Set-itaire

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:
( Rules )