Traffic

Description

Play cards from your hand by following or changing the direction of the 'traffic flow'.

Win by getting rid of all the cards in your hand.

Setup

This game can be played with one or two standard French-suited card decks (52 cards, no Jokers).

Setup for 1 deck (up to 4 players)

Extract all 13 cards of one suit (for instance, Clubs) from the deck.

• Separate the three face cards. These comprise the flex cards.
• Shuffle the numeric cards (A-10). This will be the directions deck.

The remaining deck of 3 suits is the draw deck.

Setup for 2 decks (up to 6 players)

Each deck should have a different and distinct back design, to avoid mixing them.

Deck 1: Extract and shuffle the black A,3,5,7,9 and red 2,4,6,8,10 cards into one stack, which will be the directions deck.

Also extract a King, a Queen, and a Jack; these comprise the flex cards.

The remaining cards from this deck are not used.

Deck 2: If there are 3 or fewer players, remove all cards of one suit (for instance, all the Clubs). Otherwise, leave the deck intact. This is the draw deck

Start

Shuffle the draw deck, and deal each player 5 cards from it.

Put the directions deck and draw deck in the middle of the play area. Turn over the top card of both, starting new face-up piles next to each.

Place the three flex cards face-down in a row, in any order.

The face-up pile beside the draw deck is the flow.

Rules of Play

Aces rank simultaneously lower than 2 and higher than King.

Playing

Players take turns playing the appropriate number of cards (default 1) from their hand into the flow according to the current rules as defined by the flex and direction cards.

On your turn:

At any point before you start playing into the flow, if you have not yet turned over a new direction card, you may do so.

1. First, if you have 7 cards in your hand, and cannot play any of them into the flow, you may turn over a new flow card from the draw deck directly into the flow.
2. Next, if you cannot play into the flow from your hand, and you have fewer than 7 cards, draw a card.
3. Finally, if you can play into the flow from your hand, do so.

When you exhaust the draw deck (by drawing or turning over the last card), you may reveal a randomly chosen flex card, at which point that card's new rule immediately goes into effect for all players.

Direction Cards

The direction card's rank indicates in which direction to play cards into the flow:

• If it's an even rank, play cards in ascending (↑) order, starting with 1 rank greater than the flow card.
• If it's an odd rank, play cards in descending (↓) order, starting with 1 rank lesser than the flow card.

(If you need a memory aid, remember that 1 is odd and 10 is even.)

Flex Cards

At game start, by default, players may play 1 rule-matching card from their hand per turn.

The flex cards loosen these requirements for all players, as follows:

• Jack: Sets — You can play multiple cards of a rank that follows the rules.
• Example: play [4,4] or [4,4,4] on a [5] ↓.
• Queen: Sequences — You can play a sequence of any length that follows the rules.
• Example 1: play [3,4] or [3,4,5,6] on a [2] ↑.
• Example 2: play [A,K] or [A,K,Q] on a [2] ↓.
• King: Sameness — You can play into the flow starting from the same rank as the flow card; that is, append 'or equal to' to 'greater than' and 'less than' in the direction card descriptions.
• Example: play [10] on a [10], [A] on an [A], etc.
• Combinations are unlocked as the game progresses.
• Example [K + J]: play [5,5] on a [5].
• Example [K + Q]: play [2,A,K,Q] on a [2] ↓.
• Example [J + Q]: play [4,5,5,6] on a [3] ↑.
• Example [K Q J]: play [4,5,5,6] on a [4] ↑.

Restocking

A deck that has been exhausted shall be restocked (its face-up pile shuffled and turned face-down) when a player needs to draw or turn over a new card from it. In the case of restocking the draw deck, take care to leave the flow card in the play area for continuity and player reference.

Winning

The first player to end their turn with no cards in their hand wins.

Variations

• Add a fourth flex card — Joker: Skip — You can skip up to 1 rank when playing into the flow and within sequences, in the given direction.
• Example 1: play [5] or (with sequences) [5,7,8,10,J] on a [3] ↑.
• Example 2: play [K] or (with sequences) [A,Q,10,9,8] on a [2] ↓.
• Rather than choosing randomly, allow players to peek at the flex cards before choosing one.
• Randomly select one flex card to reveal at the start of the game.
• Impose a penalty whereby a player who mis-plays must sit out their next turn.
• Remove the 7-card limit in the basic turn structure.

Revision History

• 2020-06-03: Derived from game 'Club Rules'; expanded to 2 decks and up to 6 players.
• 2020-06-06: Reversed the even/odd directions to match how I'd been playtesting it (oops).
• 2020-06-07: Expanded the Variations section.
• 2020-10-03: Merged 'Club Rules' into 'Traffic' completely.

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