The Variable War is a card game to have a fun first contact with software programming. But as we figured… it’s also a lot of fun when you are already familiar with software programming :)

Game

• From 6 to 96 years old
• 2 to 6 players
• 45 minutes
• 106 cards

Cards

• W Value Cards (Yellow)
• X Attack Cards (Red)
• Y Defense Cards (Green)
• Z Bonus Cards (Blue)

Each cards description is listed in the Cards Description part.

How to play

Overview

The point is to reach 42 for either of variables A and B. When it’s your turn, you start by drawing 2 cards, then play 2 cards. For each card, you can either:

• play 1 Value card (yellow) on your variables to get closer to 42 on variable A or B. You can combine Increment cards with Repeat cards.
• play 1 Value card (yellow) on another player’s variables. For instance, you can decrease his variable value, or make it so that it matches a conditional attack.
• play an attack card (red) on other players’ variables, to slow them down in their progress
• play a bonus card, either on yourself or on another player, depending on the card.
• any combination of the above.

Game Setup

Each player has a variable declaration board in front of him. This is where he will increment his variables, and where all players can put attacks or bonuses. A dealer shuffles the deck and deals 6 cards face down to each player. The remainder of the deck is left in the center of the table face down. It will be the drawing pile.

Goal

The goal of this game is to reach a value of 42 for either of the 2 variables. If at the end of the drawing pile, no one has reached 42, the player who has a variable closest to 42 wins (even if he has more than 42).

Instructions

The player directly to the left of the dealer starts, then everyone plays turn by turn, clockwise.

When it’s your turn, start by drawing 2 cards from the drawing pile.

You must now play 2 cards. With each card you’ll play, you can do either of the following:

• increase one of your variables by adding a Value Card.
• attack another player by using a Attack Card.
• remove an attack that was done to you by using a Defense Card.
• use a Bonus card to attack, defend, or change the course of the game.

You can use the 2 cards independently, but it could be smarter to use a combination of 2 cards to ensure a better outcome. For instance:

• use a Repeat 3 card, and stack with increment by 8 card on top of it, to increment your variable by 24!
• give a Memory Leak attack on another player, then put a Increment by 2 to one of his variables so that the variable value modulo 3 is equal to 0, and is reset to 0 :P
• play a Open Source practice to see the other players cards, and play a Mob Programming to get the most interesting hand from either of your direct neighbours :)

If you can’t play, for instance, if your code is frozen for 2 turns, you only have Value cards, and you don’t want to give them to another player (understandably), then you must discard a card in the discard pile.

At the end of your turn, you must have 6 cards in hand.

If none of players reaches 42, the game ends when the drawing pile is empty, and when the player who drew the last card played. If there was only one card left when he drew, he can only play one card.