Rules for Cheat

Gameplay

Cheat is a shedding card game, but players can be dishonest. The minimum player count is 2, but there must be at least 3 players to remove perfect information.

Each turn, the current player discards some cards and claims that they are cards of the same rank. Players win when they have discarded all of their cards.

Other players have a chance to call "cheat" and challenge the cards that were just played, causing the entire discard pile to go to a player as a penalty. If the move was honest (the cards match the claim), penalty cards go to the player who made the claim. Otherwise, penalty cards go to the dishonest player. The winner starts the first trick of the next round. To allow for a chance to call "cheat", the system will allow time before the next move can be finalized.

If a player leaves, all of his cards go into the bottom of the discard pile, but he gets the worst possible rank, and the turn timer (but not call timer) is reset. If he made the last move and loses the challenge, all cards remain in the discard pile.

Ranks

The cards ranks (4 each per deck) are in this order from lowest to highest:

Ace < 2 < 3 < 4 < 5 < 6 < 7 < 8 < 9 < 10 < Jack < Queen < King

Jokers (2/deck) are wildcards and may be used as any card.

Time Control

Intermissions last up to 30 seconds, ending early if all players are ready.

Each turn lasts up to 20 seconds by default, with automatic skip/pass/random move (in that order). Unused turn time cannot be carried to future turns. There is only a turn timer, not a game timer.

Options

Turn Time / ms (default: 20000, min: 5000, max: 60000)

A random move will be made after the turn timer expires.

Call Time / ms (default: 5000, min: 2000, max: 10000)

Turns that do not start a trick use this time as the minimum time, allowing players to call cheat on the previous move. This cannot exceed the Turn Time.

Decks (default: 1, min: 1, max: 251)

Number of decks to use.

Check

How are challenges resolved?

Count (off/on, default: all on)

How many cards may be played after the first turn? Any count may be played on the first turn, unless all options are off.

If the current player has fewer cards than required, all of them may or must be played.

If only decreasing is enabled, after playing a single card, the trick ends.

At least one option must be enabled, or else the server will enable all of them.

Trick Rank (off/on, default: first 5 on)

What card ranks may be played after the first turn? Any rank may be played on the first turn of a trick.

If no card claim is possible, the current player starts a new trick.

Tricks