Thirty

Description

This is a fast-paced adding game, in the style of "98"/"99".

Avoid taking the running total below 0 or above 30.

Setup

Use a standard French-suited card deck (52 cards plus two Jokers).

Remove the Kings and Queens from the deck.

Start

Deal 3 cards to each player. The remainder is the draw stock.

Rules of Play

Players take turns adding cards to a face-up pile and keeping a running total value based on cards played.

The total starts at 0, and must stay within the range of 0 and 30.

Cards

Aces may be either +1 or +11, at the player's discretion.

Jacks are "Wild", worth any value between -10 and +10 that the player declares.

Jokers are "Reverse", worth 0. Reverse the turn order. The player may also declare a color.

Player's Turn

A player's turn consists of three steps:

• Play 1 card to the table in a single face-up pile.
• Say the new updated total — or, if it's a Reverse card, say "Reverse", optionally followed by "Red" or "Black" to change the color.
• Draw 1 card from the stock.

Updating the Total

When a Wild card is played, the player may increase or decrease the total by as much as 10, irrespective of the color it's played on, so long as the total stays within range.

When a Reverse card is played, the total does not change.

When any other card is played:

• If the card played is of the same color as the previous card, add the played card's value to the total.
• If the card played is of the color opposite of the previous card,
  • If subtracting the card's value from the total would bring the total down to a multiple of 5, do that.
  • Otherwise, ignore the card's value and subtract 1 from the total.

Restocking

If a player draws the final card from the draw stock, that player shall create a new draw stock by turning over and shuffling all but the top card of the face-up pile.

Ending the Game

At the start of a player's turn, if they are unable to play a card without going out of range (on either end), the game ends, and the player loses.

Tournament Play

As part of the game setup, distribute 5 tokens to each player.

Each losing player gives up one token.

A player who has no tokens is out of the game.

Play until only 1 player with tokens remains; this player is the tournament winner.

Variant Ideas

• Remove two Jacks (one of each color), making them more rare.
• Add two Queens (one of each color). A Queen doubles the total if it's the same color as the card it's played on, or halves the total (round as desired) if it's the opposite color.
• Single Stock: If the draw deck runs out, the game ends, and all players lose.

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