Vatikan

Vatikan is yet another game very similar to Machiavelli which is said to be of Central European origin and is known to have been played in Russia in the past.

There are from two to five players and a double pack with two jokers (106 cards) is used. Thirteen cards are dealt to each player.

At your turn you must either draw one card or meld one or more cards. You cannot both draw and meld in the same turn. The valid melds are Runs and Sets as in Carousel. The jokers are used and substituted in the same way, with one exception: a joker cannot be moved from one meld to another on the table - to move a joker you must first replace it by the card it represents, either from your hand or from another meld on the table.

The first time that each player melds, they must begin by putting down a sequence of three cards in suit from their hand. Having done this they can then, in the same and in subsequent turns, add more cards and rearrange melds to form sequences and groups at will.

The game ends when someone manages to get rid of their cards, and that player wins outright. There is no scoring, and this game therefore suffers from the problem that there is no incentive to put down melds, since this only helps the other players. However, it would be a simple matter to add on the scoring rules from Machiavelli or other games.