EmotrionsOnCards© - Basic Rules

EmotrionsOnCards is the emotional inteligence card game. The cards, called Emotrions, represent the human emotions. Some cards are positive "emotrions", they score points, and the others are negative "emotrions", that is, they take points away.

As in real life, emotrions intermingle and fight inside yourself. You must manage it "inside" you and of course, you must be able to win the game overcoming the other players. Unlike other games, winning the cards of one trick does not necessarily mean a victory because there could be a majority of negative emotrions which will eventually take points away. So, as in real life, you must manage your "emotrions" smartly in order to make the most of them.

The Cards

There are 36 cards distributed into 9 different types of emotrions. Four positive types, three negative types and two neutral types.

-Joy is worth one point, Love, 3; Goodness,5 and Force 7

Three types of negative emotrions:
Sadness takes 1 point away from its possessor, Hatred, 3 and Fury takes away 5. There's no negative emotrion worth -7.

And two kinds of neutral emotrions:
Hunger and Indecision are neuter( their nominal value is zero) and they are worth nothing by themselves. Hunger eats ( throws down) all the cards played in a trick. In this case, the next trick will be led by the same player as before. Indecision can be played alone but works much better on combinations.

The 5 basic rules of the Standard Style

The mechanics of this game is quite similar to that of most card games, but there are a couple of things to take into account first: the gist of the game is to learn to weigh up positive and negative values. In order to build a victory, you must be able to manage them, regardless the cards you have in your hand. As in everyday life...

The five basic rules to play a hand:

1) The game is designed to be played by 2 to 6 people (It is advisable to use two decks of cards in case there are more than four players). Players draw lots for the first lead, then the winner of the previous trick leads. The leading player shuffles and deals 6 cards to each player. The remaining cards, the stock, is placed, face down, on the table, and each player will take one card at the beginning of each trick. The winner of the previous trick will be the first to take a card from the stock.

2) You start by staking 1 or 2 cards per player, facing upwards. If you are staking a two-card combination, they must be of the same sign ( both positive or both negative). In each stake the punctuation counts as the addition of both cards despite their symbol ( negative or positive). So, one Love (+3) bids in value as much as one Hatred (-3), one Happiness(+1) is as valuable as a Sadness (-1). In combinations Indecision doubles the worth of the other card just during that stake, but in the final recount is still worth nothing. Hunger can't be combined with any other card.

3) When the trick is complete (i.e. each player has played one or two cards to it) the players will observe who has won to it. You'll count the ABSOLUTE VALUE, the staking power of the cards. As in a real life argument, the winner of this trick (who wins all the cards at stake) is the one who has the greatest playing strength. It DOES NOT matter now whether the cards are negative or positive. That will matter at the end of the hand. For example: one Fury (-5) beats one Love (+3); two Loves, or one Love combined with one Indecision (+6 points) beat one Fury; one Strength (+7) beats two Loves or a couple of Hatreds (-6), but two Furies (-10) or two Goodnesses (+10) beat one Strength. In case of draws, the winner would be the player who staked his/her cards first.

4) The winner of the trick takes ALL the cards on the table, both positive and negative. So you'll have to keep on deciding whether it's worth it to win the trick. Remember that, as in real life, the important thing is not winning each trick, but getting the best positive results at the end of the hand. The cards that have been just won are kept on a different stack on the table. Make sure you don't mix them with the cards in your hand.

5) The last player will keep the cards she/he hasn't been able to use at the end of the last trick as there's no opponent left. The value of these cards will be added to his/her stack. The winner of the hand is the player whith the highest score. You must add up all the cards in each player's stack: the possitive cards add up points, and the negative ones take them away. Indecision is worth zero, even if it has been played in a combination.

A complete game of Emotrions

A complete game usually consists of several hands. The winner is the first player to score 37 points, or more. In case of draws, you'll have to hold a play-off. ( the same player leading) The player who finishes with a negative score is out, and won't play the following hand. You can win straightaway by knocking out your opponents; in that case it won't be necessary to reach the 37 points.

And this is all you need to know to start playing!