Is there a Cybertronian equivalent to card games?
Dear Sophisticated Shuffler,
One of the most well-known games is "Rubsign", which involves two players using a deck of shuffled cards (actually small data pads). Each player is dealt five cards, each of them darkened at first. You and your opponent then hold the cards so that the other cannot see them. You can choose to rub a card, revealing one of five possible signs:
Sacred Spire
Space Bridge
Axe of Straxus
Energon Cube
Special Arm
Now you and your opponent compare cards. You can think of it as "rock-paper-scissors", but with 5 "weapons". If you have both rubbed your cards, here are the rules of victory.
Special Arm steals Energon Cube
Axe of Straxus beats everything except Space Bridge (it "chops" the Special Arm in particular)
Space Bridge is beaten by everything except Axe of Straxus (it "blows up" Straxus, in fact)
Energon Cube blows up the Sacred Spire
Sacred Spire collapses over the Special Arm
After this round, those cards are no longer in play and the winner gets a point. However, if you left your card blank, you could wager that it will beat your opponent's card. If you're correct, you win two points, and the player with the most points at the end wins.
This is Rubsign in its most classical form. Over the millennia, many "house rules" have been developed, such as "Two Axe of Strax always wins" or "Five Special Arms always wins". It was invented by Mini-Spies to keep occupied while waiting for assignments from larger Cybertronians.