Idle Hands Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview
• Game Preparation
  • 4-1: Determine the start player / prepare for a deal
  • 4-2: Deal Mission Cards
  • 4-3: Deal Cards for Players' Hands
  • 4-4: Add a Mission Card from Hand
• Game Flow
  • 5-1: Proposal Phase
    • (1) Choose a Mission Card
    • (2) Play a card from Hand
  • 5-2: Verdict Phase
  • 5-3: Card Acquisition Phase
  • 5-4: Preparing for the next round
• Game End Condition
• Score
• Winner of the Game

Components

• 40 cards (10 each in 4 colors), ranks 1 to 10. The icons at the bottom of ranks 1 and 10 are special abilities for advanced players. Ignore these for your first play.

Overview

Goal of the game: avoid taking negative cards (ranks 4 and 8) as much as possible.

Each player plays a card from their hand matching the condition of the Mission Card. After everyone has played a card, compare all played cards and determine the winner. The player who played the strongest card takes all played cards. (There is a twist on how you get these.)

At the end of the game, each player scores points based on their hand, Mission Cards, and taken cards.

Game Preparation

4-1: Determine the start player / prepare for a deal

Randomly determine the start player. Shuffle all 40 cards to prepare for the next step.

4-2: Deal Mission Cards

The start player deals a set number of cards face up to each player. These cards are called the Mission Cards and stay revealed to all players during the game.

The number of Mission Cards dealt depends on the number of players: 3 players: 3 cards each; 4 players: 2 cards each.

If any of the conditions below are met, put the last dealt card aside and deal a new card until neither of these conditions is met. Afterwards, reshuffle all card(s) put aside with the remaining cards.

• There are 5 or more negative cards (ranks 4 or 8).
• There are 5 or more cards of the same suit (color).

Note: These conditions can be a little confusing at first. There is a detailed example in the Advanced Manual.

4-3: Deal Cards for Players' Hands

Deal the remaining cards to each player face down. These cards are the player's Hand and are not revealed. The number of cards in each player's Hand depends on the number of players: 3 players: 10 cards each; 4 players: 8 cards each.

Note: When playing with 3 players, one card remains undealt. This card is not used in this game, so return it to the box without looking at it. (In other words, no player knows what the card is.)

4-4: Add a Mission Card from Hand

Each player chooses a card from their hand and puts it at the right side of their Mission Cards face down. Reveal the card after all players have chosen a card. (In other words, each player adds 1 Mission Card to their existing set of cards.)

Game Flow

The game is divided into 3 phases. The entirety of the 3 phases is called a Round. Players repeat rounds until the game end condition is met. (Turn order is clockwise.)

1. Proposal Phase
2. Verdict Phase
3. Card Acquisition Phase

5-1: Proposal Phase

Starting with the start player, each player plays their turn by following the two steps below. After everyone has completed "(2) Play a card from Hand", proceed to the Verdict Phase.

1. Choose a Mission Card
2. Play a card from Hand

(1) Choose a Mission Card

The player's action depends on the following conditions.

Condition (i): Has a Mission Card been chosen this round?

• Has not been chosen: check condition (ii) to see if you can choose a Mission Card.
• Has been chosen: don't choose a Mission Card and proceed to "(2) Play a card from Hand".

Condition (ii): Do you still have a Mission Card in your area?

• Yes: choose a Mission Card from your area and put it face up at the center of the play area. Then proceed to "(2) Play a card from Hand".
• No: don't choose a Mission Card and proceed to "(2) Play a card from Hand".

Remarks: To separate it from the cards played by each player in the next step, place the chosen Mission Card at the center of the play area instead of placing it in front of a player.

Example 1 (3 players, at the beginning of a game; turn order A, B, C): Player A is the start player, so the first turn begins with player A. Condition (i): the Mission Card has NOT been chosen, so he chooses a Mission Card from his area. Condition (ii): there are four cards in his area, so player A chooses "Purple 10" from his Mission Cards area. (Player A's turn ends after he plays a card from his hand.)

Example 2 (3 players, mid-game): Next up is Player B's turn. The Mission Card has been chosen already, so he proceeds straight to playing a card from his hand. (The rest of the turn is omitted as it is the same as in Example 1.) Next up is Player C's turn: condition (i), the Mission Card has been chosen, so proceed to "(2) Play a card from Hand".

Example 3: Player A is the start player. Condition (i): the Mission Card has NOT been chosen. Condition (ii): Player A doesn't have a Mission Card in front of him. Player A does NOT choose a Mission Card, and just plays a card from his hand.

(2) Play a card from Hand

Mission Card has been chosen already: The player's action depends on whether the player has a card matching the color of the current Mission Card.

• You have a card of the same color in your hand: play a card of the same color.
• You DON'T have a card of the same color in your hand: play a card of any color.

Example 1: Since the Mission Card is RED, you must play a RED card from your hand (you have red cards, so you choose and play "Red 2").

Example 2: Since the Mission Card is RED, you must play a RED card from your hand. However, Player A does not have any red card in his hand. Thus, he can play any card from his hand. He chooses and plays "Blue 8".

Mission Card has not been chosen: If you didn't have a Mission Card in your area during "(1) Choose a Mission Card", then there is no Mission Card in play. In this case, you can play any card from your hand. (Mission Card has not been chosen AND you DON'T have a Mission Card in your area: you can play any card from your hand.)

Example 3: A Mission Card has NOT been chosen and the player doesn't have a Mission Card in their area. Player A has no Mission Card, so he plays any card from his hand. He chooses and plays "Green 3".

Remarks: Inexperienced players often make a mistake here. We recommend you announce "I don't have a red card, so I'll play XXXX (not a red card)", until everyone is experienced.

After the player plays a card from their hand, proceed to the next player's turn (in clockwise turn order). The next player chooses a Mission Card from his area if possible, and the phase continues. After every player has played a card from their hand, proceed to the Verdict Phase.

5-2: Verdict Phase

After everyone has played a card, the winner of this trick is determined. The winner is the player who played the highest card of the same color as the current Mission Card. (NOTE: If your card's color doesn't match that of the current Mission Card, then your card is considered weaker than the cards of the color matching the Mission Card.)

Example 1: All cards match the color of the Mission Card. Played cards: Red 5 / Red 8 / Red 9. All cards are the same color as the Mission Card, so the highest ranked card wins. Player C, who played "Red 9", wins and takes the played cards.

Example 2: Some cards don't match the color of the Mission Card; the Mission Card's color wins. Played cards: Red 5 / Red 8 / Green 9. "Red 5" and "Red 8" are the same color as the Mission Card so the highest ranked card among these wins. Player B, who played "Red 8", wins and takes the played cards. ("Green 9" is the highest rank, but it's NOT the same color as the Mission Card, so it is weaker than Red cards.)

Example 3: There are NO cards matching the color of the Mission Card; just compare the rank. Played cards: Blue 5 / Purple 8 / Green 9. None of the cards are the same color as the Mission Card, so the highest ranked card wins. Player C, who played "Green 9", wins and takes the played cards.

Example 4: There are multiple cards with the highest rank; the last played highest card wins. Played cards: Green 8 / Purple 8 / Blue 5 (turn order A, B, C). None of the cards are the same color as the Mission Card, so the highest ranked card wins. "Green 8" and "Purple 8" are both the highest rank, but the later played "Purple 8" wins. Player B, who played "Purple 8", wins and takes the played cards.

Tips: The goal of this game is to avoid taking negative cards (ranks 4 and 8) as much as possible. If you are new to this game, try playing a lower ranked card when possible to avoid taking cards. If you don't have many lower ranked cards, then try to reduce the variety of colors in your hand, so that you can play cards that don't match the color of the Mission Card. (Try various tactics once you are experienced!)

5-3: Card Acquisition Phase

The winner determined in the Verdict Phase takes all cards played in this round. There are two different destinations for the taken cards.

1. Cards played from players' hands: Take all cards played from players' hands and put them aside for scoring. These cards are placed face-down in a single pile in front of each player. (No player can look at these cards until the Score step.)
2. Mission Card: Take the Mission Card at the center of the play area into your HAND. You can play this card in future rounds.

It is easy to mix up the played cards (for scoring) and the Mission Card (to your hand) by accident. Make sure to point it out if a player makes this mistake.

5-4: Preparing for the next round

The player who took cards this round is the start player of the next round. Go back to the Proposal Phase, and repeat all phases. The game continues until the Game End Condition.

Game End Condition

At the end of the Card Acquisition Phase, the game is over if one or more players have no cards left in their hand. Proceed to Score.

Score

Calculate the positive points and negative points.

• Positive points: cards left in your hand. Score 1 point for each card left in your hand. The rank of the card does not matter in this case. Note: ranks 4 and 8 remaining in your hand count as a card and score +1 point.
• Negative points: ranks 4 and 8. Score -4 (for rank 4) or -8 (for rank 8) points for each of these cards in your hand, in your Mission Card area, and in the pile you won during the round. (Cards other than 4 and 8 are ignored.) Turn the 4s and 8s face-up for scoring.

Scoring example: there are 3 cards in hand: +3 points. Remaining cards in your hand: Red 4, Green 8, Purple 4: -16 points. Remaining Mission Cards and cards taken during the round: no negative cards. Total: -13 points.

Winner of the Game

A game consists of all the steps from Game Preparation to Score, and you will repeat this for each player. The winner is the player who scored the highest total score. (Normally, everyone scores negative points, so the player whose total is closest to 0 is the winner.) If multiple players are tied for the highest points, all tied players win and share the victory!

After everyone has scored, write down each player's score, and prepare for the next game. Go back to Game Preparation. There are two differences from the first game:

1. Determining the start player: in step 4-1, instead of randomly choosing, the start player will be the player to the left of the last game's start player. (In other words, the start player is determined randomly only on the first game.)
2. Shuffle the cards returned to the box (when playing with 3 players): in step 4-1, remember to include the 1 card returned to the box in step 4-3. There should be 40 cards to shuffle.