How To Play Dragon's Tail.

Hola friends. If you've stumbled along this lovely little page then you're either that bored or very lost... But hey, at least you can leave knowing you've learned a neat new card game! (Or you know, just took one look at the page and gone "Nope.") Either way, out of the kindness of my heart, I've taken the time out of my busy busy schedule to write up a not-so-simple guide for how to play the game. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have and wish you all the best in understanding my instructions. Here goes nothing...

* Before you begin, we recommend you have at least 4 players. The more the better (unless you have no friends) but you can play with as few as 3. Maybe 2 if you're that unpopular. We also suggest using more than 1 card deck if you're playing with more than 5 people.

Stuff You Will Need:

A Deck of Cards (Including the jokers, which are optional)

A Flat Surface (Duh)

A Few Friends (Or some cats. We won't judge.)

Setting Up (A.K.A. The Fun Part)

1. Have someone shuffle the cards (Preferably NOT the guy that just learned how to trick shuffle off of YouTube) and allow each player to choose a card. This must be done face down but they may look at the card once chosen.

2. Let your one weird friend show you a magic trick.

3. Everyone must show their cards at the same time. Now, this is where it might get a bit confusing. (If you're not already confused...) The person with the highest card is The Dragon (I'll explain that later), but the amount of Dragons depends on the players. Those that are not Dragons, are Peasants - Fitting, right? There should always be more Peasants than Dragons in order to keep the game fair but you can mix it up as much as you like. (Are you still with me?) With 4 people, the one with the highest card will be The Dragon. With 5 people, the two with the highest cards both become Dragons, and so on. If you draw the same card as someone, have both people choose another card at random from the deck.

4. With the cards you've all chosen, turn over the lowest card and leave the rest face up. Sort the face-up cards from highest to lowest and line these up next to the card you turned over. The turned over card is the Dragon's head/body, whereas the face-up cards are the tail. The Peasants' goal is to destroy the tail and eventually, the head. It should look a little something like this (give or take):

5. With the remaining cards in the deck, hand out 4 cards to each Dragon and 1 card to each Peasant. And thus, you are ready to play!

 

How to Play (As a Goddamn Dragon!)

Being the almighty Dragon, your goal is to stop the other players from getting rid of the cards in the middle. Once they destroy the face-down card, you lose! (I mean, that's basically your head, so unless you're a hydra...). 

When it's your turn, pick up a card. You may place 1 card from your deck face up on the table - Add it on to the end of the line as another addition to yo' fancy tail. 1 Turn = 1 Card. Here's the catch however, your hand is not allowed to drop down below 4 cards; If it does, you cannot play until you've got your hand back up to 4. If you do not wish to put a card down or don't have enough cards in your hand to do so, you may just pick up a card and pass your turn to the next player - Remember, there is no limit to how many cards you can have in your hand in one go.

As The Dragon (No, not from that TV show) you get certain 'cheats' to help you win (You're Welcome) but these can only be used on your turn:

1. If the only card left on the table is the face-down card, you may put down all of your cards under 5. There is no limit to how many this may be!
2. If you just so happen to collect all 4 of the same card, you may place all of these down in one go. This doesn't apply to the 2 Jokers. If you're using two decks, you don't need all of say, the 6s to put them down - You only need 4.
3. If you have a joker, play it as you would be adding another card to your tail as normal. Where's the magic, you say? Well, the old fool was kind enough to allow you to place another card down after him! Play the Joker, then add any other card from your deck to play in the same turn. Lucky you! If you've got more than 1 Joker, you can play them one after the other. Jokers are worth the same as the number 5 card.

Now, it's not enough to merely fight off your attackers. Those unruly Peasants will keep attacking until they've got your head on a spike! (Or a club...Maybe a spade? No? I don't know why I bother...) In order to permanently defeat them (Without the aid of fire, since you have a sore throat) you must fulfil one of the following:

• Force them to surrender! If your royal Dragon-ness proves too much for your foes, they can surrender at any time simply by laying their cards face up on the table. All Peasants must surrender for you to win.
• Drain their life source. By 'life source', I mean 'deck'. Duh. Anyway, every player has to pick up a card on their turn, which means the deck will begin to dwindle. If the deck runs out, you automatically win. But be warned, if a Peasant gets a hold of the Joker, they can use it to reshuffle cards into the deck (I'll explain that a bit later).

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How to Play (As a Meager Peasant)

You might be a dirty commoner making his/her way from a village of filth, but that doesn't mean you can't risk your life fighting a Dragon! And that, my simple friend, is the aim of your quest.

On your turn, always remember to pick up a card first. Then, you may use a card to start chipping away at The Dragon's tail. (because that's the most effective way to kill a dragon...duh.) To take out a card, yours must be the same value or be a higher value. For example, if there's a 9 down, you can only use a 9 or higher to take it out. Once you've taken it out, take that 9 and the card you used to kill it and leave it face up in front of you. (They must not go into your hand!) Easy, you say? Well, you're only allowed to take out the exposed card at the end of the tail. It'd be silly to just chop the middle of a dragon's tail! But since there are only 4 Kings in a deck, we decided to make it a little fairer - Kings can also be taken out by an Ace.

You may only take away 1 card on your turn. Once you've taken a card away, it is the next player's turn. However, if you're fresh out of luck and don't have any cards high enough to take out the tip o' the tail, just pick up a card and pass your turn. Still easy? Nope. Your hand is not allowed to exceed 4 cards. If you do end up with more than 4 by the end of your turn, you have to give cards of your choosing to The Dragon until it's back down to 4! (If there's more than one Dragon, you may choose your favourite <3)

Now, in order to actually win the game, you have to clear all of the cards until you reach The Dragon's head (the face-down card) but in order to kill it, you need a King or an Ace. The thing is, we love dragons. 'Why is that relevant?', you may ask. Because it's all the more difficult for Peasants to win. It's not a matter of "Chop it's head off!". You also have to keep an eye on the deck. If the deck ever runs out of cards, you instantly lose. See how we've kept the odds even? But don't worry, we've given you an escape route!

This is where those cards you took outcome in handy. Remember I told you to keep them face up in front of you? If you have a Joker in your hand, you may play it on your turn. This means you can shuffle all of the cards in front of you back into the deck. You're allowed to use the Joker on anyone's little collection of cards, but only one player's at a time. Oh, and you also have to shuffle the Joker back in. Once you've done this, your turn is over.

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Good luck Peasants - You'll need it.