Swamped

"I guess I can give judging a try," you say. "What's the game called?"

"Three Leaves. The way it works is, you take all the leaf cards out of the deck and put them in a pile in the middle. Then each player gets a hand of three cards to start off with, and each turn they can pick one of three things to do."

"I take it three's an important number in this game."

"You're getting the picture. So first option is drawing a card. But you can't have more than three cards at once, so you have to drop another card. Second option is asking the other player for a card of a particular value - that is, you could ask if they have a six. If they have it, they have to give it to you; but you have to choose one of your cards and give it to them to keep the hands at three."

"What happens if they don't have it?"

"You lose your next turn," Lisa explains. "Third option is playing three of a kind if all cards in your hand match, then you get three new cards."

"So you can only really go for one set of three at a time."

"Well, that's where the leaves come in. If you've got a pair, you can take a leaf and make a triple with it. But, each player can only do that three times. The goal is to be the first player with seven sets of three."

"What happens with the fourth card if you use a leaf card?"

"It's just dead weight. And if the whole deck is emptied out, the game ends in a draw. This is a tournament, though, so we ignore that rule and just turn over the discard pile and shuffle it. Otherwise we'd just be replaying the whole game, which would slow things down."

"Is that all, then?"

"Well. One more rule. If you have a three, you can show that when your opponent asks for a card. Then you keep the card and hand over the three instead of the card they wanted. You can even do that if you don't have the card they asked for, as a bluff, but they don't lose their turn if you do that. Honestly, this rule doesn't see a lot of use, but I have seen it make a difference in a close game. I think that's about it."

Just as Lisa finishes her explanation, Grey comes back with two more knights.

"We're at twelve now," he grumbles. Then he notices you. "Or is it thirteen?"

"Marshall's taking over for Nora as judge. So we still need four for a full bracket."

"The new recruit is judging?" Grey seems a little annoyed, but then again, you can't recall ever seeing him when he didn't. "Whatever, it's hard enough finding volunteers. Why don't you make yourself useful and see if you can find any other players?"

He has a point, you suppose. You head around the room. It'll probably be easier to convince people you recognize, but there's no reason you can't try to ask someone else. So, who do you think might enjoy the tournament?