Spite & Malice

The Objective: Be the first to get rid of your Goal Pile.

Number of players: 2-4 people

Rank of cards: A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q (high) // Kings are wild

The Deal

The basic set-up for a game with 4 people. Filled-in cards are cards you have. Outline cards are spots play will happen, but they are empty at the start of the game.

Players are dealt 5 cards that make up their hand (HC). The amount of cards in the goal pile can be flexible depending on how many players and how long of a game you want to play. In a usual two player game, the dealer deals 20 cards to each player’s goal pile (GP). Cards that remain form the draw pile (DP).

Player’s flip only the top card of their goal pile up, the player with the highest value card starts the game. If the cards are of equal rank, player’s shuffle their goal piles and try again.

At this point, player’s side stacks (SS) and the center stacks (CS) are empty.

The Play

The goal is to play all your cards from your goal pile onto the center stacks. You may only play the top card of the goal pile. Once you play the top card from the goal pile flip up the next card. The very first card that needs to be played on the center stacks must be an Ace. Cards are added to the center stacks in ascending order (Ace to Queen). There are no more than 4 center stacks permitted during gameplay.

Gameplay goes in this order:

  1. Refill hand cards (HC) back up to 5 cards from the top of the draw pile (DP)

  2. Play any cards in your hand or goal pile (GP) that you’d like face-up on the center stacks (CS)

    • There is no limit to the number of cards that can be played on center stacks during a single turn.

  3. Discard a card from your hand cards (HC) to one of your side stacks (SS) to end your turn

Specifics

Side Stacks (SS):

  • You can not exceed 4 side stacks

  • You can play a discard on top of a side stack that already has cards. Once you do, the bottom card can’t be used until the top card is played.

    • I.E. If all 4 side stacks are played and I have a Jack in SS1, I can place a 10 on top of that Jack for my discard. Once I do that, I can’t play that Jack until the 10 on top is played to the center stack (CS).

  • If you play all the cards in a side stack (SS) to the center stacks (CS), it is then freed up to put whatever card you’d like there for discard.

  • You can’t take a card from your side stack (SS) to your hand cards (HC). Nor can you discard a card from your goal pile (GP) to your side stack (SS).

Hand Cards (HC):

  • If a player manages to play all 5 of their hand cards (HC) to the center stacks (CS) in a single turn without playing to a side stack, they may immediately draw back up to five and continue their turn.

  • Just because you have a card you can play doesn’t mean you need to play it (hence the name of the game, Spite and Malice).

  • Kings are wild and can be played as any card on the center stacks (CS) or side stacks (SS).

Draw Pile (DP):

  • A center stack (CS) is finished out when a Queen gets played. Once this happens, take the completed stack, set it aside for shuffling. This then frees up a new center stack (CS).

  • When the draw pile is starting to run low, shuffle the completed stacks and place them under the existing draw pile (DP)

Winning

As soon as someone gets rid of all the cards in their goal pile, they win the game. They are now able to rub it in people’s faces and ruin friendships. Point and laugh at the loser who has the most cards in their goal pile (GP). This is brutal and humiliating, but all with good fun I guess.