Set-itaire

[rbandrews]

Set is a lovely game. It turns one of the human brain's firmware abilities on its head; we're great at noticing patterns of things that are alike, but Set rewards us for also noticing things that are different.

I bought my copy one Christmas when I was a freshman and bored in Houston. My family does not game, so I sat there for about two weeks just playing solitaire Set for hours on end.

I got pretty good at it.

In fact, most people won't play me now. So, I get my Set fix solitaire. Until today, I would do the normal method of just laying out cards and trying to find sets, which has the benefit of allowing other suckers people to join in, but the great disadvantage that you can't really lose, and there's no real strategy involved. It's just a raw timesink. I tried scoring by losing one point for every no-set, but that's just pure luck. I want a real game, and there isn't one.

To remedy this, I invented Set-itaire:

Set-itaire

Setup:
Deal three cards face up to the center, this is the "board".
Draw eight more, your "hand".

Play:
Find a set containing at least one card from the board, and at least one from your hand.

Put this set aside, it is worth one point.

Draw cards back to your hand and the board to replace what you used, and repeat.

If you can't find a set:
Discard one card from the board and from your hand. Replenish the board, but not your hand. That card is gone forever; and your hand is one smaller now.

You may pick which cards get discarded.

Game end:
When your hand is empty, the game is over. Every set you have found is one point, and you get a bonus point if the board forms a set.

Comments

[vond.livejournal.com]

I hate Set with a fiery burning passion. I suck at thinking under pressure though, so yeah.

[rbandrews]

One-player, there's no pressure. You can take as long as you want. Nobody ever plays solitaire when they're in a hurry, right?