Authors

Players and equipment

Two or more players and a standard 52-card deck. Suits do not matter, only ranks — the four sevens are one rank, the four kings another, and there are thirteen ranks in the pack. There is no stock and no spare pile: every card in the deck ends up in somebody's hand before play starts. Authors plays well as a family game, and anyone who can hold a fan of cards and name their rank can join in.

The deal

Deal the whole pack out, as evenly as you can. Four players get thirteen cards each; three players get seventeen, seventeen and eighteen; it does not matter that one or two players end up with an extra card. Nothing is left over, and nothing is turned up in the middle — that is the one thing that tells Authors apart from Go Fish at a glance. Look at your own cards and keep them to yourself. If the deal has already given you four of a kind, lay that book down before play starts.

Play

The player to the dealer's left goes first, and the turn works its way left from there. On your turn, name another player and ask them for a rank you already hold at least one card of: "Priya, do you have any nines?" You may only ask for a rank you hold, so nobody can fish blind.

If Priya holds any nines, she must hand over every one of them, and you ask again — your turn carries on for as long as you keep getting cards, from Priya or from anyone else. If she holds none, she says so, and your turn ends there and then: the turn passes to the next player on your left, not back to you and not to Priya. There is no stock to draw from and nothing to fish for, so a refused ask is simply the end of your go. A player whose hand is empty takes no more turns that deal: the turn skips straight past them to the next player on the left who still holds cards.

Some tables play a sharper version of the same question: instead of asking for a rank, you name one exact card — "Priya, do you have the nine of hearts?" — and you must already hold a card of that rank yourself to ask. Agree which way you are playing before the deal, because the two do not mix well in the same game.

Whenever you hold all four cards of a rank, lay that book face up in front of you right away. A book counts the moment it is complete, however it came together — from the deal, from an answered question, or from the very last card in anyone's hand.

Scoring

Each book of four

1

Laid down face up as it forms

Nothing else is counted: a deal runs until every card is in a book, so there are no leftover cards to score for or against anyone.

A deal here is a round on the sheet. Once the cards have all gone down into books, count your own and type that number into your own column — the host may type or correct anyone's, but nobody else may touch it. The sheet adds each round to the one before, and the running total is what races to the line — any player can end the match once it looks right, not just the host. SquareScores never deals a card and never sees your hand; it only ever holds the book counts you tell it. A deal where you made nothing is a real zero, not a blank — type it so the total is honest.

A worked deal

Four players, so thirteen cards each and the whole pack gone from the table before anyone asks a question. Sam is dealt a book of jacks and lays it down straight away. Play goes round: Sam asks Alex for sevens and gets two, then asks Priya for the last seven and completes a second book. Alex, holding nothing more that Sam wants, says so on the next question, and the turn passes left to Priya rather than back to Sam. The hands keep emptying and the books keep landing until every one of the thirteen ranks is down.

Sam

3

Jacks, sevens, fours

Alex

4

Aces, nines, queens, fives

Priya

3

Sixes, tens, kings

Mum

3

Eights, threes, twos

Three and four and three and three make thirteen, every rank in the pack, so the deal is over. Alex has the most books and wins the deal by one.

Ending

A deal ends the moment all thirteen books are down — there is nothing left to ask about once every rank has gone. Whoever holds the most books when that happens wins the deal. Most tables leave it there: one deal, most books, done. Others play on, dealing again and again and adding up books across several deals, racing to an agreed target before anyone is crowned; the line this sheet races to is 10, and the host can move it between deals. Once somebody is at or past the line, end the match and the leader is crowned; a table happy with a single deal can end the match after the first round just the same. Either way, ending the match is any player's to call once the line looks right, not just the host's.

Listen to every question

Every ask tells the whole table something true: the asker holds at least one card of that rank, whatever the answer. If somebody asks for queens and is turned down, they still hold a queen a moment later — so the instant you pick one up yourself, you already know who to give it to and who to ask.

Go for what you are closest to finishing

Holding three of a rank and asking for the fourth costs you nothing and might finish a book on the spot. A rank you hold two of is the next best question. Asking about a rank you only hold one of is the longest shot, so save it for when nothing stronger is on offer.

Track where the turn is heading

A turn only moves on a refusal, and it always moves to your immediate left, never back to the player who was asked. That means a run of successful asks can sit with one player for a long time, and a table that is quiet for several turns is usually one player quietly clearing out everyone else's cards.

Count the ranks that are left

Every completed book removes a whole rank from play. With ten books down, only three ranks are still worth asking about, and a careful player can often work out exactly who holds what is left just from who has already asked for it.

Settle the format before you deal

Decide up front whether you are racing to a target over several deals or settling the whole game on one. A single deal rewards whoever gets lucky with the opening hand; a race over several deals rewards whoever is best at listening, because the early information keeps compounding.

Ask for one card, not a rank

Instead of naming a rank, name an exact card — "the nine of hearts" rather than "any nines" — and you still need a card of that rank yourself to ask. It is a slower, more exact version of the same game, and makes a run of lucky guesses rarer.

One deal and done

Deal once, play until every book is down, and stop there — the simplest way to play, with no running total and no target at all. If you play this way, end the match after the first round rather than chasing a line.

How many cards do you deal in Authors?

The whole pack, split as evenly as the number of players allows. With four players that is thirteen each; with three it is seventeen, seventeen and eighteen. Nothing is held back, so there is no pile in the middle at any point.

What happens if the player you ask doesn't have the card?

Your turn simply ends. In Go Fish a refused ask sends you to draw from the stock; Authors has no stock, so you draw nothing and the turn moves on to the next player on your left.

Can you ask for a rank you don't hold?

No. You must already hold at least one card of the rank you are asking about, so nobody can fish blind for something they have no stake in. That rule is what makes every question worth listening to, since the asker is always telling the table the truth about their own hand.

Do you need a special pack to play Authors?

No. The game was first sold with portraits of famous authors printed on the cards, which is where the name comes from, but it plays exactly the same with an ordinary 52-card deck — only the ranks matter, not the pictures.

How do you win Authors?

By holding the most books of four when the deal runs out of ranks to ask about. If you are playing a single deal, that is the whole game; if you are racing to a target over several deals, the books from each deal add up until somebody reaches the line.

Can two people play Authors?

Yes, though it is a slower game with only one other player to ask. Deal the pack in half and play as normal — with so few players holding so many cards each, the early turns tend to run long before the first books start landing.