Authors Card Game Rules

 Originally, Authors was played using special cards having the pictures and names of celebrated writers, and such cards remains available, but it's now more often played with regular deck of cards. It is best called a children's game, but in its four- and five-hand forms it is preferred by many fine card-players as a game of skill. A simple variation for very young players is Fish.

Players range from four to six. Three could play, but the game is then overly simple for any but young children. The cards are dealt face down, one at a time, until all are dealt; they need not come out even.

 

Every player in turn asks the other players for a particular card, naming the player asked, the rank, and the suit, hence, "Joe, give me the ace of spades." If the asked player has the card he should deliver it, face up on the table. The asker must have at least a card of the rank he calls for and should not ask for a card he holds. (So by asking for the Ace of hearts, he reveals that he has an ace but not the Ace of hearts.) A player's turn carries on as long as the player required has the card asked for. When an asked player declines, his turn ends. The turn to play passes to the left.

 

The target is to form books, a book being all four cards of similar rank. When a player nails a book (or is dealt one) he automatically shows it, then turns it down on the table in front of him.

Especially in kids’ games, the winner is the player who completes the most books. More serious players normally keep score using poker chips. Each time a player completes a book, each other player gives him one chip. The player who completes the most books gets an extra chip per player.           

For any breach of the rules—demanding for a card one holds, asking for a card without having a card of the same rank, failing to turn over an asked card when one bears it, or failing to show a book as soon as it is completed—the wrongdoer pays a penalty of one chip to every other player.

By Tip Writer