I’ve referenced my families love of full-contact Uno before, both in person and on Twitter. The whole set of rules is much more complicated; we don’t usually hit each other for no reason! We have clearly defined times when hitting/elbowing is allowed. This post is for anyone out there who would want to play Uno, and up the degree of difficulty by bit.
For starters, there are a number of Uno special editions that add whacky cards that you can use. Happy Anniversary and Sponge Bob Uno are two of our favorites for their special cards that totally fuck with other people. These are optional, however fun they might be.
The required rules are as follows:
- When a 7 is played, the person who played it must switch hands with anyone they choose at the table
- When a 0 is played everyone at the table must pass their hands to the person next in order of play. For instance, if play is going clockwise, you would pass your hand to the person at your left and receive the cards of the person at your right
- The “killer” rule is when a draw 2 or draw 4 wild card is laid on you, instead of having to draw cards, if you have another draw 2 or draw 4 wild, you can lay it on top and make the next person draw 4 or 8! They too can play another draw 2/4 and so it goes until someone doesn’t have one. There have been instances of drawing 16… and grumpy relatives. Remember, you can only lay a draw 2 on another draw 2 and a draw 4 on another draw 4!
- The “match” rule is what I am referring to when I say full contact. If at any point you have in your hand an exact, numeric, chromatic duplicate of the top card on the pile in your hand, you may shout “MATCH!” and lay your card down, regardless of whose turn it actually is. For instance, if a red 7 is on the top of the pile, and you have a red 7 in your hand, you can throw down. This does not apply to named cards like the reverse, draw 2, skips, or wild cards. The catch is that your card has to be played before the next person plays and covers that card up, because then it would no longer be a match. Of course this can lead to some elbowing and hurrying to play cards… thus full-contact.
Have fun, play safe and keep plenty of band-aids or beer on hand!
-yuk
