Tuesday 20 July, 2004
Happy families
J-Ko invited us for dinner last night, and at some point we ended up playing Alternative Happy Families (Hullunkuriset perheet) with gay and lesbian families. The thing is, we couldn't remember the rules, and the pack only had some "alternative" rules that we didn't want to use. So we started with rules where each player in turn picks a card in random from a chosen player. This didn't really work although I managed to aquire one family it took a very long time. So we added an additional rule that in exhange for a random card, the player whose turn it is gives the other player a card of their choice - this way it was possible to get rid of unwanted cards and speed up the game. This worked pretty well until we realised that pretty quickly people would end up with two or three cards when it was impossible to finish a complete family. So we added in a rule where the player could pick a card first and if they could complete a family they didn't have to give a card back (although even this rule had to be broken in the end). J-Ko ended up winning in the end and Henri lost as he was left holding the closet.
This morning I did a bit of googling on the subject - and the only rules I could find turned out to be completely different. I didn't really play much Happy Families when I was a kid so I can't claim to be an expert on the subject - but can anyone else remember if the British rules are really the same as the Finnish ones? And what is the relationship between Happy Families and Black Peter (Musta Pekka), if any? And which one was the game that we played?
Oh well, it doesn't probably matter, it's just that these kind of things bother me... But we had a really nice time, regardless.
Posted by kolibri at 20 July 10:35, 2004There's three versions of Happy Families that I know of; one is the "British" version you describe (though I have learnt it in Finland, too).
In the second one, you draw a card from the player on your right, and if that forms a family in your hand, you put the family on the table, and draw again. If you cannot form a family, the turn passes to the one on your left. This form does not work very well if there are over four or so players, as then there are too little cards in each hand. Even with just a few players it can take ages to finish. :)
In the third one, on your turn, the player on your right gives you a card of his/her choice, you form a family if you can, and then give one card to the player on your left, and the turn passes to him/her. I used to like this one the best as a kid, and we played it with a regular pack of cards, too (only collectec aces, twos, threes, etc). I think it too might have lasted for ages, but summer days were longer then.
Black Peter, I think, works like the second version of Happy Families, except in Happy Families you play for victory (and the player with most families in the end wins), and in Black Peter you play for not losing (and the one ending up with Black Peter in the very end loses).
Hope this helps some.
# 2 - Kolibri (on July 20, 2004 12:09 PM):
Thanks, those rules make more sense than ours ;)
I like the idea of the version where you ask for a specific card but with these cards it requires knowledge of the families as they are not exactly traditional. My favourites where Meteorologist Myrsky, his registered partner, his ex-wife and his son, and Choreographer Piruetti, his registered partner, his ex-wife and his ex-wife's lover - but without knowledge of whether the family consists of childern or ex-parteners or animals (and which animals) or plants you can't really call for specific card. It could be lots of fun after you know the cards though.
Oh, now I want to play again with proper rules :)
# 3 - J-Ko (on July 21, 2004 02:23 AM):
Closet, not wardrobe. It was a GLBT game after all.
# 4 - Kolibri (on July 21, 2004 10:28 AM):
Corrected - the correct word was on the tip of my tongue. This is what speaking Finnish all day does to me.
You can't add any more comments, but if you wish you can email the author.