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English Translation
22 January 2012
23    Rules for the German card game
by Christoph Behre, 2-4 players, Ages: 8 and up, Length: 25 minutes

Components
66 Playing cards
(1 "1", 2 "2" and 3 each of "3" through "23")
12 large green bonus chips
50 small blue penalty chips

Game Idea and Goal
1 to 23 - the cards are placed in this ascending order. But this is trickier than you think, because here there are limits! If you make too large a jump, you have to take penalty chips. After two rounds the player having the fewest chips wins.

Setting Up the Game
Before the start of play thoroughly shuffle all of the cards. The number of cards included depends on the number of players:
2 players - 30 cards (remove 36)
3 players - 45 cards (remove 21)
4 players - 60 cards (remove 6)

Be sure to include the "1" card. It has a different back to make finding it easier. Removed cards are returned to the box. Of the cards in play, each player is dealt 15 to hold in hand.

In addition, at the beginning of the first round each player receives three large bonus chips, placed openly before each player. The small penalty chips are placed in the middle of the table so that all players can reach them.

Discard three cards
Each player selects three cards from hand and discards them face down back in the box. They are no longer needed for this round.
Note: The card with the "1" may not be discarded.
To learn the game you
can also just start each
player with 12 cards
and not discard any!

The player having the "1" begins play by placing it in the middle of the table. Then play proceeds in clockwise order.

(See illustration in German rules):
Oliver plays the "1" to the middle of the table. The player to his left, Leon, takes the next turn.

Course of a Round
On a turn, each player must choose one of the following actions:
a) Play one or more cards
b) Pass
c) Fold

Then it becomes the turn of the next player in clockwise order.

a) Play one or more cards
One or more cards having the same rank may be played to the pile. The rank must be equal to or higher than the rank last played to the pile.
Example: The top card on the pile shows "5". The next player may play cards ranked "5" or higher. He may play several cards, but all must share the same rank.

Penalty Chips
When cards more than 1 higher than those last played to the pile are played, their player takes one penalty chip for each number skipped. The number of chips taken are not affected by the number of cards played.
Example: The top card on the pile shows "5". Leon wants to play his two "8" cards. Thus he skips "6" and "7" and earns a penalty of 2 chips which he places in front of himself.

Bonus Chips
Three times over the two rounds in the game, a player may use a bonus chip. By turning in one of these chips the player may alter by up to 5 up or down the current rank. This occurs just before playing cards. It is also possible to use several bonus chips at once. Used bonus chips are removed from the game.
Example: The top card on the pile shows "14". Laura wants to play her two "10" cards. She expends a bonus chip and is allowed to add the two "14" cards to the pile.
Example: The top card on the pile shows "10". Jeanette wants to player her "17" card. She expends a bonus chip to increase the rank to "15". Now she plays her "17", but only collects one penalty-chip because only the rank "16" has been skipped.

All cards played
If a player manages to play his last card, he returns up to three penalty chips to the supply.

b) Pass
If the player does not wish to play any card, he may pass. But he takes a penalty chip for doing so.

Pass and force the next player to play
The player can instead choose to take two penalty chips. He not only passes, but also forces the next player to play one or more cards. In this case the next player may not pass, but must play at least one card.
Example: The top card on the pile shows "17". Oliver has passed and taken two penalties chips. Now Leon must play at least one card. He plays two "20" cards and takes two penalty chips.

c) Fold
The player can choose to exit the round. He keeps his hand cards hidden, places them face down back in the box and takes the same number penalty chips. Those who have played all of their cards or dropped out, are skipped for the rest of the round.

End of the first round
The first round ends when all players have been able to play their cards or have folded. Players retain their penalty chips and do not receive any more bonus chips.
For the second round, all cards, even those in the box, are again shuffled and the deal made as
previously described.

End of the Game
The game ends after the second round. For every bonus chip a player has, he turns in two penalty chips. Afterwards, the players count their penalty chips. The player having the least wins.


© AMIGO Spiel + Freizeit
version 1.0
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www.amigo-spiele.de
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Translation created: 20 January 2012

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