Whenever I play a game with someone new, we quickly realize we have to clarify the rules we’re using beforehand, since so many people have their own varieties. What are some non-standard game rules that you/your family/friends follow?
I’ll start. My family has a rule where we’re not allowed to win on a Wild card. It adds a bit of challenge, and keeps someone from being unbeatable if they play by hoarding wild cards.
We play speed Uno. If you have the identical card as the card that’s played, you can lay it down if you get it to the pile before the person whose turn it is lays down theirs. Play then continues from you.
I had a friend who played this way too and I honestly love it, keeps the game a little more dynamic and fun.
My hot take - if you’re not playing with stacking draw cards, you’re playing Uno wrong
If you can’t play on your turn, you keep drawing until you can.
If you combine that rule with the ability to endlessly stack Draw 2 or Draw 4 cards, you have what I think may be the most evil version of Uno that can be played. We called it Thermo-Nuclear Uno (i.e. Mutually Assured Destruction) since you knew that dropping a Draw 4 would almost certainly lead to someone being buried in cards and it might even be you. Even if you manage to dodge the stack, payback is coming and you won’t get lucky every time. I can remember games that we would finally just quit after an hour since no one would ever be able lay down their last card. Merging two decks can make this even more brutal and cuts down on interplay shuffles too.
Back with my family growing up, we sometimes played Uno with Cheating.
Basically this meant you were allowed to cheat in any which way (playing on somebody else’s turn, playing mismatching cards, playing several cards at once, drawing too few cards, hiding cards somewhere…). BUT if you were caught before the next player made their move, you had to undo the cheating (e.g. take back the cards), draw an extra card, and you forfeited your turn.
This sometimes led to extreme fun, particularly late at night when everybody was tired and cheating was more likely to go unnoticed.
this could be great if its undo the cheating, draw and extra card, and take a drink!
