This sounds a lot like the card game "New Eleusis": http://www.logicmazes.com/games/eleusis/index.html http://www.logicmazes.com/games/eleusis/index.html http:

This sounds a lot like the card game "New Eleusis": http://www.logicmazes.com/games/eleusis/index.html http://www.logicmazes.com/games/eleusis/index.html http://matuszek.org/eleusis2.html http://matuszek.org/eleusis2.html http://matuszek.org/eleusis0.html http://matuszek.org/eleusis0.html It's meant to "simulate scientific research", sorta: one player ("God" or "Nature") comes up with a secret rule for what cards are legal to play in a given situation, and then the other players take turns playing cards to figure it out. It's a lot harder than you think, even with quite simple rules. (The scoring system is meant to reward a "God" player for coming up with a rule that's not obvious but still guessable.)