An original card game by Daniel Schulman. It's freely available for any use, as long as you give credit. Look here for more games!

Dang It!

"Dang It!" is a simple game, designed to be fast-paced, and suitable for children as well as adults. It has only a small amount of strategy, although card-counting can be very useful.

One player will start by placing a card face up, and the other player must play a card that follows either suit or rank. Both continue playing cards until one cannot follow, which they must announce by saying "Dang It!" (Feel free to replace with less child-friendly versions, if you like). The player who put down the last card then wins the pile.

Setup

2 players, and a standard 52-card deck. The rules are easily adapted to 3 or more players, but it works better if you add a second deck. Each player will be trying to collect as many cards as possible during a round, and should keep a pile of the cards they have taken. This pile will be kept face down, and cannot be examined during a round.

Start a round with a shuffled deck. Each player draws one card from anywhere in the pile. The player with the highest card (Ace is high) takes both cards, and will be the dealer for the first hand. If tied, draw again, until there is a winner. The winner takes all cards drawn.

Playing a Hand

Each player is dealt five cards, starting with the dealer's opponent. The dealer plays first, and starts by playing any card face up. Players continue by playing cards in turn, following either suit or rank.

If you have cards remaining in your hand, but cannot follow suit or rank, say "Dang It!". Your opponent then takes all cards in the pile, and starts a new pile by playing any card from their hand.

If you put down the last card from your hand (either on top of your opponent's card, or by starting a new pile), then the hand is over. Take all of your opponent's cards, and the card you just put down. You will be the dealer for the next hand.

Winning a Round

A round is over when there are no cards left to deal from the deck. Note that the last deal may have fewer than 5 cards in some cases (if you needed to break a tie when drawing for first dealer, or if playing with more than 2 people).

Each player gets 1 point for each card they have collected during the round. You can play either some number of rounds, or to some number of points.

Example

Sad blue with 5H. Happy yellow with KH. Both draw to see who deals the first hand, and blue wins.
Blue gets AH,10H,2C,2S,4S. Yellow gets 2H,JC,9D,10D,AD Blue deals.
Blue plays AH Blue plays the first card.
Yellow plays AD, Blue says Dang It! Yellow follows rank. Blue says "Dang It!". Yellow now wins the 2 cards on the pile.
Yellow plays 10D, Blue plays 10H Yellow leads off, and Blue follows rank.
Yellow plays 2H, Blue plays 2C Yellow follows suit, and Blue follows rank.
Yellow plays JC, Blue says Dang It! Yellow follows suit. Blue can't follow, and says "Dang It!". Yellow wins all 5 cards in the pile.
Yellow plays 9D and says All Out! Yellow is all out and wins all remaining cards.
Yellow 10, Blue 2 Yellow will deal the next hand.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

The graphics make use of the excellent public domain clip art available from the Open Clip Art Library, particularly the playing card sets by Nicu Buculei.