Faculty Cards

This is a somewhat canasta-like word card game. The deck has 108 cards, of which 6 are wild, and the rest have a letter and value. 15 cards each are dealt for 2 players, 13 for 3, 11 for 4; the top of the draw pile is turned over to start the discard pile.

In a turn, a player:

1. Draws two cards from the draw pile; or he may draw the top discard if he melds it immediately and places it the rest of the discard pile in his hand.
2. Melds cards from his hand onto the table. A meld is a word of 3+ letters, and fewer wild cards than letter cards. His first meld must be one word worth 15+ points; after that he may meld any valid word and/or place cards at either end of a previous meld to make new words.
3. Discard one to the discard pile.

A hand ends when a player empties his hand by melding or discarding. Each player scores: 50 points for each word with a value of 15 or more, 10 points for lesser words; a bonus of 50 for going out; and a penalty of double the value of the cards left in hand. The overall game is won at 1000 points.