Growing My Own Gamers #8: What is YOUR regional card game?

SESSION REPORT: Lately, I've been gaming almost every day with my co-workers. Unfortunately, it has been a lot of Pounce and Dungeon. They are the only standard-deck card games I've found so far that are short enough to play during a 15-minute break at work. I like them both but I definitely could use a bit more variety.

We tried a new game this past week called Revolution. The instructions don't list number of players, but in my limited experience it is best with 3-5 players. This is a simple game where you are trying to conquer a suit by playing the most cards of that suit in front of you. The trick is that you can't play a card if you have already played a lower-valued card of the same suit. It is a quick game with very little thinking, and you can definitely play a few rounds during a break. My co-workers seemed to like it, but we still went back to Pounce after a couple plays.

QUESTION: What is YOUR regional card game?

Since we have gotten pretty good at these games, my co-workers and I can now talk and play at the same time. We have been discussing card games that we grew up with. I've noticed that each group (whether divided by university, region, or race) seems to have a trick-taking game that they all know. For instance, Euchre is the game that is common among my friends from midwestern states like Michigan. Black people here in the south don't make it through puberty without learning how to play Spades, although I have heard that Bid Whist is the game of choice among blacks in other states. (For the record, I didn't learn to play either one until recently.)

I would love to hear from my readers (yes, both of you!). What is the most common card game in your area? In your family? At your alma mater?

GAMES ON MY RADAR: A thirst for variety and a small game budget keeps me looking for free games on the internet. I have a couple in mind that I want to try out on our next game night.

The first one is called Wyoming Cowboy. As you probably guessed from the name, it is a card game with a Western theme for 3-4 players. The goal is to collect points for certain combinations of cards such as a harem or a posse. The rules look a bit complicated but I bet it will be a hoot once we get a handle on it.

The second one is called Milk Run. Spades and clubs are chocolate milk while hearts and diamonds are strawberry milk. Two or more players compete to be the first one to make 30 deliveries of each kind of milk. You can only make deliveries when certain cards are showing in front of you, and you can play cards to other people's stacks to stop them from delivering. I think that our group will like this because of the "take-that" aspect. It requires a lot of cards (one full deck per player) but the listed playing time isn't that long.

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That's it for this look into my gaming life. Time for you to go play!