Red)
Go Pile
(Red)
Delivery Pile
(Red)
     
Delivery Limit Pile
(Black)
Go Pile
(Black)
Delivery Pile
(Black)

The first pile in each set of three is the Delivery Limit pile. The only cards that may be played to these piles are numerical cards, ranks 2 through 10, of the proper color for that pile. The top card in this pile specifies the highest number of deliveries (of that kind of milk) that can be made with one card. (More on this later.) When the pile is empty, the limit is 5, just as if the top card in this pile were a 5.

The second pile in each set of three is the Go pile. Only face cards, aces, and jokers may be played to this pile. (The face cards and aces, of course, must be of the proper color for that pile.) When the top card is a face card, that indicates a "go" and means that the player may make deliveries of that kind of milk. When the top card is an ace or a joker, that indicates a "stop" and means that no deliveries may be made of that color until a face card is played on top. When this pile is empty, it's a "stop."

The third pile in each set of three is the Delivery pile and is built as an overlapping column, so that all cards played to the pile can be seen. Only the numerical cards, ranks 2 through 10 of the proper color, may be played to these piles. The cards represent, quite simply, the number of deliveries made of that flavor of milk.

The following diagram shows a sample of what these piles might look like in the course of play:




     

The first player to have made 30 deliveries of each type of milk wins the game. For example, if a player has a 9, 5, 2, 8, and 7 (totalling 31) in the red Delivery column and a 10, 10, and 4 (totalling 24) in the black Delivery column, and he plays a black 6 or higher to the Delivery column on his turn, he has won the game.

But it's not quite so simple, because there are rules about when deliveries can be made. You cannot play a card to your Delivery column that exceeds your Delivery Limit. For example, if the top card in your Delivery Limit pile is a 5, you can't play a 6 or higher to your Delivery column, although you may play a 5 or lower there.

And you can't play any card at all to your Delivery column if your Go pile does not have a face card on top.

Numerical cards of the proper color are always legal to play on Delivery Limit piles, and not just on your own but on other people's. On your turn, for example, you might want to play a high card on one of your own Delivery Limit piles, to allow you more freedom to make deliveries, but you also might want to play a low card to someone else's Delivery Limit pile and thereby constrain what deliveries that player can make in that color.

It's only legal to play a face card to a Go pile if there is an ace or joker on top of it (or if the pile is empty). Likewise, an ace (a "stop" card) or joker (a "steal" card) is only legal to play on a Go pile if there is a face card on it. Normally you play face cards on your own Go piles and aces and jokers to other people's piles.*

All aces do is stop deliveries from being possible until a Go card is played again, but jokers do worse. If you play a joker to another player's Go pile, you not only "stop" them, but you get to steal the card most recently played to that person's Delivery column (of that color) and place it on your own Delivery column. But there are several constraints about when you can play a joker: not only must there be a Go card on top of the other player's Go pile, but there must be a Go card on top of your Go pile, too. Furthermore, your own Delivery Limit for that color must be sufficient to allow the steal -- that is, the delivery card you would be stealing must not exceed your own Delivery Limit.

Discards are always legal. Note that the order you discard in may be significant; since the player after you can take at most one card from the top of the discard pile, then, if you discard two cards on your turn, the first one to be discarded will be inaccessible to him.

As a convenience to yourself and the other players, if you play a delivery card that completes a set of 30 deliveries of one color or the other, this card should be turned sideways to indicate this. For example, the following illustration shows a player who has completed 30 (more, in this case) deliveries of chocolate milk:


     




On your turn, you must play or discard two cards; at the end of each turn, there will be six cards in your hand, just as there was when you started it.

When the stock pile is exhausted, all cards in all Delivery Limit piles and all Go piles, except for the top card in each, are shuffled together to form a new stock pile. Additionally, all but the top three cards in the discard pile are reshuffled into the deck.

Footnotes

* The one sensible exception would be to combat against steals from other players. Suppose you have made 30 deliveries of chocolate milk by playing three black tens to your black Delivery column. It's perfectly legal to continue to deliver chocolate milk by playing more cards to your Delivery column; this guards against steals from other players, because, if a joker is played on your black Go card and the last delivery card is stolen, you'll still have enough deliveries to win the game.

However, if you are short on black numerical cards, the other way to guard against steals is to play an ace on your own Go pile, thereby making it illegal for other players to play jokers there. Of course, they could choose to combat this by playing a Go card on your ace and then playing a joker immediately afterward -- but it's an extra level of protection against steals nonetheless.


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