Suggested Variant Rules for (Mu)

the 1996 trick-taking card game published by Doris and Frank

RufMü

In this variant, instead of the Chief choosing a partner, he is permitted to instead choose a unique card (i.e. no cards of rank "1" or "7" may be named) by naming its suit and rank. The Chief's partner, who is not revealed except by card play, is the holder of this card. If the card named is held by the Vice, then the Chief plays without partner.

In this way, the Chief may choose to play solo, by naming one of his own cards as the partner card. If the Chief does choose to play solo, he should receive a 1-column score bonus if he is successful.

This variant should add new subtleties to the game as the player holding the named card may try to keep this fact secret for as long as possible while the Vice and allies may deliberately play so as to drive it out.

Éclat Variant

The amount given to the "winners" of an éclat is changed. Now the amount awarded is equal to number of points amount lost by the "loser" divided by the number of winners.

This is to prevent unusual collusion to punish a leader. Without this rule, suppose one player has 180 points and the other four each have 60. If the four players agree, they can create a 12 card éclat. One player will lose 120 points, but three others will earn 60. They can continue to do this until all reach 180 points. The leader cannot prevent this since if he ever joins tie bid, he will simply be allowed to lose it.


See also The Page which is maintained by the authors of the game and offers the following variant:
After a game, shuffle the deck and draw a card. Multiply this number by 10. If this value plus any player's score exceeds 200, the game is over. Otherwise, play another hand.

Sun Jun 11 20:24:36 PDT 2000
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