Egyptian Rat Screw House Rules and Variants

Ask five groups how they play Egyptian Rat Screw and you will hear five slightly different rule sets. The game was passed on by being taught, not by being printed, so nobody ever fixed the rules. This page collects the variations you are most likely to meet, explains what each one does to the game, and shows how this site handles them.

What almost everyone agrees on

A few things are nearly universal: players take turns laying cards on a centre pile, face cards start challenges with one to four tries, and Doubles and Sandwiches can be slapped. If someone teaches you a game without those, you are probably playing a different game from the same family, such as Slapjack or Beggar-My-Neighbour. Everything else on this page is up for discussion.

Optional slap patterns

Extra patterns are the most common house rules. Adding patterns makes the game faster and more chaotic; removing them makes it slower and more about attention than speed.

Tens. Two number cards that add up to ten. Very common, but not universal. A frequent sub-variant counts the Ace as 1, which makes A♠ 9♥ a slap. This game counts the Ace as high, so it does not.
Marriage. A King and a Queen next to each other. Common in some regions, unknown in others.
Top-Bottom. The card just played matches the first card of the pile. Adds a memory element, which some players love and others find unfair.
Four in a Row. Four cards in sequence, going up or down. Some groups use three in a row instead, which comes up much more often.
Triple. Three of the same rank. Only meaningful if Doubles are switched off.
A King and Queen with one card between them. Sometimes called a divorce. A Marriage stretched into a Sandwich shape.
Jokers. Some groups leave the jokers in and allow a slap on any joker. It makes the game more random.

Penalty rules

What a wrong slap costs changes the whole character of the game.

One card to the bottom of the pile. The most common rule. The winner of the pile collects the penalty cards too.
Two cards. Makes wrong slaps expensive and slows the game down, because everyone becomes more cautious.
One card to each other player. Harsh in a big group, and it can end a game quickly.
No penalty. Usually only for teaching beginners. Without a cost, the best strategy is to slap everything, which quickly stops being fun.

Another variable is what happens when someone fails to play in time. In casual play nobody enforces it, but online it matters. This site burns a card for the player who lets their turn clock run out, so one slow player cannot stall the table.

Slapping back in

Unlimited slap-ins. You can always slap your way back in with no cards. Games run long, but nobody sits out for long.
Limited slap-ins. One or two per game, then you are out. Keeps games shorter.
No slap-ins. Out of cards means out of the game. Fast, but harsh on the first person to go out.
Out after a wrong slap with no cards. The common middle ground: you may keep trying, but one mistake with an empty hand ends your game.

Challenge variations

Slapping during challenges. Standard almost everywhere. A few groups ban slaps until a challenge is resolved, which makes face cards much more powerful.
Different try counts. Some groups give every face card the same number of tries, or let only the Ace count as four.
Who starts the next pile. Usually the winner of the pile, but some groups let play continue clockwise from where it stopped.

How to agree on a rule set

The quickest way to start an argument in ERS is to discover a house rule by losing a pile to it. Before the first card, the dealer should say which patterns count, what a wrong slap costs, and whether slap-ins are allowed. That takes thirty seconds and saves a lot of shouting.

If your group is new to the game, start with the four classic patterns (Doubles, Sandwich, Tens, Marriage), a one-card penalty and unlimited slap-ins. Add one house rule at a time once everyone is comfortable.

How this site handles house rules

Here, house rules are switches rather than arguments. The four classic patterns are on by default; Triple, Four in a Row and Top-Bottom are off until you turn them on in Settings → House Rules. When you sit down at a multiplayer table, the table shows which patterns are live before the first card is dealt, so nobody is surprised.

Two places override your switches on purpose. The Daily Challenge always plays the four classic patterns, locked for the whole run, so every player in the world is scored on the same game. And at the Table of the Gods, some gods bring house rules with them: Thoth, Anubis and Set each switch on one optional pattern at their table, and Ra plays with all three.

Whatever your group plays, the patterns themselves are explained with examples in the slap patterns guide.