Palace instructions.

TL;DR:

Go out by getting rid of all your cards in-hand and then on the table. Play higher than previous or pickup the entire stack. a 2 goes on anything, a 10 burns, a 9 means you have to go lower.

Description:

2-4 players, played with a standard deck of 52 cards. The idea of the game is to get rid of all your cards before the last player. The last player becomes the loser, everyone else wins! This is a very quick, fun game with an element of luck and skill.

World-wide there are many variants, this game on BGA is just one of those, specifically:

Setup:

For a 4-Player game, each player is dealt 3 cards face-down and then 3 cards face-up placed ontop.

The cards face-down remain secret from all players, do not look at them until the final stage of the game.

Each player is then dealt 3 more cards for their playing hand. The remaining cards make the draw deck.

Number of players.

In a 4 player game, players have 3 cards. (3 facedown and 3 faceup, and 3 cards in hand, and draws from the deck when lower than 3).

In a 3 player game, players have 4 cards instead of 3 as described above. (4 facedown and 4 faceup, and 4 cards in hand, and draws from the deck when lower than 4).

In a 2 player game, players have 6 cards instead of 3 as described above. (6 facedown and 6 faceup, and 6 cards in hand, and draws from the deck when lower than 6).

There is also a 'short game' option for a fixed 3-cards per player, there will be a random 16 card deck, the remain cards will not be used.

Exchange of cards:

Players may now exchange cards from their hand with the face-up cards on the table as they see fit. When everyone is finished play proceeds.

Playing cards:

The game randomly picks a player with the lowest card in their hand. (3 and above, not a 2) and must start with that card.

Cards are played into a stack, the next player must play a card at-least as high as the last card played.

If a player cannot (or does not want to) play a card they must pick up the complete played stack so far (all the cards previously played), play immediately proceeds to the next player.

While there are cards in the draw deck, players refill their hand up to 3 cards.

Once the draw deck is empty and then the players hand is empty, a player then moves onto playing face-up cards from the table.

Once the face-up cards have all been played, a player must play a single face-down card.

Only at the point of playing a face-down card will you know if it is a legal play or not. If it is an illegal play then take this card and pick up the stack into your hand.

If at any point a player has to pick up cards, they forfeit playing any cards for their turn, but in future turns must play all these cards in their hand before resuming playing the table cards.

Once a player has played all their table cards and all the cards from their hand they are out! Play continues with the remaining players.

The last player remaining losses! The rest of the players can take solitude in the fact they are far superior and start to mock the loser with raucous laughter, friendly insults, finger pointing and a far too generous pat on the back.

A single play is not limited to just a single card, if a player has multiple exact rank value cards they may play any or all of those cards. This can be done from your hand or the face-up table cards, but not both at the same time. For example 2 Jacks, or 4 Kings.

Rank order (Ace high):

2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,Jack,Queen,King,Ace.

Special cards and plays.

A few of the cards listed below have special rules associated with them:

2: maybe played on ANY rank card.

9: the immediate next player must play a lower rank card or another 9, or pick up the stack.

10: burn the stack of cards and remove them from the game, the player is also granted an additional turn.

4 cards of the same value. No matter who plays the cards, the player to play the 4th card will burn the stack and is granted an additional turn.

Example of Play: (The deck is already empty, the last card played to the stack was a 2)

   PlayerA plays 2 3's.
   PlayerB doesn't have any cards in hand and plays from the table, 1 of the face-up 8's.
   PlayerC plays 3 more 8's and burns all the cards in the stack and is granted an additional turn.
   PlayerC plays 4 6's and burns all the cards in the stack and is granted yet another additional turn. PlayerC has no more cards remaining in her hand.
   PlayerC plays 3 face-up 10's, again this burns the stack.
   PlayerC plays a face-down card, a Queen.
   PlayerD cannot play (only has a 9 and 10 in hand) and picks up the stack. (luckily it's just a Queen)
   PlayerA luckily again has an empty stack and plays 2 4's.