This game requires a special deck because it is a special game. It has five suits. The new additional suit is called Stars. Each game comes with two decks. Each deck has 58 cards. Within each suit, which the manufacturer sometimes calls "families" there are 11 instead of the 13 cards contained in the standard suit. The ace and the deuce are left out. This means that each suit will have 3 - King. There are also 3 jokers per deck, six in all.
The object of this game is to have the fewest number of points after playing 11 hands. Each hand has a progressive increase in the number of cards dealt out. The first hand has three cards. The second has four cards, and so on up to 13 cards for each player on the eleventh hand. Upon each deal the number of cards dealt also indicates the wild card. For example, on the first hand, the three is considered wild because three cards were dealt to each player. This card is wild, in addition to the cards already designated as wild.
When the appropriate number of cards are dealt out, the dealer puts the remaining cards in the middle of the table and flips over another card. Play then proceeds to the left of the dealer. The player can either draw a card from the pile or the top card from the discard pile. He must discard at the end of his turn. Each player attempts to create a hand that is completely comprised of "runs" or "books" with one card left over to discard.
A run is basically three or more cards of the same suit all in a row. A book is three or more cards in a row all with the same number or letter designation (i.e. J,J,J). Within these runs and books any number of cards can be wild cards, and the wild cards can take the place of any card. For example, a book could be made up of Jack,Wild,Wild. When a player succeeds in creating such a hand, he lays it out on the table. Every player then has one turn to make the best hand he or she can, then laying down all books and runs. Whatever cards remain in the hands of the players are counted as points and written on a piece of paper and tallied as the game progresses. Points are scored according to the face value of the cards, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13. Wild cards are equal to twenty points (including the numbered wild card designated for that turn).
When all 11 hands are played the player with the lowest score is the victor.
Five Crowns