Tragedy
-------

Tragedy is a card game for four players, give or take, played with a
standard 52-card poker deck, without jokers.  The goal of the game is
to knock out other players by exposing their flaws.  Each player is
dealt a five card hand, as well as a secret "fatal flaw" card, with
the remaining cards being placed in the center as a draw deck.  Play
begins with the player to the left of the dealer, and moves clockwise.

Each turn, a player draws a card, and may either pass, or attack or
challenge another player.  If the player passes, the drawn card
remains in their hand, and play proceeds to the next player.  If they
choose to attack, they must lay a card, face up, in front of another
player, and declare their attack.  If the attacker's card matches
either the suit or the rank of the player's flaw card, they must
allow the attacker to choose one card at random from their hand.  If
the attack card matches neither suit nor rank, the player being
attacked must say "high" or "low", to indicate whether the attack card
is higher or lower than their flaw card.  The attack card is left in
front of the player, and play moves on.

(Variant:  Attack cards are placed face down in a discard pile, which
           may never be examined, for play which emphasizes memory.)

If the active player thinks they know what someone's flaw card is,
they may issue a challenge to that player.  To challenge a player's
flaw card, the challenger must have cards matching both the suit and
rank of the suspected flaw, which must be played to the attack pile in
front of the player being challenged.  For example, if Alice thinks
that Bob has the Three of Clubs as his fatal flaw, she must have both
a three (of any suit) and a club (of any rank) in her hand to issue
the challenge, both of which will be placed in front of Bob.  If the
challenger has figured correctly, the challenged player hands over
their entire hand, which is added to the challenger's hand, and they
are knocked out of the game.  If the challenged has been falsely
accused, they take the challenger's hand, add it to their own, and the
challenger is removed from the game.  Challenge wisely.

Players' hands may grow large in the course of play.  When the draw
deck is exhausted, each player must discard half of the cards in their
hand, rounded down.  These discards are mixed together with the
currently played attack and challenge cards, and reshuffled to create
the new draw deck.  Players must be given a reasonable opportunity to
study the face-up attack cards before they are collected.

Play continues until all players but one are removed from the game,
leaving the sole card-holding player as the winner.  Players may be
removed from the game through both attack and challenge; if a player
is attacked, and their last card is taken from them, they are out.


( This is a first draft.  Feedback is appreciated at tragedy at majcher.com. )


Things I'd like to see:

   * less random gameplay, more strategy and scheming
   * more card-stealing
   * defense against a challenge?