The Illustrious Game of Mao

[PlainDealingVillain]

It looks like Mornington Crescent is winding down, so perhaps there should be another game starting. I volunteer to manage cards and the ruleset for a game of Mao, and to provide a sample of play so that people aren't quite as lost. Anyone interested?

[Alicorn]

I don't think I understand how central management of what cards we have would work.

[DanielH]

As long as PDV does not play and tells everybody this kind of detail in PM, I suppose it could theoretically work.

[PlainDealingVillain]

Yes, that's what I meant. I would keep track of the deck, etc. and not play.

[Alicorn]

I'm tentatively interested, although I wish there were some way to figure out whether it's the version I know or not in advance.

[DanielH]

Yes, I really dislike agreeing to play Mao with people and then learning the hard way they play with a different version of the game and don’t realize that different versions exist. Usually I have one of the most lenient versions, but there have been times my version was less lenient also.

What’s more frustrating is that I know a way around this and cannot describe it.

Perhaps if your example of play were complete enough it could be used to precisely establish the version in use.

[pistachi0n]

I've heard of Mao and wanted to try it out for a long time. Not sure if an Internet forum is the best place for my first experience though, I made that mistake when I signed up for Arkham horror.

[Nemo]

I can't really picture it working very well over a forum. We'd have to wait for PDV to come online to adjudicate each move, and there are probably ways around that but probably not very neat ones.

[Alicorn]

A thing that I think should exist (and does, just not in a generic form) is a virtual deck of cards that any number of people could share and manipulate (turn over, put into piles, hide in their hands). That would suffice, but having a person pretend to be this software seems like probably not the best idea.

[Unbitwise]

Something more generic than a virtual deck of cards does exist: Tabletop Simulator. Not free, and massive overkill technically, but you can make up your own decks, boards, pieces, etc.

(I haven't played with it myself, so take this as purely “This exists!”, not an endorsement.)