Mister Bill Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Overview and Aim of the Game
• Preparation
• The Game
• The Cards
• End of the Round and Scoring
• End of the Game

Contents

• The playing deck divided into:
  • 24 dishes, of 6 different types (each dish is represented 4 times);
  • 20 waiters, of 5 different types (each waiter is represented 4 times);
  • 3 Mister Bill cards;
• 8 "team" cards in 4 different colours, numbered from 1 to 8;
• 19 score cards:
  • 6 first-round cards, in blue (2 x 1, 2, 4 points);
  • 6 second-round cards, in green (2 x 1, 2, 4 points);
  • 7 third-round cards, in red (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 points);
• these rules.

Overview and Aim of the Game

A game of Mister Bill lasts three rounds. In the first two rounds, the game is played in teams: at the beginning of each round, teams are formed randomly. In the third and final round, players play on their own, becoming in other words a "team" of one person.

The aim of each team is to get rid of their cards as quickly as they can, by making pairs of identical cards: the faster you discard your cards, the more the points you earn.

The winner is the player who, after three rounds, has the most points.

Preparation

Take the team cards with numbers from 1 to the number of players, shuffle them and deal one randomly to each player. Example: with 5 players, take, shuffle and deal the team cards from 1 to 5. All players place their card face up in front of them. The colour of this card states which team the player belongs to. Example. Andrew and Emma both get a blue card: they both belong to the "blue" team. Put the remaining summary cards back in the box. With an odd number of players, one of them will be playing on his own as a "one-person" team.

One of the players is chosen as the dealer. Keep the scoring cards handy: these cards are separated by round. In the first round, you use the blue ones, in the second round the green ones, and in the third and final round the red ones.

The dealer shuffles the deck, and then he distributes all the cards to the players, one card at a time, starting with the player sitting to his left, and proceeding clockwise. It may happen that some players get one card more than other players. That is okay.

Each player takes their cards and immediately checks if they have any pairs (two identical cards). It doesn't matter if the pair is made up of dishes, waiters or Mister Bill cards (for a clearer identification of the cards, you can simply match the letters in the corners). These pairs must be discarded immediately. Discarded cards are out of the game until the round ends. Once all players have discarded their pairs, the game begins with the player having the team card number 1.

The Game

The game is played in turns in clockwise order. Each player, on their turn, must take the following actions in the order specified:

1. He must draw one card from the hand of the player to his right. The player randomly selects one random card from the hand of the player still in play sitting to his right, and adds that card to his hand.

2. He must discard all the pairs he has in hand. If the player has one or more pairs of identical cards, he must discard them. As usual, it does not matter if the cards are dishes, waiters or Mister Bill, as long as they have the same illustration and the same letter in the corner. Attention: players cannot discard three cards of a kind, only pairs.

3. He may play a waiter card. The player may decide to play one (and only one) waiter card and follow its effects (see below). After the card has been played and its effects followed, all players must discard pairs, if they have any; this discard does not happen at the same time, but in clockwise order starting with the player whose turn it is.

Once all his actions are complete, his turn is over, and play passes to the left.

The player may ask for help from his team-mate at any time: however, he cannot do this in secret, but he must speak aloud so that all the players can hear! Obviously you can't exchange cards with your partner.

If one of the players (even if it's not their turn!) runs out of cards in hand after any one of the actions, that player is immediately "out" of the game (until the round ends). He passes his team card to his team-mate, who will pile and keep both team cards of the same colour. Therefore, it is clear to all players who is still in the game and who is not. On the other hand, if the player going out is the last member of his team in play, then he discards the team card(s) and the dealer immediately gives score cards to him and his team-mate (see below).

The Cards

The cards are divided into dishes, waiters and Mister Bill.

Dishes. They have a coloured background, and have an illustration of a typical dish:

Omelette, Sushi, Pizza, Würst, Hamburger, Dessert.

Waiters. They have a yellow background, a symbol shown in the corners, just near the letter. You can discard these cards in pairs (only if they have the same letter in the corner!) or you can play these cards alone by putting them directly in the discard pile, and following the instructions for that waiter:

• I - The player whose turn it is exchanges a card of his choice with another player of his choice.
• J - The player whose turn it is exchanges his entire hand with another player of his choice.
• K - The player whose turn it is points to a player and all the other players, including himself, give that player one card from their hand.
• L - The player(s) having Mister Bill in their hand must show it to the other players, and then take it back into their hand.
• M - All players pass one card at the same time to their neighbour. The player whose turn it is chooses whether the cards are passed all to the right, or all to the left.

Mister Bill. He has a unique illustration, and carries the bill to pay!!!

End of the Round and Scoring

When a player plays the last card in his hand, he is "out" of the game until the round ends. When the last player on a team is "out," both members of that team take the scoring card for that round with the highest number still available. These scoring cards are kept face up in front of each player until the game ends. If there is an odd number of players, when the player without a team-mate goes out, he takes one card, and removes the other card with the same number from the game. The round ends immediately when only one team is still in play: that team pays the bill and scores zero points (they do not take any scoring card that round)!

Once scores are tallied, all the playing cards are gathered and shuffled. Any left over scoring cards from the round just ended are removed from the game. The player to the left of the dealer becomes the new dealer; he prepares a new round, as described above. Remember that since the team cards are distributed randomly, the partnerships will probably be different than the first round.

In the third round, players play alone: it is not necessary to distribute the team cards. The starting player is the player with the fewest points. In this final round, each time a player goes out of the game by playing his last card, he takes the scoring card with the highest number still available. The last player standing, as usual, scores zero!

Example. In a five-player game, Brigitta starts her turn by drawing a card from Andrew: bad luck for her, as the last card in Andrew's hand is Mister Bill! Andrew runs out of cards; since Emma, his team-mate, is already out of the game, they both take a scoring card. The team of Andrew and Emma is the first to go out this hand, so each of them gets a scoring card worth 4 points. The game goes on: Brigitta continues her turn. She discards a pair of Mister Bills, and plays her last card: a waiter with the letter "L" in the corners, forcing David to show his Mister Bill. Brigitta has run out of cards now too! Since she is the only member of her one-person team, she earns 2 points, i.e. the points awarded to the team who exits this round in second place (she takes one scoring card with the "2" and removes the other one from the game). Clara and David's team is the only one left in play so the round is over. Since Clara and David's team is the last one standing, they both get zero points (the scoring cards with the "1"s are removed from the game).

End of the Game

After the third round, the game ends. The player with the most points is the winner.

In case of a tie, the winner among tied players is the one who scored the most points in the last round.