All About UNO 2021

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

◈ This is a 3 month team challenge starting 1 February 2021

◈ At the end of the challenge 30 April 2021 the team with the most points wins!

◈ At the start of each month each team is given a minimum 14 hands of 7 "UNO" cards

◈ The idea is to "play" each hand for points. It is up to the team how many "hands" they can get through in the month, but they must play one hand completely before being able to get points for the next

◈ The team can choose to skip an entire hand to get to the next one, but they are not given a replacement hand. (You can only skip one hand in a month)

UNO Cards
From Wikipedia
The deck consists of 108 cards, of which there are twenty-five of each color (red, green, blue, and yellow), each color having two of each rank except zero. The ranks in each color are zero to nine, "Skip", "Draw Two" and "Reverse" (the last three of these being classified as "action cards"). In addition, the deck contains four each of "Wild" and "Wild Draw Four" cards.



O (Zero)
Read a book that:
- has a 0 or Zero in the title
- has a title starting with Z
- has an author first name or surname starts with Z
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with Z
- is set in a place name starting with Z
- is a "stand-alone" book (i.e. not part of a series)

1 (One)
Read a book that:
- has a 1 or One in the title
- has a title starting with O
- has an author first name or surname starts with O
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with O
- is set in a place name starting with O
- is book 1 in a series

2 (Two)
Read a book that:
- has a 2 or Two in the title
- has a title starting with T
- has an author first name or surname starts with T
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with T
- is set in a place name starting with T
- is book 2 in a series

3 (Three)
Read a book that:
- has a 3 or Three in the title
- has a title starting with H
- has an author first name or surname starts with H
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with H
- is set in a place name starting with H
- is book 3 in a series

4 (Four)
Read a book that:
- has a 4 or Four in the title
- has a title starting with F
- has an author first name or surname starts with F
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with F
- is set in a place name starting with F
- is book 4 in a series

5 (Five)
Read a book that:
- has a 5 or Five in the title
- has a title starting with I
- has an author first name or surname starts with I
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with I
- is set in a place name starting with I
- is book 5 in a series

6 (Six)
Read a book that:
- has a 6 or Six in the title
- has a title starting with S
- has an author first name or surname starts with S
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with S
- is set in a place name starting with S
- is book 6 in a series

7 (Seven)
Read a book that:
- has a 7 or Seven in the title
- has a title starting with V
- has an author first name or surname starts with V
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with V
- is set in a place name starting with V
- is book 7 in a series

8 (Eight)
Read a book that:
- has an 8 or Eight in the title
- has a title starting with E
- has an author first name or surname starts with E
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with E
- is set in a place name starting with E
- is book 8 in a series

9 (Nine)
Read a book that:
- has a 9 or Nine in the title
- has a title starting with N
- has an author first name or surname starts with N
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with N
- is set in a place name starting with N
- is book 9 in a series

Skip
Read a book that:
- has a title starting with K or P
- has an author first name or surname starts with K or P
- has a character with a first name, surname or nickname starting with K or P
- is set in a place name starting with K or P
OR you can choose to "skip" reading a book for this cards (and get no points for this card)

Draw 2
Use the same book for two cards in this hand (and get points for both cards)

Reverse
One member of your team must read a book another team member has already read

Wild
Read a book that can fit for any of the cards in that SAME hand (i.e. you are duplicating one of the cards in that same hand)

Wild draw four
Read a book that can fit for any of the coloured cards you have that month (i.e. you are duplicating one of your coloured cards. Each coloured card can only be duplicated once)

Coloured cards
Special coloured cards will be randomly provided each month. for these cards you need to read for the card number (as above) and the book must also have a coloured cover for the colour specified (blue, red, yellow or green)



For each book read to match a 0-9 card, the team gets 20 points
For each book read to match a Skip or Reverse, the team gets 25 points
For each book read to match a wild or Wild draw four card the team gets 30 points
For each book read to match a special Coloured card, the team gets 30 points
For each hand completed, the team gets a bonus 15 points



1. Anyone who has been replaced on a team in prior years due to not responding/playing (and did not let us know they had to leave the game) will not be placed on a team unless you first message this account with why this year will be different.

2. Anyone who has been replaced for two years will not be placed on a team.

3. The goodreads app is not useful for team challenges and it is recommended people only sign up if they have access to the desktop version (via a computer or by using a browser on their device and selecting the desktop version)

4. Teams communicate through the allocated team threads. No secret groups or using other platforms

5. Books must be more than 100 pages in length and Children's books, Graphic Novels, Manga, Cook Books, Plays and Poetry books can not be used unless by word count they can be verified as more than 25,000 words using arbookfind.com or more than 3 hours of audio using a reputable website (e.g. audible, overdrive). Children's books checked in previous years can be seen on this shelf uno-childrens


For book titles starting with an article (A/An/The), the article can be ignored or used. So The Hiding Place, for example, could be used as title starting with T or H

Re-reads are ok provided it has been more than 6 months since last read

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

TEAM A is Karen, Kristie, Eric, Molly, Spot, Gemima, Tori, Isaac and Luke

Month 1
Using random.org , the mods assign the hands of:
1st hand
Reverse, 6, 4, 1, Skip, Wild, 1
2nd hand
9, 4, 2,Wild draw four, Draw Two, 3, 2
3rd hand
Wild draw four, 5, 0, Wild, 4, 9, Reverse
etc.
-----------

The team must read books to complete hand 1, before they can get points for completing books in other hands. (OR they can choose to skip hand 1 completely to move to hand 2, but they get no points for hand one and no replacement hand)

At the start of the month the team knows some of the books they intend to read and they decide to allocate these as follows:
Hand One:

Reverse : Karen reads Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children as it has been read before by Kristie
6 Kristie reads Hot Six (Six in the title)
4 Eric reads Divergent (Character with a nickname of "four")
1 Kristie reads On the Edge (Title starts with O)
Skip Karen reads Cop Town (author name Karin)
Wild Gemima reads The Forgotten Garden (re-doing Skip card ; author name Kate)
1 Tori reads Unwind (book set in Ohio)

Hand one would then be complete. These books count towards hand two

Wild Draw Four Isaac reads Chill Factor (duplicating a coloured card)
3 Luke reads The Hiding Place (title)
9 Molly reads Nowhere Ranch (title)
4 Spot reads The Gods of Gotham (author name Faye)

◈ Note: it is up to the teams how they divide up the cards to read across the team players. Just remember, you can only get points if a hand is completed, and in order.
So, if you complete all of hand 1, some of hand 2, and all of hand 3, you will only get points for hand 1 and the books read of hand 2.

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Fill out this SIGN UP FORM with a few details and we will start assigning teams the second last week of January. You will need to "check in" to your team thread by January 25 or you will be replaced
If you have problems with the form, please let us know.
===
SPECIAL NOTE: If you signed up last year, but were replaced because the captain did not hear from you, or you withdrew from the challenge, you will need to send a message to the Pixie account as to what has changed this year. Your sign up will get flagged and you will not be placed in a team unless you message us first.
===
You can see if your form responses worked, and check out who else has signed up here

***********************


◈ Every month when the team gets their monthly UNO hands the Captain will need to work with the team to create a plan for how to read the hands. We will provide you with a spreadsheet to complete.
◈ We would expect the captains to track the teams books
◈ At the end of each month the Captain will need to check their teams books are marked as "read" and meet the page counts and submit their team's info to the moderator to have points confirmed

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Looking for colour covers for books?

Here are the links to our uno coloured shelves. It would be great if you can add any books you find to these shelves, or "recommend" the book to the pixie and we can add it.
This helps keep our own little database of cover colours for UNO :)

red covers
blue covers
green covers
yellow covers

Important note
Some books on this list may not seem like the colour cover. This is because GR will show the default version. There may be a specific version that has been shelved that is the actual colour. The version you read is what you should shelve, and is what counts, for UNO

Note: If you also like to shelve coloured covers, you can shelve coloured books as these shelf names:
uno-yellow
uno-green
uno-red
uno-blue

:)

About book cover colours

We are playing a game of common sense when it comes to cover colours :)
If you have a book you think is a certain colour, post to your team thread or ask your captain/co-captain. If your team/Cap/Co-cap agrees you are good to go. If your team or captains aren’t sure they may take it to the captains group for another opinion (where the result is binding).

To find if a cover is more than 50% of a colour, you can use this colour extrator tool (tineye). You are NOT REQUIRED to use tineye. It is linked here as it is usually the best place to check if you are unsure.

Every so often, a cover will look like a certain cover, but the tool tells you otherwise (as the image may not accurately reflect the cover). If you think you have an example of this, let your captain know who will take it to the captains group for ruling.

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Tips to prepare for sign up

* Think about how many books you can read in a month.

There is no benefit in UNO to under-estimate because each team has a fixed number of books to read each month. It is best to be as accurate as you can so that your team doesn't finish the month early and then is bored for a week!. Have a look at what you read over the last 3 months, or for previous players what you read over last UNO.

* Do you want to be in a "chatty" team?

Consider your interaction on Goodreads. Do you want to log in at least every other day? If so you may want to select your preference for a "chatty team".
If you can only commit to checking the team once per week, a chatty team is not for you.
If you don't think you can make it onto Goodreads once per week (even if you haven't read anything) then UNO is not for you.

* Set up your UNO Shelf.

This helps your team captains check your books, and is also quite cool later when you want to see what you have read in UNO over the years. Goodreads help explains how to add a new shelf if you haven't done it before here

YOUR USER NAME IS VERY IMPORTANT

every year we have sign-ups that don't get this right. If you do not enter it correctly, we can not find you, which means you won't be placed on a team.

To find your user name:,
1. go to the desktop version of Goodreads. This means use a web browser on your tablet/phone/computer to go to www.goodeads.com
2. (sign in if required) Look at the top right hand side and you will see the far right circle that is your profile picture. Click on it, and then select "profile"
3. What you now see in the URL bar is not www.goodeads.com but instead your profile name. For example, this Pixie account shows www.goodreads.com/user/show/52624155-...
This means my user name is 52624155-uno-pixie
4. In the sign up form you will be asked to enter the number and the name separately (this helps with our formulas and to make sure people enter this information correctly). So my number would be 52624155 and my name would be uno-pixie

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count.

The challenge starts on Monday February 1, 2021 at 9am UTC time. To see when this starts, use this countdown

Main cities, FYI:

Monday 1 February 2021
San Francisco 1am
London 9am
New York 4am
Mumbai 2.30pm
Tokyo 6pm
Sydney 8pm

Check out other cities here

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Fill out this SIGN UP FORM with a few details and we will start assigning teams the second last week of January. You will need to "check in" to your team thread by January 25 or you will be replaced
If you have problems with the form, please let us know.
===
SPECIAL NOTE: If you signed up last year, but were replaced because the captain did not hear from you, or you withdrew from the challenge, you will need to send a message to the Pixie account as to what has changed this year. Your sign up will get flagged and you will not be placed in a team unless you message us first.
===
You can see if your form responses worked, and check out who else has signed up here

***********************


◈ Every month when the team gets their monthly UNO hands the Captain will need to work with the team to create a plan for how to read the hands. We will provide you with a spreadsheet to complete.
◈ We would expect the captains to track the teams books
◈ At the end of each month the Captain will need to check their teams books are marked as "read" and meet the page counts and submit their team's info to the moderator to have points confirmed

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

All team threads are now open

Please make your way to your team threads and check in before January 26.

You can find the team assignments here

Note: Those who signed up after round 1 closed are on the reserves list. You will be PM'd directly when a space is available on a team.

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Current team assignments have about 48 hours to check in to their team threads or be replaced

We also have enough sign-ups to create a few more teams. So expect a few new teams to be created and reserves placed before the challenge officially begins!

Reserves, watch your inbox for PMs and this thread Jan 27-28 :)

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

GENERAL QUESTIONS

If the book is a prequel and is listed as 3.5 in the series, does it still count for a 3 card? Or can I count it for a 4 card?
Only the whole numbers count for that, so in your case it would be 3.

have a question about Wonder... it says it's #1 in a series, but it's the only primary book. does it still count as 1 in series ?
It's first in a series even if no other books are listed.

I have a question about series number that only Discworld could have. The Last Continent is book number 22 in the Discworld universe, but #6 in the Rincewind series, so could I was it for card number 6?
We use what Goodreads has on their main book page. So for that one, it has #22

Where is the cut off line for when a character's name can or cannot be used for a card?
We generally want them to have some dialogue and meaning to the story. Not just a hotel bellhop called Victor that opens a door, for example

What's the rules with non fiction Books? Can the real life people of history say be used as "characters" and the same with locations used as "settings"?
I'm going to say no for the majority of non fiction books, (it opens the doors to books that have a zillion royals listed for example), unless of course the non fiction book is something like "Eat Pray Love" which is told like a novel with limited characters. I hope that makes sense!!

For location, is it just the city, state, country or are locations such as "Snowberry Manor" or maybe a specific lake or mountain name counted?
It needs to be the main setting for the book. So if the book is set in "Snowberry Manor" then that is ok. Whereas if that is just the name of the house, but not the main setting (which may be the city of London, for example) then I wouldn't count it

Can we use an author's middle initial for a letter, if it's listed in their name under author? Say Lauren E. Mitchell
No, sorry. First name and surname only

What about if it's a von, van, etc?
I use my library to work out the alphabetisation for any two word surnames. Most surnames that are van with a small v are not alphabetised as v

Are audiobooks allowed
Audiobooks fine. You'll use the page numbers from the default edition to check it meets the challenge requirements.
You can shelve the audiobook edition, or the default edition.

If I read books in another language than English, so should I use English or non-English title
Use the edition/language you are reading

Can we read books that are a collection of short stories?
Yes the book counts if the whole thing is read.

Can any of the authors listed for an anthology be used?
Use the author listed on goodreads as the "editor"

Are we allowed books that haven't yet been published?
Yes, as long as they are listed on Goodreads you can use them.

Is reverse a book a teammate has read at any time or during the challenge?
Anytime

Regarding the clored Cards: Can the book be any cover...does it have to be the cover for the version you are reading?
It needs to be the edition you are reading.

Can 2 people on my team read the same book for 2 different cards?
Yes

Are embedded words allowed? For example, will Seer of Sevenwaters work for seven?
No for embedded words.

If someone is known as Princess or Professor is that allowed as P or is it just the name?
It needs to be the characters name or nickname in the book, an honourific or title wouldn't count.

What happens if a team finishes all hands before the end of the month?
Then you get to relax. That's why the estimates of how much you read is so important when signing up. We try and get the teams as even as possible, but if a few people on a team start reading well above their estimates it does mean you will finish the month faster than we would normally anticipate

Can I request to be on a team with xyz, abc, def... etc.?
We totally get that it is fun to play with people you know. And we have no problems with trying to accomodate requests for 2-3 people to be on the same team
BUT
1. We don't make "whole" teams of set people (so you can't request 10 people on one team for example)
2. Book counts play a large role in UNO because the teams have a set number of books to read each month. So if you have a group that reads 150 books in the month and the team only has to read 80 it means you'll be bored for half the month (I'm sure you don't want that!). So if you and your friends have large book counts it can be difficult to make a viable team.
--this is also why it's important to try and accurately estimate your monthly books. There is no benefit to under estimating for UNO--

So, bottom line, when you sign up, in the comments you can put your request, or you can send a PM to this account and we will do what we can

If you have signed up as a captain I'm more than happy to try and match you with a co-captain that you have worked with before. Again, just send a PM or put it in your comments

What are the rules when it comes to book cover colours?
If you have a book you think is a certain colour, post to your team thread. (It should be "obviously" that colour ; at least more than 50% of the cover). If your team agrees you are good to go. If your team or captains aren’t sure they may take it to the captains group (where the result is binding).


One of my hands is:
Wild
9
Wild
2
Draw 2
Wild Draw 4
7 Red
the Draw 2 is easy - covering off the Wild Draw 4 and 7Red.
but, for filling the rest:
- For the two Wilds, can they be for the same card - eg duplicate the 2 (say) or can each card only be duplicated once? - Also can the Wild duplicate just the number of the 7Red? (assuming a card can be duplicated more than one time!)

From the rules on the Wild Draw 4: "Each coloured card can only be duplicated once." ;-)
Basically, that is also true for the other cards. Each card can only be duplicated once.

As far as locations. Too many group challenges and different rules. Sandpoint, Idaho, it will work for 5 or 6 ???
6 - Sandpoint as it is the main location (so if it more specific than just "Idaho" then that is the location you use.

Regarding the note: For book titles starting with an article (A/An/The), the article can be ignored or used. So The Hiding Place, for example, could be used as title starting with T or H
Does this also apply to foreign titles such as Der Nachtwandler. Can we disregard the "Der" and use the N for a 9 card?

Yes

About Reverse: If I have read the Norwegian edition of a book, will it count for Reverse if one of my teammates read the English (original) edition?
Absolutely, it's still the same book.

On the colour cards, what should you do if the edition read isn't listed on GR? I came across a book on Amazon yesterday with a very definitely red cover but couldn't find that edition on GR.
Link the book in the captains group and the link to the amazon page and we can add it to GR :)

what is the rule is around titles that start with a number? Do you spell out the number or skip it and use the first letter of the first actual word? I was thinking of 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
You spell it out, so 99 Percent Mine would be N. :)

For books with two authors, can any of the authors be used or should it be the author goodreads uses for sorting purposes. For instance:
Cut & Run is written by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban. Goodreads sorts it under the Rs in an author search for Abigail Roux.
If both authors are listed, either can be used :)
It really is just short story collections where there is one editor and then 10 authors.... etc... for those, the editor is used

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, it should work for a 7, right? even if it has de 1/2 on the title?
I think if it was something like The 101 Dalmatians we wouldn't say that could be used for a 1 or a 0 ; so the same principle applies. The book is 7.5 not 7, so couldn't be used for 7


We have a hand that includes:
Reverse
Reverse
Draw 2
If 2 other people have read the same book, on top of the person who read it for the challenge, can we use the Draw 2 and fill in both Reverse cards? Or would we need to use the Draw 2 with only 1 reverse card + another card in the hand?
If A read the book in Jan, and B read it during the challenge then you can use B for both the reverse cards in that hand, with the D2, as you are using the one book against the two cards.
The misconception is that you have to have different reasons for the 2 cards that 1 book covers. But you don't! With a Draw 2, the same reason can be used for both cards that are covered

Come March, if you started a book in February but didn’t finish until March, can we use it on our March card? Or for the March hands, do the books have to be started and finished in March?
March and April cards both can be filled with books started in February, just not before the challenge officially started :)

A team mate read The Beautiful-Ugly. It's a trilogy in one book. She wants to know if it should be separated into three different books or as one.
treat that like an anthology. It is just boxed sets that you separate as they are physically separate books just sold in a bundle

Is it compulsory to have a Uno bookshelf ? One of our new team member does not want to have a separate bookshelf. Is it OK if she reports the books read and it is in her read shelf?
That's fine. We ask people to have a shelf to make it easier for the captains. If you don't mind, then you can just go with the read shelf (or she could create one and just delete it at the end of the challenge)

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Here is the link to the Current Points sheet

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count.

March Countdown

March starts on Monday March 1, 2021 at 9am UTC time. To see when this starts, use this countdown

Main cities, FYI:

Monday 1 March 2021
San Francisco 1am
London 9am
New York 4am
Mumbai 2.30pm
Tokyo 6pm
Sydney 8pm

Check out other cities here

[UNO Pixie, Our UNO Helper]

Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count.

April Countdown

****IMPORTANT****
Due to daylight savings starting/finishing in different countries, your time may be different to what it was last month.

April starts on Thursday April 1, 2021 at 9am UTC time. To see when this starts, use this countdown

Main cities, FYI:

Thursday 1 April 2021
San Francisco 2am
London 10am
New York 5am
Mumbai 2.30pm
Tokyo 6pm
Sydney 8pm

Check out other cities here

PS: This means your April hands have been added to your sheets! Have at them!