Short-Staffed at Friedey's

A Lord of the Fries 2-Player Variant

By Mike Mayer, first published by Steve Jackson Games in Pyramid Magazine, March 31 2000.

In honor of the release of Lord of the Fries De-Lux, here's a variant for you to serve up when business is slow and you can find only two customers frequenting your restaurant.

Setup

Remove and put aside as many cards from the deck as you deem necessary; about 20 or so works well. Or you can play with the whole bunch if you don't mind holding a heck-of-a-lot of cards in your hand.

Start out by dealing three hands - one for each player and one for a draw pile (henceforth known as the Slaw Bile).

Turn over the top card of the Slaw Bile and place the card face up beside the Slaw Bile. Any time during the game that the face-up card is taken, replace it with another from the top of the Slaw Bile.

Rules

Play as if using the normal rules except as described below:

* IF THE LEAD "CALLS" AN ORDER and if a player passes, he gives a card to the other player and then takes a card from the Slaw Bile (the top facedown card or the face up one).

* IF THE LEAD "ROLLS" AN ORDER and if a player passes, he gives the Lead a card, and the Lead takes an additional card from the Slaw Bile (the top facedown card or the face up one). A passing Lead will wind up giving himself a card and then will take one from the Slaw Bile.

* IF THE DECK RUNS OUT, play as if using the normal rules. On "calls" that are passed, a player simply gives a card to the other player. On "rolls" that are passed, a passing non-Lead player gives the Lead a card. A passing Lead player gives himself a card.