There is a problem when you are telling your story, play your last OUaT card, and just as you are about to play your HEA card, somebody interrupts. You draw a card, and will probably never get back into the game again, alas, unless you are extremely lucky in your draw. While this can be philosophically accepted as "just part of the game," we decided to "fix" it.
So we allow:
When you draw a card because you are interrupted, you may look at the card, and may then continue drawing, if desired, one card at a time, up to three cards total for that draw. You can stop after one or two cards, of course. There can't be any time lag beyond a couple of seconds to mull over whether someone is really likely to mention an axe, for example, and then you can draw your next card or decide to stay with just the last one you drew.
This can be done any time you draw a card, though we really only do it when we get down to below 4 cards. The rule doesn't unbalance things - it carries its own balance with it. You can increase your chances of getting back in the game, but you also increase the number of cards you have to get rid of to win.
And for those that missed my earlier alternate rule post, here's how we choose starting player:
Before dealing out the OUaT cards, each player cuts the deck and looks at the card cut. Cut again if you get an Interrupt card. Look at the first letter of the word(s) down the side of the card. The one who has the letter closest to A goes first. If two are tied, compare second letters, etc. For example, if three are playing, and they cut the King, Queen and Knight card, the player who cut the King would go first: K and K are tied for closest letter to A, but the second letter of King is closer to A than the second letter of Knight.
Alternate rules by Steffan O'Sullivan, Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA
[email protected] June 7, 1994