For 2-4 players
Kid/Family Friendly
Single Deck
Full story of how I developed Crazy Aces: [Insert link here].
In Crazy Aces, your objective is to attempt to play every card from your hand. Alternatively, you're trying to avoiding drawing up to a limit of cards in your hand which is the total number of cards in a single suit minus 1. For reference, the limits are as follows:
- Regular Deck: 12 card maximum hand size.
- Regular Deck (with 4 Jokers): 13 card maximum hand size.
- ZSA Deck (15 cards/suit): 14 card maximum hand size.
If you've drawn up to the maximum limit and still cannot play, you lose the game. This is called Busting.
To start, shuffle your deck and deal out initial hands to each player from the shuffled deck:
- 2 Players: 8 cards/player
- 3 Players: 7 cards/player
- 4 Players: 6 cards/player
Then place the remaining cards face down in the middle of your playing surface. This is the Draw Pile.
Next, take the top card from the Draw Pile and put it face-up next to the Draw Pile. This face-up pile is the Playing Pile. (If the card you flipped up is an Ace, put it back into the deck someehere in the middle face-down and flip a new top card to start the Playing Pile with)
Crazy Aces is a turn-based game. The first player to go is the last player to win or can be determined in some other fashion according to your own house rule.
To take your turn, you need to play at least one card on the Playing Pile. The rules that govern what you can and cannot play are as follows:
- You may play a card that is the same suit as the top card in the Playing Pile. For instance, you can play an Eight of Hearts if the top card in the Playing Pile is a King of Hearts (or any other Hearts card). The only exception is if the previous player played an Ace card and called a different suit (see rule #4 below).
- You may play a card that is the same number/royal as the top card in the Playing Pile. For instance, you may play a Six of Diamonds on a Six of Clubs or a Jack of Clubs on a Jack of Hearts.
- You may play two cards with adjacent numbers (of the same suit) if the top card in the Playing Pile is a number card that is 1 rank below the bottom of your two adjacent cards or 1 rank above the top of your cards. For instance, if the top card in the Playing Pile is a Nine (of any suit), you may play an Eight of Clubs followed by a Seven of Clubs, or you may play a Ten of Hearts followed by a Jack of Hearts. The two cards you play must have the same suit, but they do not need to match the suit of the card on the top of the Playing Pile.
- You may play an Ace on any card in the deck. When you do so, you then select a suit that the following players must play. For instance, if you played an Ace of Clubs and called Hearts, the next player must play a Hearts card (or another Ace to change the suit again). The Ace you play does not need to match the suit of the top card in the Playing Pile. When the next player plays, they may play any card of the suit you called.
If you do not have a card in your hand that you can legally play, or you do not want to play any of the legal cards in your hand, you must instead draw cards from the Draw Pile until you can/will play a card legally. You continue to draw until you play a card. Remember that if you draw up the hand limit laid out earlier and still cannot play a card, you lose the game.
In addition to drawing when you cannot play, there are three other scenarios that force players to draw cards:
- If there are two cards of the same number on top of the Playing Pile and you play another card with the same number on top of them, then the player who played the card before you must draw an extra card immediately. For instance, if there are two Fives, of any suit, on top of the Playing Pile and you were to play another Five on top of them, then the player before you who played the last Five instantly draws an additional card.
- Extending from the last rule, if there are three cards of the same number already played at the top of the Playing Pile, and you play a fourth card with the same number, the same rule applies, but the former player who played the third card with the same number must instantly draw two cards.
- Optionally, you may designate a number as a "Draw 2" card, which, when played, forces the next player to draw two cards immediately. These Draw 2 cards must still be played according to the normal playing rules of regular cards (same suit or Draw 2 type as the top card in the Playing Pile). Typically, you would use the Jokers if playing with a regular deck that has four Jokers (make sure to designate each Joker as a suit), or you could use the Zeros in the ZSA Deck. You can also use the Twos or Kings in a regular deck without Jokers, though its recommended to skip this rule if you cannot play with Jokers.
Finally, when someone draws the final card in the Draw Pile, take the top card of the Playing Pile and set it aside as the new Playing Pile, and then shuffle up the rest of the old Playing Pile and place that face down as the new Draw Pile. Continue drawing from this new pile.
As mentioned in the Objectives section, a winner is declared when a player runs out of cards in their hand. If you're playing with two players, then if a player reaches the maximum hand limit and Busts, the other player automatically wins. If you're playing with more than two players and a player Busts, that player discards their hand into the bottom of the Playing Pile and is out of the game. In games with more than two players, a winner is only declared once one player runs out of cards in their hand or once all other players have Busted out of the game.
If you try out Crazy Aces, feedback is always appreciated! You can leave a comment on this Gist (if you have a GitHub), or contact me via email at "me (at) millansingh.com" with a subject line "Crazy Aces". I respond to all comments!
Additionally, you can join my email newsletter for updates on future games in this card game design challenge: https://aherosjourney.co/