Great Dalmuti, The

The Great Dalmuti is a wonderfully simple, but difficult to master, card game that was popular throughout Starfleet chapters, beginning in the mid 1990's. It is described as a game of "world domination" in which the person who gets rid of their cards first becomes the Great Dalmuti -- a kind of a king-of-the-world. Each person is ranked according to when they go out, all the way down to the Greater Peon, who must do all the shuffling, dealing, and "cleaning the world," or taking the cards off the table. Some people really get into the game and roleplay, especially if they are the Dalmuti. The Great Dalmuti for the round may wear a crown (and force the Greater Peon to wear a jester's hat), and may request or demand that his subjects at the table do certain tasks for him/her (especially the poor Greater Peon). Jon Reddick specially made a Dalmuti "sceptor" (little more than a wooden spatula with a designed carved in it and painted gold) for a Dalmuti to whack inattentive players when they took too long at their turns or tasks, although not many Dalmutis used it with the same relish as he.