Team Klondike

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and colours
3. The parts of the layout
4. Setup
5. Your turn
6. End of your turn
7. No talking – and the signal coin
8. Winning and losing
9. Difficulty levels
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Team Klondike is a cooperative patience for two or three players: you form one team and win or lose together. You share one ordinary Klondike layout, but the cards that would normally form the stock are split between you – each player holds a few of them as a secret hand. Together you must sort the whole deck onto four foundations, one per suit, from Ace up to King. The catch: you may not talk about your cards or your plans, only give a small signal with a coin. And every turn in which you can't use a card from your hand costs the team time.

• Players: 2–3; best with 2.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, one coin per player and 5–14 time tokens (matches, buttons or other coins; the number depends on the level).

Team Klondike is a new game written for this site and not yet playtested. It is our own cooperative version of the classic patience Klondike. The number of time tokens is the first thing to tune: if your games are won or lost too easily, change it before anything else (see "Difficulty levels").

Card order and colours

As in Klondike, the Ace is low: A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K. ♥ and ♦ are red, ♠ and ♣ are black.

The parts of the layout

• Tableau: the seven columns in the middle, where cards are rearranged. The bottom card of a column is the one nearest to you, not covered by any other card.
• Foundations: four spaces above the tableau, one per suit, built from Ace to King. They are shared.
• Your stock: a face-down pile in front of you, from which you refill your hand.
• Your hand: up to three cards that only you see.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal the usual Klondike tableau: seven columns of 1 to 7 cards, 28 cards in all, with only the bottom card of each column face up. (Deal one card face up to column 1 and one face down to each of columns 2–7; then one face up to column 2 and one face down to each of columns 3–7; and so on.)
2. Deal the remaining 24 cards one at a time to the players as their own face-down stocks: 12 each with two players, 8 each with three.
3. Everybody draws the top 3 cards of their own stock as their hand. Don't show them to anyone.
4. Put the time tokens in the middle: 8 with two players, 10 with three (see "Difficulty levels").
5. Each player may now place their coin (see "The signal coin"). Then the youngest player begins; play goes clockwise.

Your turn

On your turn you may make up to three moves. Each of these counts as one move:

• Playing a card from your hand onto the tableau: onto the bottom card of a column if it is one rank lower and of the other colour (a red 6 onto a black 7), or a King into an empty column.
• Moving within the tableau: moving a bottom card, or a correctly built group of face-up cards, onto another column, if the highest card of the group fits on that column's bottom card – exactly as in Klondike. Only a King, with or without cards built on it, may go into an empty column.
• Taking a card back from a foundation onto the tableau, if it fits there.

These actions are free and don't count as moves – do them as often as you like:

• Playing a card to a foundation, from your hand or from the tableau: an Ace starts a foundation, then the 2 of the same suit, and so on up to the King.
• Turning up a face-down tableau card as soon as nothing covers it any more.

You may also make fewer moves, or none at all.

End of your turn

1. Time check: if you had cards in your hand and did not play any of them this turn (to the tableau or a foundation), the team loses one time token – put it back in the box. Then put one card from your hand face down under your stock (if your stock is empty, keep it). If a token has to be paid and none is left, the team has lost.
2. Refill: draw from your own stock until you hold three cards again (or as many as are left).
3. Signal: you may place or move your coin.

Then the next player clockwise takes a turn.

No talking – and the signal coin

During the game you may not give any information about your hand or about the moves you are planning: no "don't touch that 8", no pointing, no sighing. You may talk about the rules, whose turn it is and how many time tokens are left.

The only way to tell the team something is your coin. At the end of your turn you may put it on:

• the bottom card of a column, or an empty column.

It always means: "I hold a card that could be played here." For a tableau card that is a card one rank lower of the other colour; for an empty column a King. Foundations need no signal: playing to them is free, so whoever holds the next card simply plays it. The statement must be true when you place the coin. It tells the others not to cover that card – and what you might have.

If the card under your coin is covered or moved, or you play the card you meant, take your coin back.

Winning and losing

• You win together when all 52 cards lie on the foundations. As soon as all hands and stocks are used up and every tableau card is face up, the rest always works out – you have won.
• You lose when the team has to pay a time token and none is left.

Example: Two players, the start shown above. Ben has put his coin on the Q♥: he holds a black Jack. Anna holds 6♦, J♣ and 3♠. Move 1: she plays the 6♦ onto the 7♣. Move 2: she moves the 5♠ onto the 6♦. The card under it is turned up for free – the A♥ – and goes to a foundation for free as well. Anna's J♣ would fit on the Q♥, but Ben has asked for that place, so she leaves it and makes no third move. She played a card from her hand, so no time token is lost. She draws one card, the 4♥, and puts her coin on the 5♠: "I hold a card for this." On his turn Ben plays his J♠ onto the Q♥, then his 10♦ onto the J♠ – and leaves the 5♠ free for Anna.

Difficulty levels

Tips for beginners

• Watch what the others don't play. If a player pays a time token although a certain column was open, they probably don't hold a card for it.
• Keep marked cards free. Covering a card with someone's coin on it can cost the team a lot of time.
• Use your moves for others, too. Freeing a face-down card or opening a column is often worth more than your own play.
• Place your coin where it matters most – usually for the card that would free a long column.
• Play Aces and 2s to the foundations at once; they cost no moves.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Open hands: play with your hands face up, but still without talking – good for learning.
• Four moves: allow four moves per turn instead of three.