Rules of Mao - Part 2

A wonderfully infuriating game

Diamonds require all players to remain silent. Many of the rules of Mao involve speech. Mostly this means that the right thing must be said at the right time. Saying the wrong thing, or speaking at the wrong time, will usually incur a penalty.

No Talking. In most variants of Mao, no unnecessary speech is allowed, and you may only speak when required to do so by the rules. For example, if you play a 6 of spades (with the "declaring spades" rule active,) you are required to say "six of spades" and will be penalized for not doing so. But if you say, "6 of spades, I didn't forget this time" you will be penalized for the additional unnecessary speech. Some varieties of the game deem this rule as cruel and unnecessary (especially for new players), and thus eliminate it from the rules. Others enforce it beyond this point, penalizing any sound, including coughing and laughing. There are variations in between these two extremes. Most varieties of Mao have an exemption to this rule confined to a Point Of Order, to be discussed later.

Opening Speech. At the beginning of each new game, in some variants, players are forbidden from picking up their cards until the dealer gives a ceremonious commencement speech in praise of Mao. Something as basic as "Let the glorious game of Mao begin" will suffice, but embellishment is encouraged.

Point of Order. Any player (or, in some variations, only the dealer) may at any time announce "point of order," which is a signal for all players to put down their cards, while discussion takes place. A common abbreviation is "P of O".
This time period basically is an intermission to game play, and often comes with its own set of rules. The objective of a point of order is to clarify uncertain aspects of gameplay: particularly to allow disputes over penalties to be resolved. A point of order may also be used to accommodate out-of-game necessities such as eating, shuffling the discard pile to form a new draw pile, etc. Some variants may impose restrictions or penalties on a player's activities during a point of order:

Players have to talk in the third person.
Players may not talk to anyone not playing the game.
Players can not go anywhere without another player (you can of course go into the bathroom alone). This is usually to enforce the last rule.
Players may not touch their cards (some varieties allow touching of other players cards)

Players are not allowed to say the phrase "Point of Order" during a Point of Order (this may be circumvented by saying "Point of O", "P of Order", "P of O", "Point Order", "POO", etc.). The point of order ends when any player (or, depending on local rules, only the dealer, or only the player that called point of order) announces "end point of order," or "pick your cards up," at which point the cards are picked back up and play resumes.

Thank You. It may be required to thank the dealer for each penalty card. Usually a player is given a reasonable amount of time to say 'thank you' before being penalized. Failure to say "thank you" after a penalty card will usually result in another penalty card. One 'Thank you' will usually cover for all occurrences where it was required.

Last Card. Some variants require the player to announce when he only has one card left in his hand. This can be with the statement of 'last card' or, in other varieties saying 'Mao' itself (similar to Uno). Some varieties allow other players to try to call said phrase first, thus forcing the player with one card left to draw 2 cards.

End Game. Upon playing his last card, a player must call out 'Mao', 'Game over' or some other similar phrase to win. Should he forget to say 'Mao', or call it incorrectly, he is penalized. Stacking penalties at this point can cause much grief to a player who has gleefully placed his last card down and proclaimed 'Mao', only to discover that he has broken some rule. Required phrases like 'Game over' are particularly effective on new players as it can be unnoticed from previous games that the winner had to actually declare this, thus getting many 'no talking' penalties for all players that start talking when the 'winning' player fails to declare the win.

Cumulative effect of speech rules. In almost all variants, violations of speech rules are cumulative. Thus, if a player were to utter a swearword, this would constitute a violation of both the "Talking" and the "Swearing" prohibitions, and the player would be penalized for both separately.