this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Every single time I've played Uno with a different group of people, they all have varying interpretations of the stated rules and also throw in random house rules that everyone in each group acts like everyone everywhere has always had, and are official rules.
The actual written rules are the same, every time, and I point out to each group that they're either misinterpreting the stated rules, or their house rule isn't actually anywhere in the stated rules, and every time, each group has been confused but ultimately just decides their rules are better anyway.
I have come to the conclusion that either only idiots play Uno, or I have only ever played Uno with idiots.
card stacking should be in uno and I'm gonna die on this hill
Its the latter. But the former seems accurate because while non-idiots have played UNO, it is not typically a game they would choose. Where as UNO is at everyone's house who believes it is the best game ever.
Could we perhaps sythensize or evolve what I've said and what you've said into:
If Uno is your favorite game, you're likely not that bright?
If I agree I'm going to throw a family member under the bus ;)
TBF, base UNO is (imo) pretty bland and feels like a very generic card game. It's not surprising house rules have gotten as popular as they have for it.
Its actually by design but UNO did not understand this when they copied it, which is why they have expressed to be against house rules. It (no joke) threatens there existence.
If you look up the history of UNO you find it is derived from a cardgame called crazy eights which itself is derived from a german card game called Mau-Mau.
The wikipage for mau-mau even mentiones uno as a proprietary variant.
The killer detail is that almost every nation had its own variant, house rules where a part of games culture.
Its also related to the game Mao which does not have a defined set of rules.
All this to say Uno is not at all a unique game and having variants is part of the natural evolution of this game. The only thing UNO really did was change out the common playing cards to their own graphics and pretended it was a distinct and patentable game.
Oh that's really interesting! Thanks for sharing
I'm fine with house rules.
I'm not fine with unstated house rules that pop up randomly, nor with seemingly everyone not even knowing that they are using a house rule.
So many games of Uno I've been in involve everyone discovering they are used to playing by different house rules, 10 or 20 minutes into a game, and then everyone discussing or arguing about which house rule is better.
... If you aren't actually playing by the stated rules, and you're randomly invoking new rules and then arguing over them... you're playing calvin ball.
All of this can be avoided if people actually state the house rules before a game, but in my experience, almost no one does.
In the same way with any other light / party game, you're lucky if even one person at the table has ever read the actual rulebook. Given that, it's not surprising everybody thinks they're playing UNO the 'right' way.
Also: Calvinball is amazing.
Unsurprising, but mildly infuriating to my autistic ass.
I consider penny poker, or blackjack/21, to be light party games.
Been playing those games with friends and family since I was a kid.
Texas Hold'em rules for poker, declared at the start.
Either very low or no stakes, you either literally play with pennies, or just everyone gets say 50 completely worthless plastic chips, or just nothing.
If most people were in such a texas holdem or blackjack game and then started inventing or arguing over rules... this would generally be very obviously viewed as bullshit, unnaceptable, not normalized.
But... with Uno... this is not the case.