Introduction
The goal of Skipee is to play all of the cards in your personal stock pile by building stacks of cards from 1 to 12. The first player (or team) to empty their stock piles wins the round. The faster you empty your stock piles, the more points you get! First player or team to cross 500 points wins the game.
House Rules
Most K.R. Engineering games have a variety of options or “house rules” that can be turned on and off by the game owner to change how the game plays. These options can include changing the winning criteria for a game, adding new rules or disabling other rules, or just placing time limits on how long you can be away before the game skips you. It is often helpful to know what house rules you are playing with when you sit down at a game. You can touch the game logo on any K.R. Engineering game to see a list of which options are enabled and which are not.
For owners/administrators wishing to change these options, please see the Administration section of this article.
Getting Started
If you are new to owning a K.R. Engineering game or have upgraded from an older game version, then you may have questions about your new table. Please see this FAQ for answers to some of our most common beginner questions.
Bug Fixes and Upgrades
Most owners of K.R. Engineering games are entitled to free upgrades to newer versions of the game. If a new update is available, then following the updating instructions for your game will result in a new copy of the most recent version being sent to you by the update server. This process is not automatic. You must request an update manually.
If you are having problems with your game, please search this knowledge base or contact us for product support. If the problem you are having has not previously been encountered, a new game version will be released with a fix as soon as possible, and you may qualify for a bug bounty.
DISCLAIMER: The appearance and feature set of games are subject to revision between versions as the capabilities of Second Life change over time. Please see the detailed ChangeLog for your particular game before upgrading. By upgrading. you are agreeing to accept any and all changes that have been imposed on the updated version of the game.
Joining the Game
Most K.R. Engineering games can be played simply by right-clicking on a chair and choosing “Play.”
K.R. Engineering games can be played on a variety of themed furniture objects, and the “chairs” may not always look like chairs. For example, on the Chess theme, the “chairs” are the giant chess pieces. If you are unsure what is a chair and what isn’t on a particular theme, that’s okay! You can right-click and select “Play” on any part of a theme and it will automatically place you in an available chair, even if you didn’t click on a chair specifically.
Important: K.R. Engineering games use a rezzing system. This means that the game (buttons, dice, cards, game boards, etc) is a separate object from the furniture/rezzer/theme. You must right-click on the theme to play, not the game itself, as you cannot sit on the game pieces (such as dice, game boards, cards, etc). You must sit on the furniture around the game to play, not the game pieces.
While most game themes include furniture that you can sit on, there may be some exceptions. The Pocket theme, for example, cannot be sat on, as it has no chairs. Instead, you can join a game on a Pocket theme by clicking the MENU button on the game.
Game Play
Important: To play Skipee, you must be wearing the Skipee HUD. To get a HUD, press the ‘HUD’ button on the table. You will be given an object called Skipee Game HUD. Find this under your Objects folder and wear it.
Players may leave during a game and return to their seats, but seats that were not occupied at the start of the game cannot be filled after the game has started.
If the game is being played in TEAM / PARTNER mode and a player leaves, the game will continue to function in TEAM mode until the end of the current round. If the missing team player has not returned by the time a new round starts, the game will revert to playing in SOLO mode. Team members will keep the score they earned while in TEAM mode and begin to earn points separately for the rest of the game.
Suits
There are four “suits” of cards in Skipee, denoted by different colors of cards. Cards with a face value of 1-4 are blue, cards with a face value of 5-8 are green, and cards with a value of 9-12 are purple. Wild cards are orange.
The colors or “suits” of the cards have no impact on game play, and only serve as a quick visual aid to approximate the cards in your hand. For example, if a purple card is showing (9-12), then you know at a glance that no blue or green cards will be playable, because blue and green cards are all less than 9.
Setup
Once all players who wish to play have been seated then any sitting player may press the START button to begin the game. If the game thinks that team play is an option it will present the choice of playing with teams or continuing solo. To play in teams, there must be 4, 6 or 8 players. Teams cannot be played with an odd number of players.
If 1-4 players are playing, each player will be automatically dealt a personal stock pile of 30 cards at the start of the game. If there are more than 4 players, each player will be dealt a personal stock pile of 20 cards. This stock pile is represented by the largest card in front of the seated player. The objective of the game is to play all of the cards in your stock pile. If you are playing in teams, then you must play all the cards in both your own stock pile AND your partner’s stock pile to win. Only the top most card of your stock pile is visible at any time.
If there are 1-4 players playing, a standard Skipee deck of 162 cards will be used (equivalent to 3 standard playing card decks of 54 cards including jokers). If there are 5-6 players playing then the game will use 216 cards (4 decks). If there are 7 or 8 players playing, a 5th deck will be added to the game for a total of 270 cards. If the optional “Extra Deck” feature is enabled by the game owner, then 54 more cards (1 extra deck) will be added to all games regardless of number of players, making 216 (1-4 players), 270 (5-6 players), and 324 (7-8 players) card decks.
Any cards not dealt to players’ stock piles are put aside to be used as the draw deck. The draw deck has no visible representation on the table.
The player with the highest showing stock pile card is the first to play.
Using the HUD
The Skipee HUD is a little different from how the card HUDs work on other K.R. Engineering games. On the Skipee HUD, as soon as you select a card it is played, rather than having to click a ‘Play this card’ button. If you change your mind about playing that particular card, that’s okay, just click it again to deselect it. This will automatically cancel your play on the table.
WARNING: If you have a card selected on your HUD, and decide you want to play a card from one of the discard stacks on the table instead then you should deselect the HUD card first, otherwise you will discard the selected card instead!
If you’ve chosen to play a card from a stack on the table and decide you would rather play a card from your HUD, that is fine! Just select a card on your HUD and the stack selection that you made on the table will be automatically canceled in favor of playing from your hand.
When you have a card selected on your HUD, it is not automatically removed from your hand. Selecting it is only the first step! Next you need to touch where on the table you wish to place this card, either in a discard pile or onto a building stack.
Using Stacks
Every player has 5 stacks of cards on the table in front of them. The large stack is your stock pile, which you must play out to win the game. The other 4 smaller stacks are discard stacks.
To play a card from either your stock pile or any of your discard stacks, simply touch them on the table. They will fade out slightly to indicate that they are currently chosen for play. If you decide to play a different stack, you can simply touch a new stack and the selection will change. You do not need to deselect the original stack.
WARNING: If you have a card selected in your Skipee HUD, then touching a discard stack will DISCARD your selected card, rather than select the discard pile to play from. If you do not wish to discard (ending your turn), always make sure you have no cards selected in your HUD before touching a discard stack. Since you cannot ever add cards to the stock pile, this is not true of the stock pile. Clicking on the stock pile will always select the stock pile even if you have a card selected in your HUD.
Taking Your Turn
At the start of every turn you will automatically draw cards from the draw deck until you have 5 cards in your hand. Your objective is to play out your entire stock pile onto one of the four shared stacks in the center of the table. These are known as the ‘building stacks.’
While it is your turn, you may do any of the following actions:
- Play a card from your hand (using your HUD) onto any of the building stacks.
- Play the top card from your stock pile (or your partner’s stock pile) onto any of the building stacks.
- Play the top card from one of your four discard piles (or your partner’s discard piles) onto any of the building stacks.
- Discard a card from your hand onto one of your four discard piles, thus ENDING YOUR TURN.
In most cases, it is best to play from your stock pile first, before playing from your hand or discard pile.
Playing a card onto a building stack does not end your turn. In fact, you may continue adding cards to the building stacks for as long as you like. If you can no longer play on a building stack, you must end your turn by discarding a card onto one of your discard piles.
If you play all 5 of the cards in your hand onto a building stack, you will automatically draw 5 more to continue playing.
Building stacks must be played in order from 1 to 12. When a building stack reaches 12, it is removed from table and a new stack can be built in its place. Building stacks must be started with a 1. When the draw deck runs out, any completed building stacks that have been removed from the table are reshuffled and placed back into the draw pile.
Skipee cards (cards with no numerical value) are wild cards that can be played in place of any number. They can be used to start a new building stack, or used for any number after.
If for any reason you are unable to play on your turn AND you have no cards in your hand to discard, you can press the PASS button on the table to end your turn. This should only happen if the draw deck is completely exhausted.
Discarding
Discarding a card onto one of your four discard piles will end your turn. Make sure you have no other plays you want to make before discarding.
Unlike the Building Stacks in the center of the table, your discard piles do not have to be in any order. How you choose to organize your four discard piles is entirely up to you. You may want to make a discard pile entirely of 9s, so that they’re never covering up anything else. You may want to make your discard piles always be in descending order, so you can play them one after another. You may want to make a discard pile consisting only of prime numbers. It’s your call.
Just remember that you can only ever play the top-most card in a discard pile, so if you bury a card that you need later then you will be unable to access it until you play all of the cards on top of it first.
TEAM TIP: When playing in Teams, you have a combined 8 discard piles rather than 4 each. Try not to waste these by duplicating piles. For example, if your partner has a discard pile of all 4s, don’t start your own 4s pile, just discard onto theirs. When discarding, it is a good strategy to discard cards from your hand that you think your partner may need to use. For example, if you see that they have an 11 on their stock pile that they want to play, it may be helpful to make sure a 10 is available on one of the team discard piles. They can play from your discard pile, but they can’t play from your hand, so you can make your hand cards available to them by discarding them onto empty discard piles.
Winning the Round
When you (or your partner) play all of the cards in your stock pile(s), then the round is over! You automatically get 25 points for winning the round PLUS an additional 5 points for every card your opponents still have in their stock piles. This means that the faster you can empty your stock pile, the more points you will get for the round since your opponents will not have had as much time to empty their own stock piles.
Winning the Game
The game is won when a player (or team) reaches 500 points. The game can optionally be played to 200 or 800 points for a shorter or longer game play time. A 25 point game is also an option, making the entire game last for only a single round.
Customization
For information on switching out tables and themes, please see this FAQ entry. For an overview of the theme/table administrative menu, please check out our Game Rezzer Administration article. For detailed information on customizing animations and camera views, please see our Player Experience Customization article.
Gaming.SL Live Integration
Gaming.SL Live (also known as Gaming.SL or G.SL) is gaming platform and services system developed by K.R. Engineering, which brings a variety of enhanced features to games in Second Life that are not possible with Second Life alone. In addition to the features described in this article, G.SL can integrate with your table in the following ways.
Leaderboards
Gaming.SL connected games have a grid-wide top score database that allows players to compete and have a pervasive record of their high scores. These high scores can be viewed by using a Top Scores display board in Second Life or by accessing the Top Scores page on the Gaming.SL website. Scores can be filtered down by region, specific game tables, dates, and other criteria.
In addition to recording high scores, games keep a running tally of the total number of times players have won on a game. This information can be viewed on a Top Winners display board in Second Life or by accessing the Top Winners page on the Gaming.SL website. Winners can likewise be filtered by region and other criteria to see a more specific list of winners.
On supported games, players will also be assigned a rank that compares their performance to other players who have played the same game. Players can improve this rank by playing well against other players. Rank information can be viewed on a Top Ranked display board in Second Life or by accessing the Top Ranked page on the Gaming.SL website.
Achievements
Gaming.SL includes support for Achievements in participating games, where-in you can unlock trophies by performing miraculous or mundane feats of gameplay. Achievements are awarded automatically and announced in Second Life when they are unlocked. Players can check their own achievements by visiting the Achievements page on the Gaming.SL website.
Jackpots
Gaming.SL supports the option to have ongoing recurring Jackpots where players can win cash prizes just for playing, no purchase necessary! Visit the Jackpots page on the Gaming.SL website to see the current jackpot standings, and who you need to defeat to win a prize. Prizes are based on ranking on a leaderboard that is erased during each jackpot period. Players must play during each period to be eligible to win during that period.
Licensing
Gaming.SL connected games utilize a licensing system that allows scores, ranks, winners, and other attributes to persist between rezzes of the same game, regardless of location in Second Life. This licensing system also allows games to have COPY permissions while still offering instancing control.
Public Games
Games that use Gaming.SL Live can also optionally be specified as a PUBLIC game by the game’s owner. This will display the game on the Gaming.SL Live Games page, including game status, options, and location, and a button to let a user teleport straight to the game to play. All games default to PRIVATE unless explicitly changed by the owner of the game.
Privacy
See the Gaming.SL Live page for more details on the Gaming.SL Live system, as well as our comprehensive Privacy Policy detailing the information we collect and how we use it.
Administration
To access the game’s administrative menu, simply click and hold your mouse button down on any part of it for two seconds. A menu will pop up on your screen displaying current settings and providing options to change them. (In slow simulators, this may take slighter longer than two seconds, just hold the mouse button down until you see a menu.)
On certain rezzer versions, depending on where you click, you may open the REZZER’S administrative menu instead of the GAME’S administrative menu. This is okay! If you are in the rezzer admin menu, you can switch directly over to the game admin menu by pressing the “Game ↗” button. Likewise if you open the game menu by mistake, and wish to switch over to the rezzer menu, you can simply press the “↙ Rezzer” button.
Some elements of the administration menu are accessible only by the owner, while others can be accessed by anyone who is considered an administrative user, either explicitly added or implicitly through the Group Admin feature.
There are too many options to fit in a standard dialog window, so the window has been divided into pages. You can use the <<< and >>> buttons at the bottom of the admin menu to change which page of options you are currently viewing. If you don’t see the option you want, it’s on another page!
Rezzer Options
Many options that were formerly in the game admin menu have been moved to the table/theme/rezzer admin menu. These are options that are game-independent, such as admin users, branding, sound volume, and updating. These options are now set on the table/theme/rezzer and apply automatically to whatever game is being played on that table or theme. For details on accessing the rezzer admin menu and what options are in it, please see the Game Rezzer Administration article.
Owner-Only Options
- Indicators: A menu for changing the color of the turn indicator lights on the game board.
- Color: An alternate way to access the color/theme menu for the table. This is the same as pressing the Color button on the table top.
- Cards: Access the card customization menu. See the ‘CUSTOM CARDS’ section below for more information.
Administrative User Options
- ↙ Rezzer: This button will directly open the rezzer’s administrative menu instead of the game’s menu.
- Players: Access the player management menu to skip or evict players from the game.
- Abandoned: Select this button to change the number of seconds the table waits to reset an abandoned game after all players have left.
- Timeout: Select this button to change the number of seconds the table waits for idle players to begin their turn. If they don’t roll before the timeout occurs, the game will skip them for this round.
- Quiet: Enable quiet mode, reducing the amount of chatter that the game will send to local chat.
- Chatty: Disable quiet mode.
- Win Single: Puts the game into a single round mode, where whoever empties their stack first wins.
- Win 25: Very short game. 25 points required to win.
- Win 200: Shorter game. 200 points required to win.
- Win 500: Standard game length. 500 points required to win.
- Win 800: Long game. 800 points required to win.
- Play Left: Game play passes to your left (clockwise) around the table.
- Play Right: Game play passes to your right (counter-clockwise) around the table.
- Text On: Enable hover text for player scores.
- Text Off: Disable hover text for player scores.
- Extra On: Enable Extra Deck to add an additional 54 cards to the playing deck for all games.
- Extra Off: Disable Extra Deck.
- Low Stacks: Set player stacks to the lowest option, for the shortest game.
- Med Stacks: Set player stacks to medium.
- High Stacks: Set player stacks to the highest option, for the longest game.
Additional Questions
If you have more questions, please use the search tool on our main page to browse our many helpful articles and FAQ entries. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, you can contact us for assistance.
ChangeLog
You can find the ChangeLog for Skipee by visiting this article.