Lives is very similar to Uno, but played with playing cards. You win by having lives remaining when everyone else has lost theirs. You lose by being the first one to lose all your lives. The first player to lose their last life is saved and gets 1 extra life. This is a one time occurrence.
You start by dealing 7 cards to each player. The top card of the deck is then revealed and the player to the left of the dealer plays first. The player must match either the suit or the value of the card. If you do not have a card in your hand which is a match of either suit or value, you must pick up a card from the deck. You may not play this card immediately, you must wait until your next go.
When you get down to one card in your hand, you must call "Last Card" before the next player plays their turn. If you fail to do this, any player can call you out, and you must then draw 2 cards. You CANNOT end on a special card. If your last card is a special card, you may put it down, but you then have to pick up another card from the deck (remember to call last cast again). If your last card is an Ace, you MUST pick the suit BEFORE picking up another card.
When a player gets rid of all of their cards, all players must show their cards face up and add up the total values, each card is worth it's value, a face card is worth 10, and each of the special cards are also worth 10. Each player must add up their total and the player with the highest total loses a life.
If two or more plays have the exact same total, each player must split the deck, take the top most card from the bottom of the split, and then reveal it. The player with the highest card loses.
+2 cards can be stacked. 8 skip a turn cards can be cancelled out if the player being skipped also has an 8 in their hand, they must play the 8 and then the player after them gets skipped instead.