Card rules · 2026-10-29
Which Settings Belong to the Player, and Which Belong to the Hand?
Changing card modes should not carry every old state into the next game. A larger font can remain useful across modes. A wild rank from the previous hand has a completely different scope.
Changing card modes should not carry every old state into the next game. A larger font can remain useful across modes. A wild rank from the previous hand has a completely different scope.
Sort the state by ownership
Personal display preferences concern presentation: text size, for example. Mode settings define a selected game's conditions. Hand-specific state includes the dealt cards, current actor and any designation made for that hand. Historical records describe completed events rather than active permissions.
Consider a teaching session that moves from rummy to a trick-taking exercise. The earlier rummy hand designated sevens wild. That designation does not automatically give a seven a special role in the new exercise. A shared lobby or unchanged account name supplies no such rule.
What should a transition explanation contain?
Name the old mode and the new one, identify which hand has ended and state the starting conditions for the new hand. Do not copy a previous score merely because both screens use a field called points; its meaning may differ.
The practical check is whether each carried-over value has an explicit owner and scope. A preference may travel with the player. A rule state needs a reason to travel at all.
A familiar label can hide a new meaning
In one exercise, points are penalties and a smaller total is preferable. In another, points count successful answers and a larger total is preferable. Carrying a displayed ten between the exercises without its definition would combine unlike measures. The number can be copied accurately while the comparison becomes meaningless. Keep the score's unit and direction with the mode name.