Perfect Numbers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Set up
• Game play
  • Taking a group of cards from the market
  • Adding cards in your collection
  • Four slots
  • Jokers
  • Action cards
  • Action cards taken from the market
• End of the game
• Interaction variant

Set up

Pick a starting player and provide them the starting card. Shuffle all other cards to form a deck in the middle of the table. Every player takes three cards from the deck. Any taken action cards should be shuffled back into the deck and the player takes new cards until they have three. These three cards are placed face up in front of the player on the table, this is the players' collection. Cards of the same color are placed partially on top of each other to form a row.

During the entire game, there is an important rule: whenever you take cards of the same color, they are added to the colored row in order from lowest to highest. In some exceptionally lucky cases, it is possible to already score points during set up.

Next, the 'market' is filled with face up cards from the deck. The market consists of a group of 3, 2, 2 and 1 card, making it a total of four groups.

(Example market illustration omitted.)

Game play

The game consists of rounds where the starting player, and then continuing clockwise, takes a group of cards from the market until the market is empty. This means that in a 2 and 3 player game, some players get two groups of cards.

A player turn consists of:

• Taking one group of cards from the market
• Adding cards to their own collection and potentially to that of others
• Optional: play(ing) action card(s)

Taking a group of cards from the market

The player takes one group of cards from the market. This is the entire group of cards, not a selection of them.

Adding cards in your collection

If a player takes cards, they are usually added to their own collection. Numbered cards are always sorted by color to form a row in the collection. It's the player's own choice in which order to add new colors to their own collection. If the player takes a group of cards that has both new colors and colors that they already have, they always first have to add the colors that they already have. Even before saving action cards.

Adding a card to your collection has three potential results.

1. The number on the added card is higher than the number of cards present in the corresponding-colored row (including the new card), nothing happens, and the card is added to the row.

2. The number on the added card is the perfect number, it is equal to the number of cards in the row (including the new card). The player may choose to complete the row with this perfect number, turning over all cards in the row and moving them to their point pile.

3. The number on the added card is lower than the number of cards in the row (including the new card). The card is added, but then the player needs to discard (to a discard pile) as many cards from the row as the number on the added card.

(Illustrations of higher number, perfect number and lower number cases omitted.)

If a player takes several cards of the same color at once, they are added to the corresponding row from lowest value to highest value. If a card affects the row, for instance by having to discard cards, this is done immediately before any other cards of that color are added to the row.

The numbered cards with a value of 5, 6 and 7 have a bonus (+1, +3 and +5). If you complete a row by adding one of these numbered cards, you receive as many bonus cards (points) as the bonus on the card indicates. Take these bonus cards from the deck. Note: this bonus is only activated if you complete a row with this number, not if the number is in the row.

(Example of a lower number card discarded to the discard pile omitted.)

Four slots

A player may only have one row per color in their collection, and one row to save action cards. In total they are only allowed to have a maximum of four rows, also known as 'slots'. If a player takes a new color or action card (while not having a slot in use to save action cards), and the four slots in their collection are already in use, they have two options:

1. Add the card to another players' collection. This is only possible if the other player has an open slot, or a row in the corresponding color. If adding a card to an existing row makes the other player lose cards, these cards are not discarded but are points for the player that added the card. If you can complete a row, you also receive the points for that instead of the other player.
2. Discard the contents of one of your own slots and use the opened-up slot for the new color or action card.

If option 1 is not possible, the player has to use option 2. Note that an action card cannot be added to another players' collection. However, you are allowed to immediately use an action card when you take it from the market, you therefore don't need to have a slot to save it. If you already had saved action cards in a slot, you are allowed to discard them in option 2. A newly taken action card can therefore only be used or saved.

A round ends when the market is depleted and the player's turn is finished. The market is then filled up again and the starting player card moves to the next player in a clockwise fashion. The new round starts with the new starting player.

Jokers

The joker cards can be added to any colored row. This means that when a player takes it from the market, they always have to add it to their own collection and cannot use it to open up a slot already in use. If the player does not have any colored rows at the time, the joker can start a new row. Note that the 5, 6 and 7 of the jokers do not award bonuses. Apart from that, adding a joker has to be done using the normal adding rules.

Action cards

There are three types of action cards. They are mixed in with the normal numbered cards.

Action card: protection card. The player turns this action card face down and adds it to one of their colored rows. Alternatively, they can discard this action card, turn the final card of one of their colored rows face down and add it face down to one of their colored rows. This face down card doesn't represent a number anymore, but it does 'count' as a card in the colored row. Any colored row that has a face down card at the end, is protected against other players. Others cannot add cards to this row or steal from this row. A face down card cannot be the first card of a row.

Action card: move card. Using this card, the player takes the first card of one of their colored rows and brings it up to the final position in that row.

Action card: steal card. Using this card, the player may take the final card of a colored row of another player and add it to their own collection. Alternatively, the player may steal the card and discard it.

Action cards taken from the market

If a player takes a group of cards from the market with one or more action cards, they have two options:

1. Use the action card that same turn. They can use it before, during or after using other cards or adding cards to their own or others' collections. A used action card is discarded unless it protects a row (protection card).
2. Save the action card in a slot. A single slot can be used to save different types of action cards, but you can only save a maximum of two action cards, and these cannot be the same type. If a player therefore cannot save an action card, they have to use option 1. Players can only use one slot to save action cards.

Players are allowed to use multiple action cards after another in their turn. It might even happen that a player takes one or more action cards from the market and makes a combination with saved action cards. Saved action cards can be played at any time during the players turn, and they do not need to be played in a certain (top to bottom) order.

End of the game

The game ends when the market cannot be completely filled up again for a new round. Any (action) cards in the collection of a player are discarded and do not count as points. Every player counts the number of points they earned, with each card in their point pile counting as one point. The player with the most points wins.

Interaction variant

If you master the base game and you want to play with more interaction, you can use this variant. The number of slots you can use for colored rows is brought back to a maximum of three. You can still have a fourth slot, but only for action cards. All other rules remain the same. This set up forces players to add more to other players' collections.