Manipulation

Guest Post by Laura Dene

 Our family loves to play Manipulation, especially when we have school-age kids joining in.  Manipulation is not a boxed set of cards. You can use Rook cards or regular playing cards or any set of cards that is made up of sets numbered 1-14 and you’ll need at least two decks, more if there are more than 4-5 people. Each person is dealt 13 cards and must get rid of all of them. First person to get rid of all of them wins. To empty your hand, you lay down sets of same numbers or runs. To put a set down, there must be at least 3 in the set or you can add to another person’s set. The manipulation comes when a player sees that cards can be taken from different sets (always leaving at least 3) in order to make a new set that allows the player to put down 1 or more cards. For example, you have a 2 in your hand, but there are no sets of 2 on the table. However, there are two sets of 1-2-3 and sets of 1’s and 3’s. So you break up the 1-2-3 sets by putting the 1’s on the 1’s and the 3’s on the 3’s and combine the remaining 2’s with your 2, thereby putting one card down in a set of three. You continue manipulating sets until you can’t make any more moves. You knock on the table to signal the end of your turn and hope the other players will put something down you can play on. If you can’t play, you draw one. Even young children can usually figure out the sets and manipulate the cards, sometimes with a little help. A game lasts 10-20 minutes, so it goes pretty fast. Fun!