| Designed by | Brian Benoit |
| Players | 2-5 |
| Length | 10-45 min |
| Extra Material | With 3-5 players, a double decktet |
Summary of the game: Each player has their own tableau of cards, and is trying to gain the lowest score by swapping out cards in their tableau and shedding cards from the edges of their tableau. When one player's entire tableau is face up, the round ends.
Setup
Shuffle the deck, including courts and pawns, but excluding The Excuse. Deal 12 cards to each player. Without looking at their cards, each player arranges their cards face down on the table into a four column personal layout: a column of (empty space) 2 cards (empty space), a column of 4 cards, a column of 4 cards, a column of (empty space) 2 cards (empty space).
The final layout should resemble a + sign.
Each player will then turn two of the cards in their layout face up. These two cards must be from the outer six cards in the layout; they cannot be any of the four middle cards. Place the remaining cards to the side as a draw pile. Turn the top card of the draw pile face up to begin the discard pile.
Card Values
Courts are worth -2 points
Pawns are worth -1 point
Aces are worth 1 point
2-9 are worth their rank value in points
Crowns are worth 10 points
The Excuse is worth 15 points (if used; see below)
Game play
The player with the highest score showing in the face up cards of their layout goes first. Play then proceeds to the left.
On a player’s turn, they must first draw a card either the top of the discard pile or from the top of the face down draw deck.
- If a player draws from the top of the discard pile, they must replace a card in their layout with the drawn card. The card from their layout may either be face up or face down, but the new card is laid face up regardless. The replaced card is then placed face up in the discard pile.
- If a player draws from the face down draw deck, they may choose to keep the drawn card, and use it to replace one of the cards in their layout as above, or they may immediately discard the drawn card to the discard pile. If the card is immediately discarded, the player must then flip any one of the face down cards in their layout to face up.
Once this step is completed, the acting player evaluates their layout to determine if any of the rows or columns of four cards have the same suit on each card in the row or column. If a row or column of four shares a common suit, the player must discard the row or column’s two outer cards to the discard pile in any order they wish. (e.g., in a column of four, the top and bottom cards would be discarded. In a row of four the leftmost and rightmost cards would be discarded.) The middle four cards of a player’s layout – the “core” – are cards that will never be discarded. (This evaluation step is also completed during the end of the round when all players turn all their cards face up.)
If the draw deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile into a new draw deck, and turn over the topmost card to start a new discard pile for the next player.
End of Round
When a player turns the last face down card in their layout face up, every other player gets one last turn. Then, all players turn all of their remaining facedown cards face up. Each player then evaluates their layouts for rows or columns of suits (as during play), discards cards as appropriate, and then adds up the final value of their remaining tableau. If you are playing more than one round, score is kept for each player on a sheet of paper.
End of Game
The game ends when one player has reached 50 points. The player with the lowest score wins.
Alternately, for a shorter game, the players can agree on playing a set number of rounds - even as few as one round. At the end of the set number of rounds, the player with the lowest score wins.
Variants - Using The Excuse
The Excuse is worth 15 points in your layout. Whenever The Excuse is discarded, it is placed at the bottom of the discard pile. In addition, when The Excuse is discarded, all players must swap the position of any two cards in their layout. These cards keep whatever their orientation is before the swap - either face up or face down. After the swap, players will evaluate their layout to discard outer cards during their own turn.
If The Excuse is turned up as the initial card in the discard pile, all players swap two cards after the initial two card flip. Then, a second card is discarded off the draw deck into the discard pile, to cover The Excuse.
Credits
This game based on the traditional card game Golf and the game Skyjo