Players in The Game try to discard all 98 cards in the deck onto four discard piles in order to win, but they need to do so in the right ways.
Each player starts with 6-8 cards in their hand depending on the number of players, and four discard pile prompt cards are on the table: two showing “1” and an up arrow and two showing “100” and a down arrow. On a turn, a player must discard at least two cards from their hand onto one or more discard piles, with cards on the 1 piles being placed in ascending order and cards on the 100 piles being placed in descending order. One tricky aspect of the game is that you can play a card exactly 10 higher/lower than the top card of a discard pile even when you would normally have to play in a descending/ascending order, e.g., if a 100 discard pile is topped with an 87, you can play any card lower than 87 or you can play the 97.
After a player finishes their turn, they refill their hand from the deck. During play, players cannot reveal exact numbers in their hands, but they can warn others not to play on certain discard piles or otherwise make play suggestions.
Once the deck is emptied, players are required only to play at least one card on a turn. If you play all 98 cards, you win! If you get good, the rules suggest that you play at least three cards a turn to increase the challenge.
We played through a few games, no of which we won, but per the instructions, we did very well.
None of us wanted to stay up too late as we knew we were getting into St Thomas tomorrow rather early.
I hurry to deck 7 and look out. This is the first land I’ve seen in days. The sun had just risen I watched as a small boat looked to be recovering pilings.
We saw some interesting sites and stopped at a farm where we were told about and given samples of locally grown coffee. They also had several tables and racks of souvenirs.
Like I said, I do not like to get dirty, but this was a blast. When we got back to base, the facility had showers. Well, they had three (maybe four) pipes with valves that I am pretty sure just ran from a garden hose. I mean, there was no hot water. Oh, and did I mention that it was unisex/co-ed? Seriously, though, it felt good to knock at least SOME of the dirt off.
Before getting on the bus to head back to the port, our guide made his rounds. He’s the one who took the photos of us in the buggies. While his price seems fair for two people, I let me know that it was just me and I had just met my buggy mate this morning. He smiled and gave me a better deal (though I promised not to tell anyone what it was).
It was early enough that I thought I’d hit the Oh Sheenan on deck 8 for a drink and either find a game in the lounge or read. I ran into Michael and Teresa again up there and showed them “The Game”.