This is an ongoing project to collect rules for interesting games that can be
explained in no more than 100 words, and which (mostly) require no more than
a deck of cards, six dice and a pen and paper. Any ambiguities can be rehydrated through common sense (eg. if a game uses
points but specifies no winner, the most points win).
Remove 2s through 8s. Shuffle and deal the 24 cards as a face-up line, overlapping so that values are visible. Dealer chooses whether to play or pass. Players then take turns to claim one, two or three consecutive cards from the "top" end of the line, placing claimed cards in front of them. When the line's gone, total your score for claimed sets (3-of-a-kind = 3, 4-of-a-kind = 8) and sequences within a suit (3 scores 3, 4=4, 5=6, 6=12), then multiply it by the number of cards your opponent drew. If a single player scores nothing, swap scores.
2 players
by David Parlett
Aces and Faces
Lay all ace and face cards face-up on the table. Each has four relevant characteristics: red or black; rounded (club/heart) or pointed suit top; male or female (aces are female); ruler (king/queen) or follower. Take turns to select a face-up card and hand it to your opponent, who places it into an imaginary shared grid (which may never exceed a 4x4 square). If a player completes a line of four cards which share a characteristic, and notice this, they win. A player also wins if they spot an unnoticed completion before playing the next card.
2 players
by Eugene Fitzgerald
Bartok
Deal five cards each, and one face-up to a discard pile. Take turns to either play an eligible card to the discards (one that shares a suit or value with the top card), or draw a card. Jokers can be played as any card. If a player breaks a rule, they take back their card and draw a penalty card. When a player has one card in hand, they must say "Bartok". With an empty hand, they win and openly invent an additional, unbiased rule for all future rounds, typically affecting eligible plays or adding effects for certain cards.
2+ players
Traditional
Bugami
Deal the deck out equally, set any leftovers aside face-down. On count of three players call out a chosen "bug" suit, or "misère": note these down somehow. Dealer starts; everyone plays a card, following suit if possible. Highest card of the starting suit wins the trick; winner takes the cards and leads the next trick. (Winner of the final trick also takes the leftovers.) Winning every trick scores 100; losing every trick scores 30, or 100 if misère; otherwise score 10 per won trick, divided by the number of bug cards you took, or doubled if you took none.
3-7 players
by David Parlett
Chinese Ten
Deal 24 cards between players, and four cards face-up to the table. On your turn, play one card to the table. If it captures a face-up card (if their values sum to 10, or if they are both the same value above 9), claim both cards face-down in front of you. Then, deal a new card face-up and claim a capture with it if possible. When the deck's empty, score claimed red cards only: 1-8 at face, 9+ at 10 and aces at 20. (With 3+ players, ace of spades is 30; with 4, ace of clubs is 40.)
2-4 players
Traditional
Dracula
Include jokers. Deal four cards each, and one face-up as the centre of a 3x3 grid. Take turns to add one card, orthogonally adjacent to an existing card. After eight plays, Player 1 scores the highest-scoring row, Player 2 scores the highest-scoring column: a line scores its total face value (Queens 10 horizontal but 0 vertical, Kings vice versa, Jacks always 0), x2 if it has two cards of one suit, x3 for three in one colour, x5 for three of one suit. A line with a joker ("vampire") scores zero. Play six rounds.
2 players
by David Parlett
German Whist
Deal 13 cards each and flip the top card of the deck face up to determine trumps. Dealer plays a card, opponent plays one following suit if possible. Highest trump wins the trick, otherwise the highest card of the starting suit wins. Winner draws the face-up deck card into their hand and leads the next trick, loser draws the next deck card into their hand, and the top card of the deck is turned face-up (this does not change the trump suit). When the deck runs out, continue but scoring won tricks instead of drawing cards. Most scored tricks wins.
2 players
Traditional
Gin Rummy
Deal ten cards each and one to a discard pile. Any held card not in a set (3+ of same rank) or run (3+ sequence of same suit) is "deadwood", scoring its rank (10 for face cards). On your turn: draw from the deck or discard pile, then discard a card. With less than 10 deadwood, you may then knock, revealing your sets and runs, which your opponent may add cards to: the player with lowest deadwood total (opponent winning ties) scores the difference between totals, +10 if they didn't knock, +20 for knocking with zero deadwood. Play to 100.
2 players
Traditional
Gops
Give one player the spade cards and the other clubs (if there's a third player, give them hearts). Shuffle the diamonds. Each round, deal one diamond card face-up to the table: each player secretly bids a card of their choice from their hand - the highest bid (if any) takes the diamond, and bid cards are discarded. In a tie, the diamond is discarded. Highest diamond total wins.
2-3 players
Traditional
James Bond
Deal six piles of four cards to each player (four piles for three players), and four cards face-up into a middle row. Play is simultaneous: players swap cards from their piles with cards from the middle row, but may only pick up one pile at a time, and swap one card at a time. If all of a player's piles contain four matching cards, they call "James Bond" and win.
2-3 players
Traditional
Liar!
Use the Jack, Queen and King from any three suits. Shuffle and deal four cards each, and one face-down to the table. Take turns to either: guess the face-down card (you win if you are right, you lose if wrong) or play a card from your hand face-up to the table and ask your opponent either how many cards they have of that suit, or how many of that rank. Players must answer truthfully, but may lie once per game. Suspected lies may be challenged; if correct, the challenger wins, if mistaken they lose.
2 players
by René Wiersma
Mini Mao
Deal five cards per player. One player thinks up a secret rule regarding legal plays (eg. "cannot play a club onto a heart"). Players take turns to play one card into a middle pile; if you break a secret rule, the player who invented the rule informs you that you have done this (without explaining the rule) and hands your card back, you draw one penalty card and your turn ends. First to empty their hand wins the round, and invents an additional secret rule for the next. With two players, both create a rule in the first round.
2+ players
Traditional
Obstacle Race
Discard 2s through 6s and deal out the remainder; put any leftovers
into a discard pile and announce their total. Take turns to play a card
to the discard pile and announce the new total of the pile. (Aces are
worth 11, Kings 4, Queens plus or minus 3, Jacks 2 and other cards at
face value.) The "obstacles" are 55, 66, 77, 88, 99 and 111: score 1
point for hitting an obstacle, lose 1 point for skipping over one in
either direction. If the total exceeds 120, reset it to zero. Continue
until all cards have been played.
2-6 players
by Jürgen Göring
Ohio
Each player has 1-10 and the Jack ("Ohio") of a single suit. The first player plays any card. Going clockwise, each player must either play a lower card, or retire from the round. Ohios are counted as 0.1 less than the previous played card. Repeat until all but one player has passed; that player wins the cards on the table and leads the next round, unless any player has no cards, in which case the game ends. Score total face value of won cards, minus face value of cards in hand; Ohios score -10 wherever they are.
2-5 players
by Reiner Knizia
Pit
Prepare a deck of the numbers 1 through 9 for as many suits as there are players. Shuffle and deal nine cards each, and allow players to sort their hands. Play is then simultaneous: any player may offer a trade of a specific number of cards ("Two! Two!"), and if an opponent accepts, both swap that number of cards, unseen. Cards handed over in a trade must all be of the same suit. If a player has nine cards of the same suit, they win. Optionally: add a king (a wildcard) and a joker (cannot win while held).
3-4 players
by Edgar Cayce (adapted)
Poker Menteur
Deal five cards to the starting player, who examines them privately and announces a poker hand, optionally naming specific cards (eg. "a pair" or "pair of nines and a six"). They may lie. The next player either challenges the call or takes the hand. If they challenge, reveal and discard the hand: the challenge loser takes a penalty point and starts a new round. If they take the hand, they may discard (face-down) and redraw up to four cards, then claim a higher poker hand for the next player to judge. Play to a pre-agreed penalty total.
2+ players
Traditional
Put
Aces are high; 2s and 3s are higher than aces. For each hand, deal 3 cards to each player. Over three rounds, players take turns to play one card; highest wins and starts the next round. Best of three rounds wins the hand, first to win 5 hands wins the game. Before playing a card, a player may call "I put": opponent must either throw in their cards (calling player wins the hand) or announce that they are "seeing", playing out the current hand with its winner winning the entire game (if drawn, continue play instead).
2 players
Traditional
Rummy
Deal ten cards each (seven for 3/4 players, six for 5/6) and one face-up to the discard pile. On your turn: draw a card from the top of the deck or discard pile; optionally play one "meld" (3+ cards of a rank, or a consecutive run of 3+ in a suit) onto the table; optionally add cards from your hand to expand any melds; discard one card (but not one you drew from the discards this turn). When your hand's empty you win and score the total face value of cards in opponents' hands (face cards are worth 10).
2-6 players
Traditional
Six Card Golf
Deal each player a 3x2 grid of face-down cards, one face-up as the discards. Players flip two of their cards face up and cannot examine the others. Take turns to: draw a card from deck or discards, then either place it face-up replacing one of your cards (discarding the replaced card), or discard it. Round ends when a player has six cards face-up. Score: king = 0, jack/queen = 10, 2 = -2, all other cards at face value. A pair of equal cards in a column are discarded without scoring. Lowest score after nine rounds wins.
2-4 players
Traditional
So Long Sucker
Players have open hands of seven cards of their own suit. On your turn: play one card as a new face-up stack, or onto an existing stack. If a stack has two consecutive same-suit cards, that suit's player discards any card from that stack, takes the rest, and takes the next turn; otherwise you choose someone with no cards in that stack (if it had all four, pick the lowest down) to play next. Players may discard or gift opponent-suit cards from their hand at any time. If you can't play you're eliminated, play returning to the previous player.
4 players
by Nash/Hausner/Shapley/Shubik
Speed
Deal five cards and a 10-card face-down deck to each player. Make two 11-card face-down "spit" stacks. Flip the top card of each face-up next to it. Playing simultaneously, players add hand cards to either face-up pile, where the played card's rank must be one higher or lower. If stuck, replenish your hand from your deck. If nobody can play, flip two cards from the spit stacks. (If a stack runs out, shuffle all but the top card of its pile to replace it.) First to play all their cards scores 1 for each card their opponent still has.
2 players
Traditional
Thirty One
Each round, deal three cards to each player, and three face-up onto the table. Taking turns, each player may either pass, knock or draw a card from the table and replace it with one from their hand. If all players pass, the table cards are discarded and three replacements laid out. If a player knocks, all other players get one more turn and the round ends: each player picks a suit and totals the value of cards in their hand with that suit (three of a kind are instead worth 30½). Lowest scorer loses one of four lives.
3-8 players
Traditional
Uptake
One player is hearts, the other clubs. Shuffle those suits together (minus the aces) and deal out into a 5x5 grid with a hole in the middle. Each turn, use one of your cards to remove an opponent's card with a higher value in the same row or column, your card replacing the removed one. When no further moves are possible, the highest card wins, scoring as many points as its face value. (If tied, player who made the last move wins.) Play to 30 points.
2 players
by Stephen Sniderman
Verish' Ne Verish'
For a 2/3 player game, remove 2s through 5s. Remove one random card from the deck. Deal the remainder out. Each turn, play one to three cards face-down and announce them (eg. "two sevens"). You may lie. The next player either accepts or challenges; if they accept, they take their turn, naming the same card rank; if they challenge, played cards are revealed, the loser draws the discard pile, may optionally discard a single four-of-a-kind, and play continues to the loser's left, naming any rank. Retire when your hand's empty; last player remaining loses.
Games with a gold border are personal favourites.
Those marked as "adapted" have been crowbarred a little to be playable with a standard deck of cards, or
to fit within a hundred words.
If you know of some good games I
should include, or have any feedback
about how well I've described the ones I've got,
let me know.
The Freeze-Dried Games Pack was started in November 2012 by Kevan Davis,
and last updated on the 14th of September 2022. The most
recently added
game is Speed.
