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Goal

Be the first to build three runs in three different suits in your kingdom, the cards you have placed in front of you. A run is 3 cards of one suit. The game ends the moment a player completes their third run.

Cards

Use a standard deck without Jokers. Which cards you use depends on the number of players.

• 2 players: the 5 to 10 and the Kings and Aces, 32 cards.
• 3 players: the 3 to 10 and the Queens, Kings, and Aces, 44 cards.
• 4 players: all 52 cards.

Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces are nobles. A noble is wild and stands for any number of its own suit, and you never have to say which.

Setup

Shuffle the number cards and the nobles separately.

1. Deal the money. Deal coins face down from the number cards. With 2 players they get 2 and 3, with 3 players 2, 3, and 3, and with 4 players 1, 2, 3, and 4. Nobody ever looks at a money card. Each one is simply a coin.
2. Deal the market. Deal 12 more number cards face up in two rows of 6 beside the deck. This is the market.
3. Make the deck. Shuffle the rest of the number cards with the nobles.

Play

1. Take 2 actions on your turn. Each action is one of these: buy a card from the market, play a card from your hand into your kingdom, or discard a card from your hand face up. You may take the same action twice. You may not pass.
2. Your hand limit is 1, plus 1 for each ♥ in your kingdom. You can’t buy a card while your hand is full. Coins don’t count toward the limit.
3. A card costs what its column says. The column next to the deck costs 5, the next 4, and so on down to 0 in the far column. To pay, put 1 coin under each card to the right of the one you buy, in the same row. If a position there is empty, put that coin under the card in the same column of the other row. If both are empty, the coin stays in that column until a card moves onto it. Then take the coins that were under the card you bought. You can’t buy a card you put a coin under earlier in the same turn.
4. Play a card into its suit. Each suit in your kingdom holds at most 3 cards. The first card of a suit can be any card. After that, a number card must be one up or one down from the cards of that suit you already have, and a noble counts as whatever number the run needs. So with the 4♦ and J♦ in your kingdom, you may add the 2♦, 3♦, 5♦, 6♦, or another ♦ noble. Placed cards stay for the rest of the game.
5. Then its suit power takes effect. See Card abilities. If the card completes your third run, you win at once and its suit power doesn’t take effect.
6. Refresh the market after your second action. In each row, slide the cards toward the far column to close the gaps, and each card keeps its coins. Coins with no card stay in their column. Then fill the empty positions from the deck. When the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new one. If both are empty, the market stays short.

Card abilities

Every card you play into your kingdom has the power of its suit. A number card and a noble work the same way.

• ♦ Diamonds pay income. Take up to 2 coins for each ♦ in your kingdom, counting the one just played, from any positions in the market. If the market holds fewer coins, take them all. There’s no bank, so income only ever comes out of the market.
• ♥ Hearts raise your hand limit by 1 each, so it’s 4 at most. Hearts do nothing else.
• ♠ Spades attack. Every other player, in turn order, gives you 1 coin or 1 card from their hand, their choice each time, for each ♠ in your kingdom, counting the one just played, minus 1 for each ♣ in their own kingdom. A player who can’t pay it all gives you everything they have. If the cards you receive put your hand over its limit, discard from those cards down to the limit.
• ♣ Clubs defend. Each ♣ in your kingdom takes 1 off what you give for every spade attack. Clubs do nothing else.

Variants

Solo. Deal the 2-player game against an automaton. You take the first turn and start with 2 coins, and the automaton starts with 3. The automaton has no hand, and it wins with three runs like anybody.

• Its head start. Before the first turn, deal it 0, 1, 2, or 3 cards from the deck straight into its kingdom, each in a different suit. More is harder. Their suit powers don’t take effect.
• Its instruction deck is the 20 cards the 2-player game puts away, the 2s, 3s, 4s, Jacks, and Queens, shuffled. When it runs out, shuffle the used instructions into a new one.
• Its turn. It turns over one instruction and buys one card, paying as anybody does. It places the card if it fits and discards it if not.
• What it buys. First, a card that completes its third run. Next, a card that would complete your third run. Otherwise it follows the instruction. A Queen asks for a card that fits its kingdom, and failing that one that fits yours. A Jack asks for a card that fits your kingdom, and failing that one that fits its own. A 2, 3, or 4 asks for a card of that suit that fits its kingdom, and failing that it asks the Queen’s question. If nothing fits either kingdom, it buys the card with the most coins under it.
• Ties. Among the cards that qualify it takes the cheapest, then one that fits its kingdom, then one that fits yours, then the one with the most coins under it, and then the top row.
• A ♥ buys again. When it places a ♥, it buys one more card on the Queen’s question. The second card can’t buy another.
• A card you give it is discarded. It keeps coins, but a card handed over for its spade attack goes on the discard pile.

How this version differs

• A player who can’t act passes. With an empty hand and nothing in the market you can afford, you pass the whole turn. The published rules say you may never pass.
• A game nobody can win is called. If nobody has won after 40 turns each, the game ends. The player with the most runs wins, with ties broken by the most cards in the kingdom and then the most coins, and a tie after that is a draw. The published rules have no draw.