Play a Command‑Line Dou Dizhu Game with Ratel: Setup, Commands, and Rules

What is Ratel

Ratel is a command‑line implementation of the Chinese card game Dou Dizhu (斗地主). It consists of a server process that manages rooms and a client that connects via TCP and accepts text commands.

Getting the source

Clone the Git repository: git clone https://github.com/ainilili/ratel.git The source code is organized into the landlords-server and landlords-client modules.

Running the server

Build the project with Maven (or download a pre‑built JAR from the releases page). The server JAR is named landlords-server-<em>VERSION</em>.jar. Start it with:

java -jar landlords-server/target/landlords-server-<em>VERSION</em>.jar -p 1024

The -p option selects the listening TCP port (default 1024). Replace VERSION with the actual release tag, e.g. 1.0.0.

Running the client

Start the client JAR similarly:

java -jar landlords-client/target/landlords-client-<em>VERSION</em>.jar -p 1024 -h 127.0.0.1

The -h option specifies the server host (use 39.105.65.8 to connect to the public server). The -p option must match the server port.

Basic workflow

After connecting, the client prompts for a nickname:

Connection to server successful, welcome to ratel !!
Please set your nickname
[ratel@nickname]$ Nico

Then an options menu is displayed:

Create Room

Room List

Join Room

Enter the corresponding number. Creating a room returns an identifier and waits for other players:

[ratel@options]$ 1
You have created room with id 2
Please wait for other players to join !

Card notation

Cards are entered using short aliases:

Numbers 3‑9 represent themselves. 0 represents 10. J / j for Jack. Q / q for Queen. K / k for King. A / a for Ace. 1 for 2. S / s for the small joker. X / x for the big joker.

Examples:

7890j   // straight 7‑8‑9‑10‑J
sx      // king bomb (both jokers)

In‑game commands

pass

– skip the current turn. exit – leave the game.

Reference URLs

Repository: https://github.com/ainilili/ratel

Release page (contains pre‑built JARs): https://github.com/ainilili/ratel/releases