STANDARD UNO
Play UNO according to the rules in the box. You have read the rules in the box, right?
We’re not going to bother to explain this one.
MULTI-CARD UNO
The author of this piece once got into an argument at a Christian youth work conference when he insisted that these were part of the official rules. (They are not.)
In this variation of the official rules, you can play multiple cards at the same time. In its simplest format, you can play as many cards of the same face value as you like during your go. For example, if there is a blue 3 down, you could play a blue 7 followed by two red 7s. Or if someone has played a red +2, you could play a green +2 and a red +2 (we’ll let you decide whether this means the next person has to pick up just two or picks up six cards).
A more complex variation is to allow runs. This means you can play numbers in a row, for example 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, providing they are of the same colour. If you combine this with the other rule it would be possible to play red 3, blue 3, blue 4, blue 5, yellow 5, yellow 6, yellow 7. This makes for a game where you spend more time arguing over legal plays than playing the game. We don’t recommend it.
If you play this variation, a player has to call UNO before their last possible turn, not their last card: for example, you should call UNO when you have three 6s left in your hand.
SNAP UNO
A good one if you find your young people aren’t doing enough yelling during your regular youth work session.
If someone plays exactly the same card you have in your hand, you yell out ‘Snap’ (or any other word you like) and play that same card on top. For example, if they play a green 7, and you have a green 7 you can yell out snap and play your green 7. The regular turn order continues after your snap. If you yell it out by accident or too late, you have to pick up a card. (If you can snap on your regularly scheduled turn, you can play an extra card as well.)
GROUP-ACTION-CARD-UNO
Because any game can be made more embarrassing if you want it to be.
If certain cards come down, every player has to do an action. If someone doesn’t do the action, or is the last person to do it, they have to pick up a card. For example, if a 7 is played, no one can speak until another card is played on top of it. If someone speaks they get a card. If a 1 is played, everyone must start singing. If someone lays down a 0, everyone must stand up until it’s covered up, and so on…
SCORING UNO
A sure-fire way to make a game more enjoyable is to make it last much longer and make it extra-competitive.
Play a normal round of UNO with any extra rules you like. At the end of the round, everyone gets a score based on how many cards they have left (with the winner of the round getting zero points). After a set time or number of games, the person with the fewest points wins. Each number card is worth its face value, each coloured special card is worth 10 points, and each black special card is worth 25 points. So a hand with a 0, 5, 7, change direction and wild card would be worth 47 points.
WE-DON’T-HAVE-ANYOFFICIAL- UNO-CARDS-UNO
You only have a regular deck of cards, the only card game you can remember is Texas hold’em poker and you’ve just led a session on the sinfulness of gambling. Don’t panic…
In case you haven’t noticed, you can play UNO without using official UNO cards. In a regular deck of cards, the jack, queen, king take the place of the skip, change direction and +2 cards. Use the jokers in place of the +4 wild cards and the number cards in place of the… uh… number cards.
