Operation Master
Operation Master Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
This is a peculiarly quaint trick-taking game with dice and cards. You get dice each time you win a trick. The dice you got count as your VPs (victory points).
Strive to win each trick with a right sense of timing, while being attentive to all dice on the table. That is indispensable for your victory.
Technical terms, which are printed in blue, are explained in the Glossary.
Materials
- Rank cards (1-8): red, blue, green, yellow and purple; 8 cards for each color.
- Dice Effect cards (for further complication): red, blue, green, yellow and purple; one for each color.
- Dice Area cards: red, blue, green, yellow and purple; one for each color.
- Dice Effect cards are described in the Additional Rule or Complication section.
- VP Area cards: red, blue, green, yellow and purple; one for each color.
- Dice: red, blue, green, yellow and purple; 10 dice for each color. Each color has one extra dice. The game uses a maximum of 45 dice.
Setting Up
Choose one color, take and hold at hand a Dice Area card, VP Area card, Dice Effect card, Score card and a dice, all with that same color. Place a dice showing one dot (value 1) on the mark "0" of the Score card.
Remove the cards and dice of a color or colors which are not used depending on the number of players. Do not remove Rank cards of any color.
A Starting Scene Illustrated
The illustration in the rulebook shows four persons' play as it has just started. Components shown: a Dice Area card, the hands (Rank cards), a VP Area card and a Score card, with a dice showing one on the position marked "0".
Starting with the lead player who chose blue, they are laying Rank cards clockwise on the table. As blue Rank cards form the lead suit, the green player must follow. Next, the yellow player is to lay his or her Rank card.
How to Play
This trick-taking game consists of 3 rounds. Each round passes through these steps: preparing for a round, the main progress, and scoring.
At the end of the third round, each player has a total score. The one who has achieved the highest score will be the winner of the game. If the game ends in a tie among two or more players, they share the victory (or may proceed to play another round).
Preparing for a Round
- Well-shuffled Rank cards of all the colors are dealt to each player facedown (with no numeral sign on the upper side). These cards are the player's hands. Hold the cards in the way their numeral signs are invisible to the other players.
- When three persons play, remove Rank cards marked with "1" and "2" from each colored suit. Use the remaining 30 Rank cards. Each player has 10 hands.
- When four persons play, use all 40 Rank cards. Each player has 10 hands.
- When five persons play, use all 40 Rank cards. Each player has 8 hands.
- Each player takes dice whose number and color are identical with those of his or her dealt cards.
- Example: When you are dealt 2 blue, 2 red, 1 green, 1 yellow and 2 purple cards, receive 2 blue, 2 red, 1 green, 1 yellow and 2 purple dice.
- Each player rolls these dice and arranges them on his or her Dice Area card while keeping their rolled values (on the upper surface).
- It does not matter if some dice exceed the Dice Area.
The Main Progress
- The person who has the most 1-valued dice on his or her Dice Area is the first lead player. (If two or more players have the same number of 1-valued dice, single out the lead player by such means as janken or something like coin tossing.) The players, in a clockwise order from the lead player, lay Rank cards faceup on the table. They have to do so, since they must follow.
- Example: After the lead player has laid a blue Rank card on the table, the other players must lay blue Rank cards (the blue suit) if their hands include blue ones. With no blue Rank card in your hands, you may lay a card of any color you have but you cannot win the trick.
- After all the players have laid Rank cards on the table, they, in the same order from the lead player, set dice on the white square of their respective Rank cards.
- Then the color of the dice must be identical with that of the Rank card on which it is set.
- One trick ends when all the players have set dice on their respective Rank cards. The one who has the highest total of his or her Rank card number and dice value is the winner of the trick. If two or more players come out on top, the one who set a dice after his or her rivals is the winner. The Rank cards used in the trick are put aside. The dice used in the trick are arranged in the center of the table just as dice on the table. As the game progresses, the number of dice on the table increases as well.
- The illustration in the rulebook gives an example of Rank cards and dice, which are laid clockwise from the lead player A. Player A's total is 3 and player B's total is 9; player C's total is 6 and winning player D's total is 9. Both players B and D have the most total points, but D wins the trick because D played after B. C, who was incapable of "must follow", cannot win the trick.
- The winner of the trick decides on any value of dice to pick out, takes dice of this value from those on the Rank cards and from those in the center of the table (dice used in the preceding tricks) and moves these equally valued dice onto his or her VP Area card. The remaining dice (and those used in the preceding tricks) are left in the center of the table. One dice on the VP Area card counts as 1 VP.
- In the above example, the winner D can choose from the dice with values 1, 2 and 3 (and would do from those in the center of the table if there were any) and can place this selection on the VP Area card. If D decides on the value 3, D can obtain the two dice there, that is, 2 VPs. It should be noted, however, that D's 2 VPs are not secured at this stage because of a rule, which is explained as follows:
Scoring
One round ends when the players have emptied all their hands by passing tricks several times. The number of dice on each player's VP Area card counts as VPs.
The player advances the dice of his or her Score card to the same number as his or her VPs. When VPs reach 10 points, the player adds 1 to the value of the dice of the Score card and places this 2-valued dice on the mark "0". In this way, each player moves forward the dice on the Score card during the game.
The whole game ends after 3 rounds.
Additional Rule or Complication
This additional rule is applied by using the Dice Effect card, which brings a new experience to the players. The Dice Effect card helps to know the effect of each value of a dice the player is going to lay on a Rank card. In the above-described round, nothing happens when dice are placed in the second turn, but, adopting this new rule, each player can take advantage of the effect of a dice value at the moment of laying his or her dice on the Rank card.
Supplementary Explanation
As listed in the Dice Effect card, the values (1 to 6) of the effective dice have different effects such as increasing or decreasing values of dice on Dice Area cards. Specifically, (as far as the values 3, 5 and 6 are concerned,) any dice effect cannot decrease the value 1 of a dice to 0, nor can it increase the value 6 to 7. Operation of the dice values cannot go beyond the value range from 1 to 6.
Caution: no dice effect concerns dice on Rank cards (dice active in the trick).
Dice Effect card
The Dice Effect card lists one effect for each die value. Each row shows the die face (value) and its effect. The value of each row is read from the die face printed beside it, which runs 1 to 6 from top to bottom:
- Value 1: Picking one of the dice in the other player's dice area, you can change its upper dots into any number you like.
- Value 2: Picking one of the dice in your dice area, you can change its upper dots into any number you like.
- Value 3: You can add 1 to their upper dots of any dice or dices you like in your dice area. (Take care: value 3, see the note on values 3, 5 and 6 above.)
- Value 4: You can turn upside down one of the dice in your dice area.
- Value 5: You can add 1 or 2 or 3 to the upper dots of one of the dice in your dice area. (Take care: value 5, see the note on values 3, 5 and 6 above.)
- Value 6: You can subtract 1 or 2 or 3 from the upper dots of one of the dice in your dice area. (Take care: value 6, see the note on values 3, 5 and 6 above.)
The card's note "the values 3, 5, 6 as stated above - Take care!" marks the three effects above that are subject to the 1-to-6 range limit.
Variant Rule
You can introduce the following variant rule, although it does not radically change the way of playing.
Variant: from the round-based winning condition to a point-based one
In the above-described way, the game ends when it has completed 3 rounds. According to this variant, a certain VP score serves as an end flag, as it were. Fix it at 20 VPs and the game will end when one or more players have reached or exceeded 20 points in a round. The player who has gotten most VPs at the end of the round is the winner of the game.
This 20-point rule is no sole variant. You can make the game end at other points.
You can also play the game by combining this kind of variant with the additional rule.
Glossary
- trick: a mini-game in which each player lays a card on the table. In the present mini-game, the players compete in the total of card numbers and dice values.
- lead player: a person who is the first to lay a Rank card on the table from his or her hands.
- lead suit: the color of the first Rank card that the lead player lays on the table.
- must follow: a rule by which one has to lay a Rank card that has the same color as the lead suit.
- suit: the color of a set of Rank cards. The present game uses five suits: blue, red, green, yellow and purple.