Home home of The Rage | The card game Rage is remembered here as it is no longer be manufactured commercially.
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*RAGE is now available again*

Its a bit of a strange brew a US company supplying the German edition - but its the real thing - see Fun Again

What is Rage

Rage is card game by Waddingtons that has been out of production for many years. The game is dearly loved by the in-laws and with the wanderlust of their siblings is permeating many strange and exotic lands.

It has not been commercially available for a decade and attempts to revive it fail but bizarrely Waddingtons have sent out new packs to various parties on request.

Rage owes its sanity to Contract Whist and its insanity to Switch.

Why rave about Rage?

This site exists as a bastion of sanity to clarify and establish the true rules in one place such that no players can feign ignorance in order to win.

This page will take you through the official product to the in-law product examining rules equipment and protocol.

The Equipment

This is the official box it contains a deck of cards a rules sheet and a score card. The score card actually resembles a 10 pin bowling sheet but can be compensated for with a pencil and paper.

[Rage barcode]
Rage barcode
[Rage box]
Rage box
[Generic back of the cards]
Generic back of the cards

The deck consists of 6 sets of six suits that are numbered 0 to 15.

[card 00]
[card 01]
[card 02]
[card 03]
[card 04]
[card 05]
[card 06]
[card 07]
[card 08]
[card 09]
[card 10]
[card 11]
[card 12]
[card 13]
[card 14]
[card 15]

The suits are distinguished by their colours for those of you watching in black and white.

[Colour Red]
red
[Colour Red]
orange
[Colour Red]
yellow
[Colour Red]
green
[Colour Red]
blue
[Colour Red]
purple

Also there are a small number of deadly special cards that dramatically alter the game

[Bonus Rage 2 off]
Bonus Rage 2 off
[Mad Rage 2 off]
Mad Rage 2 off
[Wild Rage 2 off]
Wild Rage 2 off
[Change rage 3 off]
Change rage 3 off
[Out rage 3 off]
Out rage 3 off

Aim of the game

The game is divided into 10 deals/hands of 10 cards which decreases by 1 every time until the final hand is played with 1 card.

The winner of the game is the one with the most points after the last hand. Points are made by correctly bidding how many tricks one will win in a hand and correlating that with the actual amount made.

General rules

These are general rules i.e. something will general contradict them in time.

First of all you need a dealer the in-law method is to deal a card face up each in a round until one person only gets a special card in a round.

The dealer deals the hand of the correct number of cards and then selects trumps.

Trumps are selected by dealing cards from the top of the undealt deck face up until a suit card is found. This card indicates what suit is trumps and is left as a visual reminder face up. Any cards not in use are then returned to the bottom of the undealt deck.

Play now passes to the person on the dealer's left who will:-

  • start the bidding
  • lead out this hand
  • deal the next hand

Each person then bids how many tricks they hope to win with their hand. What will win a trick is gleamed over one's first few games. Logically high cards trumps and lower cards if one has a lot of them are good bets but beware the special cards. The most points are earned by meeting one's bid exactly.

After the bidding the appropriate person plays the lead out card and the other players do the same in a clockwise fashion. Others must follow the suit of the lead out card if possible. The highest card in the lead suit wins the trick unless a trump has been played in which case the highest
trump wins. The winner collects the trick and leads the next one out.

When there are no cards left the hand is scored with respect to the bidding.

Special Cards

The laying of a special card generally disrupts ordered playing as described above. The cards are named and pictured above the have the following effect:-

Wild RageThis card can be any value and colour and when played the player must say what has been chosen. This is the only card that may be played instead of following suit. If played as a lead out card it determines which suit the other players must follow.
Change trumpsWhen this is played a new trump is selected as described above. After this the cards for this trick already played on the table must be reassessed in case the trick leader has changed. This card can not win a trick and if played as a lead out card the suit to follow remains undecided till the first suit is played.
No trumpsWhen this is played trumps are negated from this trick onwards and the face up reminder card is turned face down and put at the bottom of the undealt pack. After this the cards for this trick already played on the table must be reassessed in case the trick leader has changed. This card can not win a trick and if played as a lead out card the suit to follow remains undecided till the first suit is played.
Mad RageThis card has no effect until scoring when 5 points are subtracted from the trick winners score. This card can not win a trick and if played as a lead out card the suit to follow remains undecided till the first suit is played.
Bonus RageThis card has no effect until scoring when 5 points are added from the trick winners score. This card can not win a trick and if played as a lead out card the suit to follow remains undecided till the first suit is played.

Scoring

  • +1 point for every trick made
  • +10 if bid made
  • -5 if bid not made
  • Double (round) score if one gets all the tricks
  • +5 for any Bonus Rage cards won
  • -5 for any Mad Rage cards won

Variations

Turning No TrumpsWhen selecting trumps normally only suit cards are valid ed but one can allow the no trump card such that when it appears No Trumps are set.
Constant biddingNo one is allowed to bid the same amount more than 3 times in a row.
Full hand biddingThe total amount of tricks bid can not be the same as the number of the cards dealt to each player in the hand. Thus it is guaranteed some one will fail and the last bidder has a slight disadvantage.
Pre-biddingBids are made before the trumps are first selected.
Bridge-biddingThere is more than one round of bids.
On the headThe last hand is played by sticking your card on your forehead without looking so everyone but you can see it.

Extra Cards

The game comes with a few spare cards write on them at your own behest.

Lowest wins2 offThe lowest card of the lead out suit wins the trick disregarding trumps.
This card can not win a trick and if played as a lead out card the suit to follow remains undecided till the first suit is played
My Choice2 offWhoever plays this card can choose trumps. After this the cards for this trick already played on the table must be reassessed in case the trick leader has changed.
This card can not win a trick and if played as a lead out card the suit to follow remains undecided till the first suit is played

Further Answers

The 'Wild Rage' card must be numbered and coloured when played. This stops:-

  • Playing it as the '15 of trumps' - trying to bullet proof it against trumps changing
  • Playing it as another special card

The game's scoring is biased towards winners - you get as many points winning x tricks and failing if you bid a target of '0' as if you had bid '10'.

Leading trumps really early (moi ?) is not appreciated


"For I hold that on the seas the expression 'if you please'. A particular gentlemanly tone implants"
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