The Rules of Cato
Written by Sam Coppini, Curtis Smith, Alex Springer,
Justen Cook and Andrew Poulter
Edited by Sam Coppini
A Council of Card Production
Rule One: Card Etiquette
I. Thou shalt not call another player by a name other than what they declare themselves to
be, or a “nickname”, if given consent.
II. Thou shalt not touch another player’s cards without their consent.
III. Thou shalt not look at, or intend to reveal, the face of another player’s cards without
their consent.
IV. Thou shalt not touch the draw pile unless it is to draw cards, shuffle it, cut the deck, or to
retrieve it after it fell.
V. Thou shalt not directly insult another player.
VI. Thou shalt not make claims discrediting another player’s ability, livelihood, occupation,
area of expertise, appearance, masculinity, femininity, beliefs, religion, opinion, or
anything else deemed to be an insult by the rest of the group.
VII. Thou shalt not disclaim, discredit, or discount another’s honor, nor their own.
VIII.
The dealer must always deal the cards to the left, rotating through the players, dealing
one card to each player at a time, until the appropriate number of cards have been dealt.
IX. Thou shalt not commit piracy inside the actions during the game.
X. Thou shalt not commit piracy within the actions during the game.
XI. Thou shalt not maintain a notion of superiority of oneself over another.
XII. Thou shalt not attempt to punish, coerce, or convince another player to punish others for
the violation of card etiquette.
Rule Two: Rule Creation and Rule Management
I.
II.
III.
IV.
If someone wins a game of Cato, they add a rule to their account in the Rule Bank™.
If someone who has a rule in the Rule Bank™ would like to make a rule, they must write
it down and show the other players their rule. After receiving advice and criticism about
the rule, they may decide to add it to game immediately, or they may “test game” it. A
rule that is being “test-gamed” may still be edited by its author and does not require
another rule in order to edit it. After you create a rule, it deducts one rule from your Rule
Bank™ account.
If you would like to make an amendment to an existing rule, you only need to spend 0.5
of a rule in order to do so.
At any time a game of Cato isn’t currently being played, three members of the Council of
Card may decide to hold a rules convention. In a rules convention, various changes to the
rules may be suggested. All decisions to change the rules must be unanimous in order for
the suggested change to be implemented.
Rule Three: Beginning the Game
I.
II.
At the beginning of the game, twelve cards are dealt to each player. Each player must
select eight cards to become their “hand”, and the other four cards are put back into the
deck. Then, an additional card is dealt to each player, which becomes their “natural
resource”.
After the cards have been put back into deck, the deck is placed face-down in the center
of the playing area in order to create a “draw pile”. The top card of the deck is to be
flipped over and placed next to the deck to form a “discard pile”. After this, the top card
of the draw pile is flipped face-up. The top card of the draw pile must always be face-up
so that the players may always see what it is.
Rule Four: Pile Creation and Management
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
On your turn, if you have an ace of spades, you may play it next to the discard pile in
order to create a “peasants’ pile”. After playing the ace of spades, you must play on it to
start it. You may play anything on it to start it. You may also start a peasants’ pile with a
straight of three cards or more, but you do not play on top of the straight to start the pile.
On your turn, if you have two face cards of the same suit, you may play them both faceup next to the discard pile to start a “patricians’ pile”. You may also use a population
stack of a kingdom to start a patricians’ pile, provided that the stack has two or more
cards.
You may not make any new piles on the first round.
You may choose to transform a peasants’ pile into a patricians’ pile if you play two face
cards of the same suit on it.
You may play three cards of the same rank on the main discard pile or on a peasants’ pile
to “cleanse” it, if you haven’t played on the pile this turn, you haven’t cleansed this turn
and you didn’t cleanse last turn. When the discard pile is cleansed, you must play on it to
start it again. If a peasants’ pile is cleansed, it is started by the top card of the draw pile.
Rule Five: Rules regarding Patricians’ Piles
I.
II.
III.
You may only play one card on a patricians’ pile on your turn. You do not have to play
on a patricians’ pile if you don’t want to.
You may play any card on a patricians’ pile, provided that it is the same suit as the two
cards used to create the patricians’ pile. You also are not allowed to play an ace on a
patricians’ pile, unless you are the Supreme Leader of Cato.
For every two patricians’ piles that exist, every penalty increases by one card.
Rule Six: Rules regarding the Trash Pile
I.
II.
The trash pile is next to the draw pile. You may only play one card on the trash pile per
turn. You do not have to play on the trash pile if you don’t want to.
You may play any card on the trash pile on your turn. You may also pick up as many
cards from the trash pile as you’d like, even if it’s not your turn.
Rule Seven: Rules regarding Peasants’ Piles and the Discard Pile
I.
II.
III.
IV.
You must play at least one card on the discard pile and every peasants’ pile on your turn.
You may play three cards on a pile at once if they’re all of the same suit. The following
subrules contained under rule seven are all concerning the playing on peasants’ piles and
the main discard pile.
If you play a card of a different suit than the previously-played card on the pile, you must
draw three cards, unless it’s the same rank as the previous card, or you played a diamond
on a spade or vice versa. Each suit has different rules restricting what you’re allowed to
play on it without getting a penalty.
a. If you play on a spade, you must play a card of equal or lower rank. If you don’t,
you must draw three cards.
i. The only exception is the king of spades, which may be played on any
spade without a penalty for not playing a lower rank.
b. If you play on a diamond, you must play a card of equal or higher rank than the
previously-played card on the pile. If you don’t, you must draw two cards.
c. If you play on a club, you must play with a value equal to or higher than the
difference between the values of the last two cards. If you don’t, you must draw
two cards.
d. If you play on a heart, you must play a card with a rank that is in between (or
equal to) the value of the previously-played card and half the value of the
previously-played card. If you don’t, you must draw two cards.
If the value of the last three cards played on a pile add up to over the addition limit, you
must draw two cards. The addition limit begins at twenty-one.
a. The values of the cards for counting purposes are:
i. Face cards (king, queen and jack) are all worth ten.
ii. Number cards (two through ten) are all worth their face value.
iii. Aces are worth one.
b. If two cards of the same rank are next to each other, they “double up”, and are
both worth half of their value.
c. If you play a card with a rank of five or less on top of a face card, it is worth twice
its value.
d. Whenever a pile is cleansed, the addition limit goes up by one, until it reaches
twenty-five, after which the addition limit goes back down to twenty-one.
If you play a four, the next person to play must draw two cards at the start of their turn.
However, they respond to you playing a four by immediately playing a four from their
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
hand on top of your four to “double back”. Then you must draw four cards, unless you
respond by immediately playing a four from your hand on top of their four to “redouble”.
If a player is redoubled upon, they must draw eight cards at the start of their turn unless
they immediately play a four from their hand to “redouble back”, which means you must
draw sixteen cards. There is no way to respond to being redoubled back upon.
If you play a jack, it’ll skip the next player’s turn unless you say “Dico nihil mali”.
Whether or not you say “Dico nihil mali”, the next player may choose to “double jack”
by immediately playing a jack from their hand onto the jack you just played. Anyone who
is double jacked upon may respond by immediately playing a jack from their hand onto
the previously-played jack. The double jacking continues until one of the players
involved is either unable to double jack, or doesn’t want to double jack anymore. The
next X turns of the last player to be double jacked upon are skipped, where X is the
number of jacks played in the double jacking session.
If you play a black queen, then the order of play is reversed unless another player
immediately plays another black queen from their hand on top of the black queen to
“requeen”. You may also respond to their requeening by requeening back, and they may
also requeen again and it continues until a player is unable or unwilling to play another
black queen.
a. If the number of black queens played during a requeening session is an odd
number, then the order is reversed, and the order is re-reversed after the next
player’s turn, and then reversed after each players’ turn X-2 amount of times,
where X is the amount of black queens played during the session of requeening.
b. If the number of black queens played during a requeening session is an even
number, then the next player gets to play as normal, and the order goes unreversed
until after the player after the next player, and then the order is reversed after each
player’s turn X-1 amount of turns, where X is the number of black queens played
in the requeening session.
c. If you are playing a two-player game, then black queens function identically to
jacks instead.
You may play an ace on any card without receiving any penalties.
The two of hearts may be played on anything, and anything may be played on the two of
hearts. You may not play anything with the two of hearts, and you may not play on the
two of hearts if you’re the player who played it and no other player has played on it yet.
If you play the two of diamonds, all players with a hand with five cards or more are
allowed to discard two cards into the deck.
If you play a nine, you may end your turn prematurely without playing on all the
peasants’ piles and the main discard pile.
You are allowed to play up to three cards without penalty if their combined values add up
to the product of the values of the two cards of that pile.
You may play over three cards without any penalties if you play a straight. Cards in a
straight must be the same suit, be three cards or longer, may be played on anything, and
are allowed to be played in either descending or ascending order.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
If you have four or more cards of the same rank, you may play them on anything without
getting any penalties. The next player doesn’t have to suffer any effects if you played
multiple fours, jacks or black queens.
If the last three cards are all hearts and they add up to exactly thirty, or you play three
hearts cards that add up to thirty, then the pile is “auto-cleansed” with the same rules as a
traditional cleanse. You don’t pay penalties for going over the addition limit.
You may play one card per turn face-down if you didn’t play a card face-down on the
previous turn. When you play a card face-down, the next player must play on it blindly.
After they play on it, it is flipped over and revealed. If they played a card that causes
them to get a penalty, they draw for the penalty and an additional one card. However, if
they played a card that gets them no penalty, then the person who played the face-down
card must draw two cards.
a. If you play a face-down card, you still must draw for any penalties you would’ve
gotten if you had played it face-up.
b. If you play a jack, black queen or a four, they do not skip the next player’s turn or
cause them to draw. However, you must draw three cards for playing it.
c. You may not cleanse a pile with a face-down card played on it
Rule Eight: Picking up cards from piles
I.
II.
You may pick up cards from the top of one pile per turn. You may not pick up more than
seven cards per turn, and you must play one of them.
a. You may not pick up fours, face-down cards, cards that were part of a straight, the
two of hearts, the ace of spades (unless it’s played on the main discard pile) or
any cards from a patricians’ pile.
b. You may not play picked up cards on the trash pile, and you must include other
cards if you play them on the pile you just picked them up from.
You may also choose to pick up all the cards from all of the piles (not including the draw
pile) if you have six or less cards in your hand, and there are at least fifteen cards in all of
the piles. You may only pick up all the piles once per turn.
a. If you pick up an ace of spades from a peasants’ pile, it is to be put back into the
deck instead of being put back into your hand.
b. After you pick up all the piles, the main discard pile is restarted with the top card
of the draw pile, but you must restart all the peasants’ and patricians’ piles with
cards from you hand.
Rule Nine: Kingdoms
I.
A kingdom consists of the following four things: a card stack, a population stack, a
natural resource, and a military stack.
a. A card stack is created by simply laying a card face-up in front of you. You do not
need a kingdom in order to have a card stack, but you must have a card stack to
create a kingdom. You may only put two cards in a card stack per turn, but you
are allowed to pick up all the cards in your card stack at any time.
i. If you have any cards in your card stack that aren’t spades, you’ll gain
interest for your card stack on the end of every turn you take. You gain
one card of interest per turn, plus one card for every five cards in your
card stack. Interest is taken from the deck and put on top of your card
stack, face-up.
ii. If another player plays a card with the same rank as the top card on your
card stack, they must draw four cards. If another player has a card with the
same rank and suit as the top card of your card stack, they may choose to
“negate” it, and both cards will be put back into the deck. After you negate
a card stack, you must draw a card from the draw pile.
iii. Another player may choose to “abduct” your card stack if they have three
cards of the same rank. The three cards are put back into the deck and they
must draw two more cards. If there are more than two players, they may
give the abducted card stack to another player, otherwise the card stack is
put back into the deck. You may not abduct your own card stack.
iv. You may trade your hand for someone else’s card stack, provided that
they have the same amount of cards.
v. You may not have a kingdom if you don’t have a card stack for it at the
end of your turn.
b. A population stack is started by playing either an ace or a king and declaring
“Kingdom <suit>”, where <suit> is the suit of the ace/king. This action starts the
new kingdom.
i. To build on a population stack, you must play a card of consecutive
descending (if you started the kingdom with a king) or ascending (if you
started the kingdom with an ace) rank. The cards you play on the
population stack must match the suit of the card you started the kingdom
with.
1. You are only allowed to add two cards on each population stack
per turn.
2. You may play a card with a suit that doesn’t match your kingdom
if you and another player both agree to enter a “royal marriage”
together. If you do enter a royal marriage, you may play cards that
match their kingdoms on your kingdoms and they may do the
same.
ii. You may not add to your population stack if you said “Carthago delenda
est” on your previous turn.
c. A natural resource card is delivered to each player at the start of the game (see
Rule 3.I). Players are allowed to look at their own natural resource, but they aren’t
allowed to show or tell other players what their natural resource is. Natural
resources may not be changed or picked up.
II.
d. Military stacks may not be started until a player has the necessary zorkmids (see
Rule 9.III) to support it. You may buy cards from the deck for two zorkmids each
to put in your military stack. On every turn you take afterwards, you must pay two
zorkmids each turn to keep them. If you are unable to pay for upkeep, then the
cards are put back into the deck.
i. You may only buy up to three cards for your military pile per turn, unless
you are planning to attack another player this turn (see Rule 9.II), in which
case you may not buy any cards for your military stack.
ii. You may only buy cards for your military stack on your turn.
iii. You may remove cards from your military stack by picking them up and
putting them in your hand on your turn.
On your turn, you use one of your kingdoms to declare war on another player’s kingdom.
a. There are two dice rolls to determine the outcome of each battle. On each roll,
both players involved in the war roll a 20-sided die (known as the “Die of
Atonement”). The result of the dice roll plus the bonuses determines who wins. If
both players arrive at the same number, then both players re-roll that roll.
i. The first roll is known as the “High roll”. The bonus that the attacker gets
is the equal to number of cards in between the highest and lowest cards in
your kingdom plus the number of cards in their military piles. The
defender gets a bonus equal to the number cards in their kingdom and
military stack. Whoever wins the high roll gets the bottom card from the
loser’s kingdom, and they may decide to:
1. Put it into their hand
2. Put it into their military pile
3. Add it to a kingdom (or start a kingdom with it)
4. Sell it back to the deck (kings are worth five zorkmids, queens are
worth four, jacks are worth three, 10 through 6 are worth two
zorkmids and everything else is worth one zorkmid)
5. Put it back into the deck and force the other player to draw two
cards.
ii. The second roll is known as the “Low roll”. Players start out with no
bonuses on the low roll, but they may sacrifice aces, twos and fours from
their hand to gain a bonus of +1 for each sacrificed card. If you sacrifice
cards and end up losing the low roll, you must draw twice the amount of
cards you sacrificed. If you win the high roll, then you only have to draw
the same amount of cards you sacrificed.
1. The winner of the low roll may decide to continue the war, which
will start another battle starting with the high roll followed by
another low roll.
2. If the winner of the low roll decides to end the war, then the player
who declared the war is not allowed to declare another war that
turn. If they also won the high roll, they are allowed to “occupy”
the other player’s kingdom. (See Rule 9.IV for more information.)
III.
b. If a player loses a battle and doesn’t have any cards in a population stack of their
kingdom, they must draw four cards. If this player wins the low roll, they may
decide to “counterattack” and continue the war, but if the other player wins the
low roll, they may not decide to continue the war.
c. Before entering in a war, you may join in an alliance with another player,
provided they agree. If you have an alliance with another player and are fighting
in a war, then the cards from their kingdoms and their military piles are added to
yours for the high roll and are counted in the same way they would depending on
whether you’re the defender or attacker. Alliances only last for one war.
d. You may decide to turn your kingdom into a vampire kingdom. If your kingdom
is a vampire, all your bonuses for the high roll are doubled. However, if you end
your turn and you have a vampiric kingdom that didn’t win any wars, it loses a
member of its population stack.
Every player has a zorkmid account where they keep all their zorkmids. All zorkmid
accounts start out completely empty.
a. You can zorkmids to your zorkmid account through taxes, aquariums and mines.
i. On your turn, four zorkmids for “taxes” are added to your zorkmid
account for each card in your population stacks, and an additional two
zorkmids are earned for each of the first three cards played in your
population stacks.
ii. If you spend fourteen zorkmids, you may purchase an aquarium.
1. If the game is being played at an actual aquarium, having an
aquarium gives you a +4 bonus for both rolls during wars.
2. If you have a card in your aquarium (see Rule 11.V.b to see how to
add a card to your aquarium) that matches the suit of one of your
kingdoms, you gain one zorkmid per turn, even if it’s not your
turn. If the card is a face card, you gain an additional two zorkmids
per turn.
3. If one of your trading partners (See Rule 9.III.b) has a card in their
aquarium that matches the suit of one of your kingdoms, you gain
two zorkmids per turn for it.
iii. If you spend twenty-eight zorkmids, you can build a “mine”. Once a
player begins mining, all natural resource cards are flipped face-up. You
only get zorkmids from mining when it’s your turn.
1. While mining, if your natural resource matches your kingdom’s
color (see Rule 11.V for clarifications about color), you get four
zorkmids per turn. If it doesn’t match, you only get two zorkmids
per turn.
2. If you have a trade route with another player while having a mine,
you get an additional four zorkmids per turn. If your natural
resource is the same color as their kingdom, they get four zorkmids
per turn. If your natural resource is not the same color as their
kingdom, they only get two zorkmids per turn.
IV.
3. If you have a trade route with another player and you’re both
mining, all revenues gained from mining for both of you are
increased by two.
iv. In addition to being able to add a new rule, winners of Cato are allowed to
add a benefit to the Royal List of Benefits. New benefits must have a
name, price and a description of what their effect is. To buy a benefit from
the Royal List of Benefits, you must declare that you’re buying it, and
remove the amount of zorkmids required for it from your account.
Afterwards, the benefit it is yours!
b. You may enter a trade route with someone if both players consent to it and both of
the players have kingdoms.
i. You may trade cards from your hand with your trading partners. You may
not give a player your entire hand.
ii. If you declare war on a trading partner, your trade route with them is
broken off.
c. You may decide to enter an economic alliance with another player if both players
agree to it. In an economic alliance, when one player earns zorkmids, the other
player also earns zorkmids.
i. A player may decide to vassalize their partner in an economic alliance if
their partner has a smaller population stack or a smaller military pile.
During the process of vassalization, you get a +2 bonus for the high roll.
1. After declaring a vassalization, the other player can decide to
surrender, or to fight. After the war, if the vassalizer wins, the
vassalized player gets all of their kingdom back, but becomes a
vassal state and the vassalizer becomes a host state. If the
vassalizer loses, they don’t get to vassalize the other player and
loses everything they lost from the war.
2. Vassal states and host states both enjoy the benefits of economic
alliances.
3. The host state may choose to tax the vassal state for up to half his
income.
4. The host state may force the vassal state into a war.
5. The vassal state may declare a revolution at any time. The vassal
state gets a +1 bonus on both rolls for every zorkmid it’s taxed per
turn and every war they have been forced into. If the vassal state
succeeds, their kingdom is freed.
A player that is occupying another player’s kingdom may decide move as many members
of their military piles and population stacks as they would like to the occupied kingdom.
They may also add to population stacks in the occupied zone, provided it follows normal
rules to adding to population stacks.
a. If an area is occupied, the occupier may decide to tax the occupied player’s
kingdom for four zorkmids per card in the occupied player’s population stack per
V.
turn. For this to happen, the occupier must either have a larger population stack or
military stack than the occupied player’s kingdom.
b. The occupier of a kingdom may decide to exploit the natural resources of the
occupied zone. A player who is being exploited may not mine while they are
being exploited. The exploiter gets six zorkmids per turn, and an additional two
zorkmids if the natural resource matches the color of the exploiter’s kingdom.
c. An occupied player may choose to attack the occupiers. If they win, the occupiers
are removed.
If a player has at least five cards in each of the population stacks of each of their
kingdoms, they are allowed to create another kingdom, with its own military stack,
population stack and card stack. This kingdom retains the same natural resource as the
other player’s kingdoms.
Rule Ten: Revolutions
I.
II.
To start a peasants’ revolt, there must be a peasants’ pile, and you need two face cards of
the same suit, or a kingdom with a population stack of at least two cards on it.
a. For another player to suppress a revolt, they need an ace and a king, and the cards
must be the same suit. They may also suppress with a kingdom, as long as it has
two or more cards. If a revolt is suppressed, then the materials used to start it are
shuffled back into the deck.
b. If you start a revolt with a population stack, the peasants’ pile gains “regional
autonomy”. Piles with regional autonomy function identically to normal peasants’
pile, but at the start of each turn, the top card from the draw pile is placed on
them. Peasants’ piles that are regionally autonomous can never be cleansed, and
you may never pick up any cards from it. It is optional to play on regionally
autonomous peasants’ pile.
c. If you start a revolt with two face cards, the peasants’ pile gains “The Right to
Self-Determination”, which has the exact same effect as regional autonomy.
d. If you suppress/start a peasants’ revolt, the cards used to do it get “national
sovereignty”, and become an “independent” patricians’ pile. Independent
patricians’ piles are the same thing as normal patricians’ piles.
e. When liberating a peasants’ pile via revolt, you may give a speech to them, which
may be as long as you want and on any topic. Anyone who interrupts a speech has
to draw five cards.
You may launch an imperialist coup against a peasants’ pile with two face cards of the
same suit. This transforms the peasants’ pile into an imperialist puppet, and moves it to
be in front of you. If the peasants’ pile has the right to self-determination or regional
autonomy, it loses those rights. The two face cards become a patricians’ pile.
a. You may also launch a “police action” against a peasants’ pile with a kingdom’s
population stack. This causes your population stack to become a patricians’ pile
while the peasants’ pile becomes an imperialist puppet.
b. It is optional for other players to play on an imperialist puppet during their turns,
but you must play on your imperialist puppets during your turn.
c. If you have an imperialist puppet, you get a +2 bonus for the high roll during wars
and a +3 bonus if the top card of your imperialist puppet is a face card.
d. After an imperialist coup, you may decide to create a new peasants’ pile by
playing any card you wish.
Rule Eleven: Hand management and special card combinations
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
If you have three aces in your hand, you may exchange them for the top three cards of the
deck to force one player to show their hand. They must put all the cards in their hand
face-up in front of them and they must be in plain sight for all the players to see.
a. Any player affected by this may hide their hand if:
i. They are skipped by a jack
ii. They exchange a five-card straight for five cards from the deck.
iii. It’s been a turn since they were forced to show their hand.
If you have exactly eight cards in your hand, you may exchange them for the top eight
cards in the deck. You may only do this once per game.
If you go over eight cards in your hand, you must pick up the main discard pile. The main
discard pile is started again with the top card of the draw pile.
a. You may decide to roll the Die of Atonement before you pick up the discard pile.
If the Die of Atonement rolls an even number, you are saved from having to pick
up the pile. However, if you roll an odd number, you must pick up the discard pile
and draw five cards.
If there is a peasants’ pile and a patricians’ pile in play, you may trade three face cards
that are the same suit with three cards from the deck to either:
a. Keep the patricians’ pile for yourself, disallowing other players from playing on it
b. Or force one player to pick up the entire patricians’ pile.
On your turn, you may ask a player “Do you have any <color> <rank>?” where <color>
is the color of the card you’re asking for (red for diamonds and hearts, black for spades
and clubs) and rank is the rank of the card. You must have a card that also matches the
description given, otherwise you draw two cards.
a. If they do have a card that matches the description, then your card and their card
are both put back into the deck and you may ask for another card.
b. If the player doesn’t have the card you asked for, they must say “Go fish”. If this
happens, you must take the top card from the draw pile. If you have an aquarium,
you’re allowed to place the card in your aquarium, otherwise you must put it into
your hand.
c. If a player says “Go fish” and you think they did have a card of that description,
you may challenge it. When a player is challenged, the must show their hand to
everybody. If they did have a card matching the description you gave, they must
draw ten cards. Otherwise, you must draw five cards.
VI.
At the end of your turn, if you have more than twenty-seven cards, you must discard
enough cards into the draw pile so that you have exactly twenty-seven.
Rule Twelve: Titles
I.
II.
III.
IV.
The last person to play a king is the Supreme Leader of Cato. The Supreme Leader has
five powers:
a. They may play an ace on a patricians’ pile.
b. They may not be redoubled backed upon.
c. They are not skipped when the player before them plays a jack.
d. They do not have to play on the peasants’ piles if they don’t want to.
e. They may say “YOLO” instead of “Carthago delenda est”
If a player has a title, you must refer to them by it, or draw three cards. If a player doesn’t
have a title, you must refer to them as “peon”, or draw for three cards. You may only be
penalized for calling players by the wrong name once per turn.
The following players have titles:
a. Justen Cook is to be known as the “Glorious Prime Minister”
b. Curtis Smith is to be known as the “Fearsome Red Tyrant”
c. Alex Springer is to be known as the “Benevolent Lord Alex”
d. Sam Coppini is to be known as the “Magnificent Hat Wizard”
e. Andrew East is to be known as the “Falcon Overlord”
Only the Council of Card may decide whether or not a player is worthy enough to earn a
title. The Councilmembers are the Glorious Prime Minister, the Fearsome Red Tyrant,
the Benevolent Lord Alex, and the Magnificent Hat Wizard.
a. New rules may not limit the powers of the Council of Card. The powers of the
Council of Card may only be expanded.
Rule Thirteen: Win conditions
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
If you “go out” by having no cards in your hand, do not have to draw any cards for
penalties, and you said “Carthago delenda est” (or the other options) on the previous turn,
you win, unless one of the conditions listed on Rule 14.II applies to you.
a. If you go out, but did not say “Carthago delenda est” (or one of the other options),
then you must draw five cards. If you said Carthago, and you didn’t go out, you
must draw two cards.
If a population stack in a kingdom you own has every single rank, you win.
If the population stacks in all of your kingdoms contains at least twenty-six cards, you
win.
If you have all the aces in the deck in your hand, you win.
If the game must be ended prematurely for any reason, then the player with the most
“victory bucks” is declared the winner. Victory Bucks are totaled using the following
method:
a. For every four, ace and two of hearts, a player receives one victory buck.
b. The player with the least cards in their hand (card stacks are included for victory
buck purposes) gets one victory buck
c. Every player except the player with the most amount of cards in their hand gets a
total of M – R victory bucks, where M is the number of cards that the player with
the most cards in their hand has and R is the number of cards in the player’s hand
d. For every card in a player’s population stacks, they gain one victory buck
Rule Fourteen: Victory prevention
I.
II.
III.
You are not allowed to do any of the following things if you’re going to go out on the
current turn:
a. Create a peasants’ pile
b. Create a patricians’ pile
c. Trade cards in your hand
d. Play on the trash pile
e. Tell other players about the content of your hands
f. Trade cards with someone you have a trade route with
You are not allowed to go out if:
a. You didn’t declare “Carthago delenda est” or “Carthage must be destroyed” on
your previous turn. If you were the Supreme Leader of Cato on your previous
turn, you’d also be allowed to say “YOLO” instead of “Carthago delenda est” or
“Carthage must be destroyed”.
b. If the turn before you was also taken by you.
c. You played on a patricians’ pile but not the main discard pile.
You are not allowed to win if:
a. It’s your first turn.
b. Not everyone has had a turn yet.
c. You have over five cards in your hand.
d. You have a card stack.
Rule Fifteen: Miscellany
I.
II.
III.
If you touch another player’s cards without their consent, you must draw a penalty of
three cards.
If you believe another player is cheating, and the date is October 11th or later, you may
call “shenanigans” on the player and the two of you must engage in a drinking game to
solve the dispute.
If silence is required for whatever reason, players must use an agreed-upon set of hand
gestures in order to convey vital information about the state of the game and what they
are doing.
Rule Sixteen: Rules regarding The Rules of Cato
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
The Rules of Cato, also known as the document you’re reading right now, may only go
into effect after being ratified by the signatures of the four current members of The
Council of Card.
When referring to specific portions of the rules contained in this holy text, players should
say “Rule X, Subrule X, Section X, Subsection X”, where the X’s are replaced with the
relevant rule, subrule, section and subsection.
When new players are given titles, they must place their right hand on a printed-out copy
of The Rules of Cato and repeat the following oath:
a. “I swear that I will do my best to uphold the values of Cato and abide by card
etiquette, and not intentionally make any rule which has negative impact on the
game or the people playing it”
All rules created after The Rules of Cato is ratified must have a title related to its effect.
The number of the rule is to be preceded by the initials of the title of the player who
created the rule (if the player doesn’t have a title, then the initials of their given name are
used instead) and then a period separating the number and the initials. The rule number of
rules created after the ratification of The Rules of Cato must start at 135. So, for instance,
if Justen Cook made a rule immediately after the ratification of this document, it would
be written as “Rule GPM.135: <insert title here>”
All amendments made after the ratification of The Rules of Cato do not change the
original text of the rules that it changes, and instead are written in the same way rules are,
the only difference being that it starts with “Amendment” instead of “Rule” and the
numbers for amendments start at 1. The text for an amendment must state what rule it
changes, and describe the new effects.
Signature: X.______________________________________________________
Signature: X.______________________________________________________
Signature: X.______________________________________________________
Signature: X.______________________________________________________