A game for 2-5 players by Michael Schacht. Condensed rules by Eric Postpischil, https://edp.org.
Introduction Goal: Collect cards in any 3 colors. Score positive points for your best 3 colors and negative for others. Base game: Score in a color increases up to 6 cards and then does not change. Variant: Score in a color peaks at 3 cards, then decreases up to 6 cards, and then does not change.
Setup Separate the cards and set up: • 1 “last round card”: Set aside. • 3 green row cards and 5 brown row cards: • With 2 players, set aside the green cards for use and remove the brown cards from game. • With 3/4/5 players, set aside 3/4/5 brown cards for use and remove all other row cards from game. • 5 summary cards: Choose brown (base game) or grey (variant) side. Give each player 1. Remove rest from game. • 63 color cards, 9 in each of 7 colors: • With 2 players, remove 2 colors from game, select any 4 different color cards and give each player 2. • With 3 players, remove one color from game, select any 3 different color cards and give each player 1. • With 4/5 players, select 4/5 different color cards and give each player 1. • 3 jokers (multicolored) and 10 “+2” cards: Shuffle with color cards remaining from above. The color cards, jokers, and “+2” cards are called the play cards, to distinguish them from the row cards. Deal 15 play cards facedown in a stack. Put “last round card” facedown on top. Stack remaining play cards on top. Choose start player randomly.
Play Play rounds until the end of the round in which the “last round” card is drawn: • Start of round: Lay out the row cards in a column. • During round: Rotate turns. On each turn, a player either draws and places a card or takes a row card. • Once a player has taken a row card, they take no further turns this round. • End of round: When each player has taken a row, the round ends. Each player returns their row card to the table. • With 2 players, the play cards in the untaken row are removed from the game. The next round starts with the player who took the last row. Draw and Place a Card Draw and reveal the top card from the deck. If it is the “last round” card, put it aside and draw again. Put the drawn card face-up in any row that is not full (has fewer play cards than shown on its row card). • (The brown row cards each show 3 cards. The green row cards show 1, 2, and 3.) Take a Card Row Take all the cards in any row, including the row card. (Taking the row card marks the player as done for this round.) Sort all your cards by color and type so all players can see what each player has taken.
Game End Each player assigns their jokers to colors as desired. Each player scores positive points in 3 colors of their choice and negative points in other colors they have. Each “+2” card scores 2 points. The player with the most points wins. (There is no tiebreaker.)
