A climbing card game of rank and revolution, for 4–6 players
The Great Dalmuti is a climbing card game by Richard Garfield, the designer of Magic: The Gathering. Players shed cards to empty their hands, but the real subject of the game is social hierarchy: finish first and you rule the next round, finish last and you hand your best cards to the person who beat you. It is deliberately, cheerfully unfair.
The deck is 80 cards and unlike any standard one. There is a single 1, two 2s, three 3s, and so on down to twelve 12s — every rank appears exactly as many times as its number. Two Jesters complete the deck.
Low beats high. The lone 1 is the strongest card in the game and the twelve 12s the weakest, so the cards you hold most of are the ones worth least.
Everyone has a title. The player who went out first is the Greater Dalmuti, then the Lesser Dalmuti, then Merchants, then the Lesser Peon, and last of all the Greater Peon.
Before each round the peons pay tax. The Greater Peon hands their two best cards to the Greater Dalmuti, who returns any two cards they do not want; the Lesser Peon and Lesser Dalmuti exchange one. The rich get richer — that is the point.
Unless somebody was dealt both Jesters. That player may declare a Revolution before taxes are paid, and taxation is cancelled for the round — the peons keep their good cards and the Dalmutis get nothing.
It is the great equaliser, and it is the one thing that keeps a runaway leader honest.
The Greater Dalmuti leads any number of cards of the same rank — one 7, or three 9s, or six 11s. Each player after them must play the same number of cards of a lower rank, or pass. When everyone passes, the last player to have played leads again with whatever they like.
Passing does not lock you out; you can re-enter when a new lead begins. The round ends when players run out of cards, and the order they went out in sets the hierarchy for the next round.
A Jester is wild — it can join any set as a copy of that rank. But it is also the lowest card in the deck when played alone, so a Jester you never got to use is the worst card you can be left holding. Holding both is a Revolution waiting to be declared; holding one is often just a liability.
Points go to the players who finish highest each round, and the match runs a fixed number of rounds rather than to a target score. Consistency wins: one lucky round as Greater Dalmuti matters far less than never being the Greater Peon.
The Great Dalmuti plays 4 to 6 players. The browser version here supports all three seat counts against AI opponents.
The deck is built so that rank equals scarcity: there is one 1 and twelve 12s. Low cards are powerful precisely because they are rare, which is also why taxation — where peons hand their lowest-numbered cards upward — hurts so much.
A player dealt both Jesters may declare a Revolution before taxes are paid. Taxation is cancelled for that round, so the peons keep their best cards.
Both. A Jester is wild and can join any set, but played alone it is the lowest card in the deck, so an unused Jester is the worst card to be caught holding.