Pit

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A CardGame which is played by trading cards (freely, in real time, with lots of shouting) in order to attempt to collect a full set of a suit. Two special cards, the Bull and the Bear, are wild for the purpose of trading, one of which is also wild for the purposes of winning.

IIRC - there are x each of y commodities (x is number of starting cards - about 7 or 8; y is number of players - 4 or so), plus one bull and one bear. I suspect two "suits" are one short, each. The commodities are worth different amounts. People trade cards by shouting how many they wish to trade, and trading with an identically-shouting person. First to get a full hand of the same suit, or all-but-one the same and the odd one being Bull or Bear has a monopoly an shouts Pit. They score for the full hand. The other players then score less, or are penalised, I forget which. If you hold the Bull or Bear when pit is called, you score more (Bull) or not at all (Bear) - or aren't penalised (Bull) or are penalised lots (Bear). Bit fluffy round the edges, that description, but it's close. --CH

Nearly. Two players have hands of size 9, but this rotates. The objective is to obtain either 8 of a suit, or seven of a suit, and the Bear(?). Since the Bull counts for nothing, and the Bear for everything. I may have these two the wrong way around. Either scores slightly negatively if you finish with them, but one can help you win. You cam't trade the Bull or the Bear on their own. Oh, and sometimes one of each is a valid win condition. There are, of course, variants. --TI

Fair enough. I really thought it was that both were wild, and the drawback was in the finish, but if it's that both give penalties in the finish, and the drawback is that only one is wild, then so be it. It's definitely the Bull that's good though, from basic StockMarket? terminology - a Bull market is doing well, a Bear market is depressed. --CH

: Ah, fair enough - they're two I always get mixed up (mostly due to never having studied finance directly). --TI

Last time I played this, I got hold of one of each of the eight companies that were being fought over. I then sat back and listened to the confusion, happily knowing how little it signified. The cacophony was wonderfully peaceful. I was tempted to keep waiting to see how long it took for people to cotton on, but after a bit, I took pity on the players and started trading my cards again. --Angoel

In some versions this is an alternate win condition. It makes for a fairer game if the rules don't encourage this kind of play, though ;) (Oh, and somebody actually could have won under those circumstances while you were sitting back contentedly: if they obtained the other 7 of some suit, plus the Bull. Quite tough though.) --AlexChurchill

I can't remember the details. I'm fairly sure that I thought noone could win at the time, in any case... --Angoel

Doesn't this game break without such a condition if there are less players than the length of the suits? A single player could easily hold on to one of each suit plus the wildcard and prevent a win. --Vitenka

: Well, such a player would have no way to win themselves. It's like the way MysteryOfTheAbbey explicitly requires honesty (and many many games do implicitly). Yes, I'm sure someone could turn this game, meant to be fun for everyone, into a private joke for themselves. But in general, the people we play games with, well, wouldn't want to! --AlexChurchill

Well, such play might be good play if the player doesn't think they can win - which means it can happen. --Vitenka

: This is true in my case. I don't have a sufficiently loud personality to persuade people they need to trade with me NOW! --Angoel

PeterTaylor has also done this. It is quite amusing.

CategoryGames