Board Game: Five Crowns

Had a board game night last night, which means I've got some bloggin' to do.

The Game: Five Crowns
The Publisher: Set Enterprises (presumably not affiliated with the Egyptian serpent god)
Players: Me, Amanda, Michelle, Jenn
Time: I think this game took us about 30 minutes, but it varies pretty widely depending on the hands you get

I should have closed the box before taking this picture, that's bugging me now

Game Play: So, it's basically rummy with an extra suit. If you don't know what that means, the game consists of two decks, five suits (the standards plus stars), six jokers, and the decks go three through king. First hand, everyone gets 3 cards, second everyone gets 4, and so on up until everyone gets 13, which is the last hand. During the first hand, 3s are wild, second hand 4s are wild, and so on up (so during the final hand, kings are wild and everyone gets 13 cards, with me so far?).

Michelle and Jenn ponder cards and dinner

On your turn, you can take a card from the deck or take the top card of the discard, and then discard a card. The object is to make "runs" (sequences of cards in the same suit) or "books" (multiples of the same card, regardless of suit); each requires a minimum of 3 cards. When you can go out (which requires everything in your hand to be part of a run or a book, plus one more card to discard), you...do that, and then everyone gets one more turn to try and make as many runs or books as they can.

Here, 8s are wild, so I've got a run of stars and a book of 4s.

Any cards that you can't lay down in a given hand get totaled up (card value; jacks are 11 and so on up) and added to your score; object is to get the lowest score.

Opinions: Like I said, it's rummy with a little extra. I used to play games like this all the time when I was married to Heather (her family are avid card players), and I still find them fun. Once you get the hang of the game you can chat while playing, which is really what makes it; otherwise everyone's very quiet and it's a little eerie.

Keep? Sure.