Unsorted

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Combinations
5. Playing a round
6. Special cards
7. End of a deal
8. End of the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Unsorted is a climbing game with one strict rule: you may never sort your hand. You hold your cards in the order they were dealt, and you can only play cards that sit next to each other in your hand – one card, two or three. In each round every player gets one turn to beat the best play so far; whoever can't or won't must take one of their two spare cards into their hand instead. The aim is to get rid of your hand quickly. The last player still holding cards loses a chip (a life) – and whoever has to give up a chip when they have none left loses the game. Everybody else wins.

• Players: 3–5; best with 4.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck with 2 jokers, and 15 chips (counters, coins or matches) – or paper and pencil.

Unsorted is our own adaptation for ordinary cards, inspired by Krass Kariert (Katja Stremmel, Amigo, 2018). It has not been playtested in this form yet. A variant after SCOUT (Kei Kajino, 2019) is at the end.

The cards

All 54 cards are used:

Suits don't matter, apart from telling the Kings apart.

Setup

1. Choose a dealer; the same player deals every deal. Everybody takes 3 chips (with 5 players: 2 chips; 3 each for a longer game). The rest goes back in the box.
2. The dealer shuffles and deals 10 cards to each player (with 5 players: 7 cards), one at a time, face down. Don't touch your cards until the deal is over. Then pick them all up at once as a pile and fan them out without changing their order. You may never sort your hand – not now and not later.
3. The dealer then lays 2 spare cards face up in front of each player.
4. The rest is the face-down draw pile. Leave room for a discard pile.

Combinations

A combination is one, two or three cards that sit side by side in your hand. From weakest to strongest:

• The order within the combination doesn't matter: 10-8-9 side by side in your hand is a three-run.
• Numbers don't go round the corner: Q-A (12-1) is not a run.
• A joker can join the cards next to it as any number: 6-joker is a pair of 6s or a run 5-6 or 6-7.

Beating: a combination beats another if it is of a higher kind (any pair beats any two-run) or of the same kind with a higher number (a pair of 9s beats a pair of 8s; for runs the highest card decides). Equal is not enough.

Example: In Dan's hand above, 3♠ 4♥ is a two-run, 4♥ 4♣ is a pair, and 4♣ with the joker could be a pair of 4s or a two-run. 3♠ 4♥ 4♣ is not a combination. 7♣ and 2♠ can only ever be played as singles – unless the cards between them go first.

Playing a round

A deal is played in several rounds. The player to the dealer's left leads the first round.

1. The leader plays any combination face up in the middle.
2. Then every other player, once, clockwise, either - plays a combination that beats the highest one so far, or - takes one of their spare cards into their hand and puts it anywhere they like. You may take a spare card even if you could beat.
3. When everyone has had their turn, the round is over. The player with the highest combination wins the round and leads the next one. All played cards go on the discard pile.

Winning rounds doesn't score anything – only getting rid of your cards counts.

Who leads when the winner has no cards left: the player with the second-highest combination leads. If the winner was the only one to play a combination this round, the player to the winner's right leads.

Example: Anna leads a single 8. Ben beats it with a single Q. Carla plays a two-run 4-5 – any two-run beats a single. Dan could beat it with his pair of 4s, but he would rather keep them. He takes his spare 8♠ and puts it between the joker and the 9♦: joker-8-9 is now a three-run. Carla has the highest combination: she wins the round and leads the next one.

Special cards

• Joker: any number from 1 to 12; say which when you play it. It can be played alone or with the cards next to it.
• Stop card (K♠ K♣): only on its own. It ends the round at once, even if not everybody has had a turn, and you win the round.
• Draw card (K♥ K♦): only on its own. You may always play it – it doesn't have to beat anything. The next player must beat the combination played before the Draw card. Both Draw cards may be played in the same round.
• The winner of a round in which a Draw card was played draws 3 cards from the draw pile (6 if both were played), one at a time, putting each anywhere in their hand. They must draw even if they have just played their last cards – they are then back in the deal.
• If a round is led with a Draw card, the next player may play any combination (or take a spare card). If every other player takes a spare card or plays the second Draw card, the leader wins the round.
• If the draw pile runs out, the winner draws what is left; the discard pile is not reshuffled. (The model game doesn't say; this is our rule.)

End of a deal

• A player who has no cards in hand at the end of a round is out of this deal – their spare cards don't matter. They take no more turns until the next deal.
• The deal ends when, after a round, only one player still has cards in hand: that player loses the deal.
• The deal also ends at once when a player can't beat (and has no Stop or Draw card to play) and has no spare card left: that player loses the deal.
• If all players in a round play their last cards in that round, everybody who took part in it except the round's winner loses the deal.

Whoever loses the deal hands in one chip. For the next deal the dealer shuffles all the cards and deals as before. The loser of the last deal leads the first round; if several players lost, the player to the dealer's left leads.

End of the game

A player who has handed in their last chip keeps playing. The game ends when a player has to hand in a chip and has none left: that player loses, and all the others win together. If this happens to several players at once, they all lose.

Tips for beginners

• Look at your hand before playing: which cards could form a pair or a run if the card between them were gone? Play the card in the way first.
• Spare cards are your lives within the deal. Taking one early to fix your hand is fine – but with none left, one bad round ends the deal for you.
• Put a spare card where it makes a combination, not just anywhere.
• Keep a Stop card for the moment when winning the round lets you lead your last combination.
• A Draw card is an escape when you can't beat – but if you then win the round, you draw the cards yourself.

Variants

• Longer game with 5 players: 3 chips each instead of 2.
• Scouting (after SCOUT): a different game with the same "never sort" rule, based on SCOUT by Kei Kajino. Use only the A to Q (48 cards; no Kings or jokers). Deal 12 cards each with 3 players, 11 with 4, 9 with 5; the rest stays out unseen. No spare cards, no chips as lives – keep the score on paper. Each player gets one coin as a Scout & Show marker. On your turn, do one of these:
• Show: play cards that sit side by side in your hand – any number of equal cards (a set) or of consecutive cards in order, rising or falling as they sit in your hand (a run: 4-5-6 or 6-5-4, not 5-4-6). It must beat the active show in the middle: more cards win; with the same number of cards a set beats a run; otherwise the higher lowest card wins. Take the beaten show face down in front of you – 1 point per card – and your cards become the active show. If there is no active show, show anything.
• Scout: take one card from either end of the active show and put it anywhere in your hand. The show's owner scores 1 point. If you take its last card, the next player may show anything.
• Scout & Show: once per round, hand in your marker, scout and then show at once. The round ends when a player's hand is empty after a show, or when the turn comes back to a show's owner because everybody else only scouted. Then everybody loses 1 point per card in hand – except that owner in the second case. Play as many rounds as there are players; the highest total wins. The original's cards carry two numbers and let you turn your whole hand round at the start; an ordinary deck can't do that.