A hybrid of the board game Sorry! and the card game Asshole (or President, or whatever you call it).
To play this game, you'll need to know how to play Sorry! (in order to know how pieces move and what the cards do). It would also help if you've played Asshole/President before.
Questions? Post a comment or e-mail me.
Back to my website
4 players. No more, no less.
30 to 40 minutes.
To play Sorry My Ass! you will need all of the parts from the board game Sorry!. Most Sorry! games come with three blank cards. Include these in the deck too; they are considered to be 'SORRY!' cards. (If you don't have these blank cards, remove a '3' card from the deck to ensure that the number of cards in the deck is divisible by 4.)
The cards are ranked as follows, from low to high: 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, SORRY!, 1, 2.
Set up the game as you would set up a normal game of Sorry!; each player chooses a color and places his pieces in his "Start" circle.
A game of Sorry My Ass! consists of one or more rounds. Continue playing rounds until someone wins.
A round consists of the following:
Shuffle the cards and deal out the entire deck equally to all players. Each player should receive a hand of 12 cards.
The player who was the President in the previous round chooses any card from his hand, and give it to the player who was the Asshole in the previous round. The Asshole must then give his highest ranked card (as defined by the card rankings above) to the President.
The Asshole from the previous round takes the first turn. (In the first round, choose a random player to go first). He may make an "opening play" consisting of one or more cards from his hand. If a player plays more than one card, they must all be the same.
Any time a player plays cards, those cards are discarded from his hand and placed in the middle of the board. The player who played the cards must then immediately move his pieces as specified on those cards according to the rules of Sorry!, if possible. If multiple cards are played, the player makes all of those moves. If a player cannot make the move(s) specified on the cards, the move(s) that cannot be made are ignored.
Play then passes to the player on his left, who then has the option to "beat" the previous player's cards by playing the same number of cards as the previous play, but of a higher rank. As before, whenever a player plays cards, he must immediately move his pieces as indicated on the cards, if possible, and then play passes to the player on his left.
If you cannot (or do not want to) make a play on your turn, you may pass, and play continues with the next player.
This process of beating the previous play and moving pieces continues until someone makes a play that all other players pass on. All cards in the middle of the board are then removed, and the player who made the last play may make a new opening play of any number of identical cards.
Playing cards on your turn is optional. You are entitled to pass even if you have cards in your hand that you could legally play. You can even pass if you have the option to make an opening play, in which case the next player in turn order has the option to make an opening play.
Exception: If a player who has the option to make an opening play passes, and all other players pass as well, the player who last played a card now must play a card (since otherwise the game would be stuck!) This can happen late in a round if all players only have cards in their hands that they would rather not play (such as a 4 card).
TL;DR: play cards by the rules of Asshole, move pieces by the rules of Sorry!.
As the round progresses, players will start to run out of cards. A player who has no cards in his hand is "safe". The pieces owned by a safe player are locked in place for the remainder of the round. No player may make any move that would cause a safe player's pieces to be displaced.
The first player to run out of cards in his hand is the President. If all of that player's pieces are in his Home circle, that player immediately wins the game! Otherwise the round continues until only one player has cards remaining in his hand. That player is the Asshole. He does not get the opportunity to play his remaining cards. (As in the original card game, other players are encouraged to tease and harass the Asshole as they see fit.) The deck is reshuffled, and a new round begins.
As in standard Sorry!, pieces that are in a player's Home circle are not moved for the remainder of the game.
Once all of a player's pieces are home, he has not yet won. He continues to play cards as normal, but does not move pieces; his goal now being to become President.
The game is won by the first player to become President while all of his pieces are in his Home circle.
Absolutely! (Assuming that the cards are an opening lead or beat the previous play, as described above). In fact, this is all you'll be doing once all of your pieces are Home.
You must make the move if at all possible, even if it would be disadvantageous to do so. For example, let's say you have only one piece in play, 8 squares before your Home, and you play an 11. The 11 card says "Move forward 11 or switch places with an opponent". Since you can't move forward 11, you must switch places with an opponent's piece (if possible). Remember you can always choose to pass on your turn if you don't want to play any cards.
It's your choice. You can use each card on whatever piece you like.
Each card represents an independent move, so if you move one piece multiple times and one of the moves lands your piece on a slide, you must slide before making the next move. The same idea applies if any of the moves lands your piece on another player's piece; the opponent's piece is bumped back to Start.
You must make as many of the moves as possible. Remember, some cards give you two options of what move to make, and you have to perform one of the moves on the card if possible. For example, you only have one piece in play, 19 squares before your Home, and you play two 10s. The 10 card says "Move forward 10 or backward 1". If you use the first 10 card to move the piece forward 10 spaces (to 9 squares before your Home), the second 10 card will force you to move your piece backward 1.
There are zillions of alternate rules for Asshole out there, such as one 2 beats three 5s beats nine of whatever, which you're free to use if you like (and all players should agree on this before the game starts). As for my official rules for Sorry My Ass! though, a set of cards is only beaten by the same number of cards, all the same, but of a higher rank.
Such a move is illegal. Once a player is out of cards, his pieces may not be displaced by any player, for any reason. You must make a different move, if possible.
Yes.
Assuming no other player gets all of his pieces home that round and becomes President (thus winning the game), the game continues with another round.
That player then has the same goal as you: become President. In a close game, it is possible that 2, 3, or even all 4 players have their pieces home and are all trying to become President.