by Morry Dàveeriam by Morry Dàveeriam
Quidditch is probably best described as the foremost Wizarding sport game in the world today. It is the favorite game of the famous (in Wizarding circles) Harry Potter, and is played world round, both on a professional and amateur level enjoyed by many nationalities. In recent years, through the publication of Quidditch through the ages, by Kennilworthy Whisp, the Muggle (non-wizarding) community has come to know of the game and its facinating style of play. This interest generated by the muggles has, however, lead to problems - you muggles want to play Quidditch too.
Although I am not a member of the ministry of magic, I have been strenuously reminded that the ministry will not be allowing Muggle attendance nor Muggle participation in the games. Muggles can obviously play the games themselves, however it is generally difficult to find a flying broom or a golden snitch down at your local grocery (I’ve been told).
It took it upon myself to research what could be done to aleviate this problem. I endeavored to find a common muggle item or set of items which could be used to simulate a game of quidditch. At first I was interested in recreating the physical sport, but as I studied more on Muggle activites I came to realize that the Muggle health care system was very good but unfortunately non-magical. I did not want to strain a system that I could not myself feel comfortable using. This is probably due to my own Wizarding prejudices, unfortunately. Because of that, I set out to create a non-physical, non-magical game of quidditch.
Upon consultation with some members of the Ministry, it came to my attention that there are games which are played with what are known as "playing cards". These are remarkably similar to the Tarot and other cards used in the Wizarding circles, but obviously have no magical or Prophetic attributes. After a brief study, these turned out to be ideal for my purposes.
Thus I present the card game of Quidditch.
In cards, there are four suits: hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds. In Hogwart's school of wizardry, there are quite coincidentally four houses. Each suit in the deck of cards represents one of the different houses, as follows:
| Hearts = | Gryffindor | 
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| Spades = | Hufflepuff | 
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| Diamonds = | Slytherin | 
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| Clubs = | Ravenclaw | 
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By the way, for the most part the matching of house to suit was done by personality. Slytherin are ambitious, sometimes thought of as greedy, so they seek diamonds. Hufflepuff work hard (unafraid of toil), and a spade is a work tool. Gryffindor are full of heart, so that was obvious, and Ravenclaw, well, are good guys so they took the one that didn’t fit anyone else.
Prior to starting a game, each player chooses a different house or team. The suit that matches the chosen house will be considered your HOUSE suit or TEAM suit. The suit of your opponents‘ house will be called your OPPONENT`S HOUSE suit, surprisingly enough. These suits are important so if you have trouble remembering, write them down.
Shuffle the deck 5 times, make sure you include the jokers. The cards are used as follows:
How do you remember this? Well, the Seekers are the stars of the game, or the Aces. The Keepers and the Kings both start with K. The Queens and the Quaffle both start with Q, and the Chasers are concerned with the Quaffle. And the Jacks sound tough, so they get to be the Beaters.
Deal out 6 cards to each player. This is called your hand - you may look at the cards and play them on the table, but do not show them to the other player. Throughout the game you should always have 6 cards in your hand. Take the remaining cards and place them face down on the table - this is the draw pile.
The objective is the same as in normal quidditch - score the most points and win the game.
After you deal, the game begins. The person who did NOT deal picks up their hand and begins play.
The first thing you do each turn is draw a card, bringing your hand to 7 cards.
the next thing that happens is an action. You must always take an action. If you do not want to do anything, or cannot, you must discard. Each action is described below, but the list of actions is:
In quidditch, you score by knocking the quaffle through the hoop, and score 10 points in doing so. In Muggle Quidditch, to score ten points, you pair up the numbered cards. Not just any two numbered cards - the pair has to add up to twelve. Simply lay down (from your hand) two cards totally 12, and you have scored 10 points. Sorry to be confusing but perhaps some examples will help:
| 10 & 2 | 9 & 3 | 8 & 4 | 7 & 5 | 6 & 6 |
Playing a pair like this is called scoring a goal. The two number cards do NOT have to be from the same suit. There is an advantage for one (or both) of the two cards to be from your team suit (hearts for Gryffindor, remember?), but I’ll discuss more on that later. Put the pair in your score pile. I suggest making it easy for you and your opponent to count your points in the score pile. As a rule, once per turn you can ask your opponent how many points they have in their score pile and they must answer (honesty).
To put a team member into play, you simply take a Seeker, Keeper, Chaser, or Beater from your hand, and lay it in front of you. By playing the card in front of you, this card now joins your team. The card does not have to be from your house suit, it can be from any suit. There are certain advantages to having the members of your team be members of your house (i.e. having your house suit). Unlike quidditch, you only have one member playing each position - you only have one chaser, only one beater. I suggest laying out your table like the below.
If you already have a Keeper in play, but want to play another Keeper, you can. Simply discard the Keeper already in play and put the one in your hand on the table. You can do this with any team member.
Before you can capture the snitch, you have to spot it first. To do this, simply play one of the jokers from your hand onto the table. This is "spotting the snitch". However there are some restrictions. You cannot spot the snitch without first having a Seeker on your team. If you have not yet played a Seeker, you cannot obviously spot the snitch. The first Joker played is considered spotting the snitch, the second is ... well keep reading.
When you play the second joker, you immediately start a "dive for the snitch". It's a little complicated, so I'll explain it below. Whomever wins the dive captures the snitch, the game is over, and the team with the most points scored (including the points for the snitch) wins the game!
The bludgers are one thing that keep all the players nervously watching over their shoulders. And they should. If you have a Beater (Jack) in your hand, you can "bludgerize" your opponent's team members. Simply play your Beater on the opponent's team member that you want to bludgerize. You opponent must then immediately discard his team member, and you discard your beater. HOWEVER, if your opponent has a beater on his team, he may CHOOSE to discard his beater instead.
Instead of playing a beater from your hand, you can choose to use your beater from your team. You remove the beater from your team and play it just the same as if it came from your hand. It gets discarded along with the opponent's card. You then MUST discard a card from your hand, to bring the total back down to 6 (you did remember to draw a card, right?)
Instead of drawing from the draw pile, you can take the top card of the discard pile instead. You can use this card just as if you drew it from the draw pile. However, if this card happens to be a beater (jack), you may still take it, but you cannot play that card this turn. You can only ever draw one card from the discard pile in a turn
If you happened to score last turn, you put down 2 cards. Therefore to bring your hand up to 7 at the beginning of this turn you will have to draw 2 cards. This is ok. That's how it's supposed to work. Always draw enough cards at the beginning of your turn so that you have 7 cards in your hand. If you forgot to draw for a while, and only have 2 cards in your hand, then you would draw 5 more. Take as many as you need, when drawing, to bring your hand to 7 cards. You can even take one of those cards from the discard pile. But only one can come from the discard pile.
If you drew too many, show the extras to your opponent and put them face down back onto the draw pile. Be honest.
Each team member has a function, and there are certain things you can and cannot do without having a certain team member in play.
Harry Potter, the most famous wizard of our time, is also an excellent seeker. You need the seeker to spot the snitch, and you need the seeker to participate in the dive for the snitch. If you do not have a seeker in play when the dive begins, the other player automatically wins the dive. Simple rule - you cannot play a joker without a seeker on your team. It is better to have a Seeker from your HOUSE suit than from any other house. See the rules on the dive.
The chaser is an easy one to figure out. You need a chaser before you can score. If you do not have a chaser in play, you cannot score. Once you do have a chaser on the table, you can start scoring points. The house (suit) of the chaser you have playing for your team doesn't matter.
Beaters have a special role to play. By redirecting the bludgers, they can remove or temporarily distract members of the opponents team, while protecting their own team. This is how it works in the card game. You can basically do two things with your beater, you can put them into play, or use them to distract a member of the opponents team (by knocking a bludger in their direction). The suit (house) of a beater doesn't matter.
The Keepers are very important - they control how many points will be scored ON YOU. What house YOUR keeper is changes what suits your OPPONENT can use to score against you. Confused? I have simpler rules on how this works, but the complete rules are below. If you still are having trouble, start with the simple rules, then work your way up.
For examples 1, 2, and 3: You are playing Gryffindor, your opponent is playing Slytherin. Your house suit is Hearts, his is Diamonds.
One more explanation. The way I think of it is: No keeper - no protection. Your house keeper - the best protection, therefore your opponent can only use one suit against you - which would be his own suit. Not your house keeper - mediocre protection, and therefore you are only protected in one way - he can't score your suit against you. Still too confusing? Try my simplified rules, then work your way up to the full version.
As you may well know, the golden snitch is the center and the point of the game. The game ends, and the points are totalled, when the golden snitch is captured. Until the snitch is captured, the play continues. Capturing the snitch is done in two stages - spotting the snitch, and the dive for the snitch.
If you have a seeker in play, you "spot the snitch" simply by playing a joker from your hand onto the table. Generally a good place to do this is on the opposite side of the draw pile than the discard pile. The first joker played is considered "spotting the snitch". Note that you cannot spot the snitch if you do not have a seeker in play. If your opponent has spotted the snitch, and you do not have seeker yet in play, then I suggest you play one as soon as possible.
If there are no seekers in play (both have been removed due to beaters), then the snitch is "lost", and the joker on the table is put into the discard pile. It will be "spotted" again the next time a joker is played. This only happens if neither player has a seeker in play - at least one player has to have a seeker in order for the snitch to be considered "spotted".
If you have a seeker in play, and the snitch has already been spotted (i.e. there is already one joker on the table) then you may play the other joker from your hand onto the table. This is called "starting the dive". If you are the only player with a seeker, then you automatically capture the snitch. Put the jokers in your scoring pile and proceed to ending the game. Otherwise, you have to play out the dive.
If each player has a seeker in play, both of the seekers dive for the snitch. It does not matter who spotted the snitch, or who started the dive. To dive for the snitch, you take turns drawing cards from the draw pile and placing them face up in front of you. The player who started the dive goes first. The objective of the dive is to have the highest card in the "dive pile" that you are building, higher than any of your opponent’s "dive pile" cards. The Ace is the highest card, next is the King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8 … down to 2. Continue drawing, each taking one card from the draw pile and putting cards in the dive pile until you each have 5 cards, or the draw pile is empty. The person who has the highest card in his dive pile captures the snitch and adds the two jokers to his score pile.
If your seeker is from your house, you may draw an extra 2 cards during your dive (for a total of 7 cards). If your seeker is from your opponent’s house, then you do not get any extra cards. If your seeker is from the two "neutral" houses (houses that are not yours or your opponents), then you can draw ONE extra card.
Whomever has the highest card in their dive pile - captures the snitch. Put the jokers in your score pile, and total up your score (see below)
If you empty the draw pile during the normal course of the game, simply take the discard pile, shuffle it, turn it face down and it is now your draw pile. Any and all Jokers in both players' hands MUST be put in the discard pile prior to shuffling. A joker already on the table (snitch has been spotted) remains in place and is not shuffled into the deck.
If you run out of cards during the dive for the snitch, again you shuffle the discard pile and turn it over - thus creating a new draw pile. The jokers on the table stay there. If you run out of cards and there is no more cards in either the draw or the discard pile - the dive is over. The highest card wins the dive.
Whomever gets the highest score wins!
It is possible to have ties in the game of muggle quidditch. If during the dive for the snitch, both players have the same high card (for example, both draw an Ace), then neither seeker captures the snitch. Put the jokers in the discard pile and continue playing. When the draw pile is empty the jokers will be shuffled back into the draw pile.
If, at the end of the game, both teams scores are the same, you have a true tie. Shake your opponent's hand and declare a game well played.
Nothing! Go play a few games and send me an e-owl note to let me know how it went!
Ok, there's a few things left. But I'll leave them on seperate pages, read them if you're interested.
Questions? Email me and ask! Just click my email owl, Epiphany.
Enjoy!
© Morry Dàveeriam, 2001