Una for BYOND

At the start of a hand, each player is dealt 7 cards out of the deck, with the remaining cards going to the draw pile. The top card of the draw pile is then turned face up on the discard pile. Play starts with the player to the left (clockwise) of the dealer, and continues around the table in order until somebody wins the hand. The winner of the hand is the first person to get rid of all of her cards.

In each color, there are ten types of number cards (0 through 9) and three types of Word cards. One card may be played per turn. On a player's turn, she may:

• Play any card of the same color as the last card played (on top of the discard pile). For example, if the last card was a Green 8, any Green card may be played on top of it.
• Play any card of the same type (0 through 9 or Word) as the last card played. In our example, an 8 of any color may also be played.
• Play a Wild card.
• Draw a card from the deck. If the player does not have any card that may be legally played, she must draw one card. The player may also draw a card even if she can play another, simply if she wishes to do so. When the card is drawn, she may play it if it is legal to do so, but she may not play any other card in her hand, regardless of whether they are playable.
• Pass without playing a card. If the player does not have any card that may be legally played, she must draw one card from the deck before passing play to the next player.

When a player discards her second to last card, she must call out "Una!" to the rest of the table, indicating that she has one card left. If she fails to do so and someone challenges her before her next turn, she must draw two cards. This penalty also applies if the player declares "Una!" but holds more than one card in her hand. On the other hand, if the challenge is invalid, the challenger will draw two cards.

When the hand ends, all players holding cards add up the point values of all their cards and add those points to their total scores. If nobody has reached the point total limit, play continues with another hand. The player to the left of the previous dealer deals the new hand.

Name: Number card (any number 0-9) Points: same as the number on the card Numbered cards have no special meaning, other than that explained above.

Name: Draw Two Points: 20 The next player must draw two cards from the deck and forfeit her turn. Play resumes with the following player.

Name: Reverse Points: 20 The direction of play is reversed. The previous player then plays and play continues around the table in that direction. Play left becomes play right, and vice versa. If there are only two players, the one who played the Reverse card may play again.

Name: Skip Points: 20 The next player must forfeit her turn. Play resumes with the following player.

Name: Wild Points: 50 The Wild card allows the player to choose any color to continue play, including the current color in play. The next player must play a card of the chosen color.

Name: Draw Four Wild Points: 50 The Draw Four Wild card works the same way as the Wild, but with an extra twist. The next player must draw four cards from the deck and forfeit her turn. Play resumes with the following player. There is also one restriction on this card: it is illegal to play the Draw Four Wild if the player's hand contains a card of the current color. The victim of a Draw Four Wild may always challenge its play. If guilty, the player of the Draw Four Wild must draw the four cards instead, and the color will not change. In this case, the challenger also gets the luxury of viewing the guilty party's cards for the rest of the hand. Otherwise, the challenger must draw two more cards in addition to the four from the Draw Four Wild.

• Before you start the game, make sure everyone you want in the game is connected (see above on how to connect). There may be up to 8 players in any given hand, and more may watch if they want to.

• Whoever wants to deal must click the Una card in the middle of the table. This will deal all the cards and play the first card from the deck. Play then starts with the next player.

• To play a card from your hand, locate it in the "Your Hand" panel and click on it.

• To draw a card from the deck, click the Una card on the table. Note that if you are the victim of a Draw Two or Draw Four card, your "penalty" cards will be automatically drawn for you. Also, if you have no playable cards in your hand, one will be automatically drawn for you.

• To pass on your turn after you have drawn one card from the deck, click the Una card again. If you had no playable cards in your hand and the drawn card is also not playable, the computer will pass your turn for you.

• When you play a Wild card, you will be prompted for the color you would like to choose.

• When someone plays a Draw Four Wild against you, you will be asked whether you would like to challenge the play. Think carefully about this decision!

• To declare "Una!" simply type "una" or click on the "una" verb.

• Typing input

  Anything you type will be sent to the other players as a chat message from you. There is one exception: if you type the "/" character first, then you may type in a special command (verb, see next item) instead of a chat message. This is the way IRC works, in case you are familiar with that.

• BYOND Verbs

  A verb is simply a command that you can either type or click on (you'll see a "Verbs" tab near the lower left corner of the BYOND window). To use a verb, either click on it in the Verb panel, or type "/verbname" where verbname is the name of the actual verb you want. The following verbs are available in Una:

  • auto Switch between automatic mode on and off. With automatic mode on, you don't have to do a thing. Your character is controlled just like a computer player and makes all decisions for you.
  • color Report the current color of the last card played.

  • challenge Challenge somebody who hasn't declared Una (or someone who has but holds more than 1 card). You can type in the name of the player you want to challenge, or you will be prompted.

  • draw Draw a card from the pile if it's your turn. Same as clicking the Una card on the table at this point.

  • endgame End the current game. If you are the only human player, the game ends immediately (at the end of the current turn). Otherwise, a message is sent to all other human players asking if they agree to end the game. If all agree, the game will end. Players do not take points for their current hands; final scores are the same as those at the end of the previous hand.

  • endhand End the current hand. If you are the only human player, the hand ends immediately (at the end of the current turn). Otherwise, a message is sent to all other human players asking if they agree to end the hand. If all agree, the hand will end. Players take points for all cards in their hands at this time and the game continues with a new hand (unless someone has exceeded the maximum score for the game).

  • game-info Load this help file.

  • reset-icon Reset your player's icon to a randomly chosen icon from the ones that come with the game. If you had previously set your player's icon to something, that setting will be forgotten the next time you login and you will get a random icon again.

  • say Say something to all of the players in the game. This is the default if you type anything without a leading "/" character. In other words, you don't have to type "/say hi everyone," simply type "hi everyone" and you get the same effect.

  • set-icon Set your player's icon to any 32x32 BMP (or DMI) file you have on your computer. You will be prompted to find the actual file you want to use. The icon you choose will be remembered and used the next time you login to the game. If you don't want it to be remembered, use the reset-icon verb.

  • startgame Start a game if one isn't currently going on. Same as clicking the Una card on the table at this point. If you are the only human player, you may also use this verb to end the current game and start a new one.

  • una Declare Una to the table (see rules). Note that typing anything beginning with the letters "una" will be interpreted as an una command instead of a chat message (that's right, if you type something like "unabombers are wacky," your message won't go to the other players, but instead will become an una command. If you really must say this, put a space at the beginning, or something like "I think unabombers are wacky." Only "una" as the first three letters will match for this purpose). Thus you don't even have to type the "/" to declare una!

  • who Show a listing of everyone in the game, including those who are connected but may not be playing.

Name: Draw Spreader Points: 20 times the number of opponents in the game Parents: Draw Two and Draw Two A little inbreeding caused this offspring to be a bit quirky: it works like the Draw Two except all other players in the game must draw two cards. The player who played the card may then play again.

Name: Reverse Draw Two Points: 40 Parents: Reverse and Draw Two Just like it sounds, this one reverses the direction of play and the next player in the new direction must draw two cards, forfeiting her turn.

Name: Delayed Blast Draw Two Points: 40 Parents: Skip and Draw Two Skips the next player and the following player must draw two cards, forfeiting her turn.

Name: Reverse Reverse Points: 10 Parents: Reverse and Reverse This inbred is the dumbest of all: it reverses the direction of play twice, accomplishing absolutely nothing!

Name: Reverse Skip Points: 40 Parents: Reverse and Skip Reverses the direction of play and then skips the next player in the new direction, forfeiting her turn.

Name: Double Skip Points: 40 Parents: Skip and Skip A rare case of inbreeding that didn't go wrong: this skips the next two players, forfeiting both of their turns.

A number of new Wild cards have appeared, either as offspring of other cards, or spontaneous mutations.

Name: Draw Double Wild Points: 0 This works like the Draw Four Wild except that it doubles the current cumulative number of cards to be drawn. If it is not played on top of another Wild Draw card, it effectively "doubles" 0, meaning no cards will be drawn, just like a plain Wild. It's worth 0 points, so save it for a good occasion where it'll really hurt your opponent!

Name: Reverse Draw Four Wild Points: 150 Like the Draw Four Wild, but reverses the direction of play first. If someone plays a Draw Four card against you, this can be used like the Screwdriver but better: it adds more cards too!

Name: Delayed Blast Draw Four Wild Points: 100 Like the Draw Four Wild, but first skips the next player and the following player must draw.

Name: Mystery Wild Points: 100 Like the Draw Four Wild, but the number of cards to be drawn is whatever the number of the last card played was (ie, if it was a Red 9, then 9 cards will be drawn). If the last card was not a number card, behaves exactly like the Draw Four Wild (4 cards drawn).

Name: Target Practice Wild Points: 150 Like the Draw Four Wild, except that for each of the four cards to be drawn (or more if it is cumulative), the player who played it may choose who will draw that card. This card is a powerful weapon: it cannot be stopped by most conventional means, and it ends any cumulative addition of draw penalties.

A number of cards spontaneously appeared out of nowhere, possibly through mutation, or perhaps more sinister means...

Name: Holy Defender Points: cuts the holding player's score in half Parents: Red 0 and ??? The Holy Defender is a very nice card to have. When played against any Wild Draw card, the ill effects of that card pass over the player and on to the next player. In other words, play this and the next player will have to draw the cards instead of you. This card will halve your score at the end of the hand, so hang on to it and play it only if you need to!

Name: Quitter Points: 100 Parents: Green 0 and ??? When you play the Quitter, you get to select one other player. Together, the two of you will quit the hand, taking points for all the cards currently in your hand. It's best to avoid playing this card until as late as possible in the hand, so you don't have too many cards left. And make sure you pick the player with the most cards to join you!

Name: Screwdriver Points: 100 Parents: Blue 0 and ??? This card lets you screw your opponent. When played against a Wild Draw card, the player of the Wild Draw must draw the cards instead of you. Essentially saying "Screw You!" to the other player. Revenge is sweet, isn't it?

Name: Kobe Points: 666 Parents: Yellow 8 and Jordon Kobe is a selfish card hog. It takes all of your cards for itself, so you can't play them, even though you still have them. With its whiny, egotistical "Me! Me!" attitude, it demands that you play it before any other card in your hand. That means you'll be stuck, unable to do anything until you have an opportunity to play on a Yellow or 8. You'll also notice that Kobe is the most expensive to have on your team, er, hand. Get rid of it as soon as possible and your whole team, umm, hand will be better off!

Name: Blender Points: 30 The Blender is a fun card to play: it randomly redistributes everyone's hands to other people. You might get your neighbor's hand or you might get the hand of someone across the table, who knows? All you know for sure is you'll most likely end up with a new set of cards after this play.

Name: Randomizer Points: 30 The Randomizer is similar to the Blender, but it takes things to the next level. Instead of randomly redistributing hands around, it randomly redistributes all the cards in play. It's as if everyone put all their cards in a big pile in the middle of the table, shuffled it around, and then grabbed random cards out of that pile. You never know what you're gonna get!

Name: Trader Joe Points: 35 Trader Joe is similar to the Blender, but it gives you more control. When played, the player gets to pick another player with whom to trade hands. Best to pick whoever has the fewest cards!

Name: Musical Chairs Points: 30 Everyone loves a good game of musical chairs, right? When this card is played, a mad scramble begins around the table as all the players move around, keeping their eyes on a chair for when the music stops. By the time it's finished, everyone will have a new place around the table.

Name: Dance Fever Points: 35 This is your opportunity to get out on the dance floor and show your best moves! The player of this card gets to pick a dance partner (or she may decide to dance solo) and by the end of the dance, they will have traded places around the table.

Name: Spy Points: 100 The Spy card lets you commit a little espionage against one of your opponents. You can pick any player whose cards you will get to see for the rest of the hand, but there is a catch: that player will get to see your cards too! It's a dilemma you'll have to figure out for yourself.

Name: Dung Points: 100 or enough to match the highest score of the hand, whichever is greater This card really stinks. It may only be played as the last card in your hand (thus you must win the hand). If you hold it at the end of the hand, you are guaranteed to at least match the highest score of the hand. Sucks, doesn't it? But if you're clever (and a little lucky), there are a few ways to get rid of it... (we'll leave that as an exercise for the reader)