Perpetual Commotion
Perpetual Commotion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of Game
- 6 Perpetual Commotion card decks
- 1 eight-sided die
- Game instructions
Contents of Each Deck
- 4 sets of colored cards numbered 2 to 12 (red, blue, green, yellow)
- 4 Start cards
- 4 Stop cards
- 1 Bonus Scoring information card
- 2 blank replacement cards
Object of the Game
Be the first player to reach 150 points.
Number of Players
(2-6 Players) Two or three can play. Four is a commotion, six is Perpetual Commotion, and eight is total chaos! To add decks to your game, look for Perpetual Commotion Expansion Packs, available in stores.
Preparing to Play
Make sure all players have equal access to the center Arena, and then have each player choose and shuffle a deck of cards.
The die will not be used in the first round; set it aside for the remaining rounds of play.
Players will lay out their cards as shown in the diagram (Playmakers, Front Five, and Feeders (13), arranged around the central Arena) after the starter gives the "Go!" signal. Take a look at the diagram and read the instructions below to see how to do it so you'll be ready when the action begins!
After the starter calls "Go!" each player will place 5 cards face up in their playing area (called the Front Five) and 13 cards in a single pile face down (called the Feeders pile) to the right of the Front Five. You will sort through the remainder of the cards (called the Playmakers), three at a time, to turn up cards you can play into the Arena. (If you're not familiar with this solitaire-like way of sorting through a deck, read the explanation below and see the picture.)
To sort through your Playmakers, hold your deck face down in one hand, and use the other hand to take the top three cards off the pile. Then, flip the three cards over and place them face up in front of you. You may only play the top card; if you play the top card, you may then play the next card showing, and so on. When you can't play any more cards, deal out three more and place them on top of the previous cards, and so on throughout the deck. Once you have played through the Playmakers, pick the cards up and flip them over so they're face down again. Then take the top card from the deck and place it on the bottom. This re-orders the deck so a new card appears as the top card of every three. Now you're ready to sort through the deck again, which you'll do continuously throughout the round.
Starting a Round
Players hold the shuffled deck in their left hand and grab on to the deck held by the person sitting to their right. This is the "starting circle." Choose a player to call "Go!" to start the action. (In subsequent rounds, the winner of the previous round will call "Go!") When play starts, everyone plays at once with no turns taken and no breaks in the action.
Playing a Round
When the starter calls "Go!" players release the deck in their left hand at the same time they take the deck from the player on their right. Then, they immediately set up their playing area with the Front Five and Feeders pile. If any players have Start cards in their Front Five, they play them into the Arena to start a pile. If there are no Start cards out, players can begin sorting through their Playmakers until a Start card appears.
Once someone plays a Start card into the Arena, any player may play any color "2" card on top. The color of the "2" will determine the color of the pile; players continue to build up the single-color piles to "12," when a player may finish the pile with a Stop card. At that point no more cards may be played on that pile.
Players may play cards into the Arena from either their Front Five or their Playmakers deck. When one of the Front Five is played, leaving a "hole" in the lineup, players fill the hole with a card from their Feeders pile (and only their Feeders pile), so that there are always five cards in the Front Five.
Keep in mind while playing that the first player to call "Out!" after emptying their Feeders pile will earn extra points and cause other players to deduct two points for each card left in their Feeders piles. To get a high score, it's important to play as many cards as you can into the Arena, but also to play down your Feeders pile as quickly as possible to avoid penalty points for leftover cards.
Ending the Round
Players continue to play cards onto the piles in the center Arena from their Playmakers deck and Front Five, filling holes in their Front Five from their Feeders pile. When any player plays the last card in their Feeders pile, that player may end the round by calling "Out!" The other players may fill any holes in their Front Five at the end of the round before scoring begins.
Standard Scoring
Each player should remember the number of cards left in their Feeders pile, then set the remaining Feeders pile cards and Playmakers cards aside.
Players sort the cards in the Arena, giving each player their own cards to count for scoring. Points are awarded or subtracted as follows:
- 1 point for each card played into the Arena
- Double points subtracted for each card left in a player's Feeder pile
- 5 extra points for the player who calls "Out!" (The number of extra points awarded to the first player to go out may change in subsequent rounds based on the roll of the eight-sided die; see Bonus Scoring below.)
Example: If a player has 15 cards in the Arena and 4 cards left in their Feeders pile, they will receive 7 points for the round: 15 cards minus 8 (4 x 2) = 7.
Bonus Scoring
After the first round, bonus scoring begins. At the beginning of each of the next rounds, the player who called "Out!" in the previous round rolls the eight-sided die to determine the scoring of the round.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1, 3, 5, or 7 | Standard Scoring (as described above) |
| 2 | 10 points (5 additional) for calling "Out!" |
| 4 | Double the standard points for the round (to do this, calculate the total points as you would for standard scoring, then double the total) |
| 6 | 20 points (15 additional) for calling "Out!" |
| 8 | Perpetual Demotion! The player rolling the die must immediately subtract 10 points from their total score, and the round will be Standard Scoring. |
Winning the Game
The first player to reach 150 points wins the game.
Additional Rules, Tips & Strategies
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No two-handed play (also known as double pumping) is allowed in the Arena. Players may only place one card down at a time. If a player wants to place two cards consecutively, he or she must lay down the first card, and then use the same hand to pick up and place the second card.
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There are no time-outs. If a player drops cards and needs to pick them up, or if two players want to haggle over whose card reached a specific Arena pile first, have at it! If the Arena piles are messy, feel free to clean them up! Whatever the case, just don't expect anyone else to stop playing.
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Players are not allowed to search through the cards in the Playmakers pile. Only the top card of the Playmakers pile may be played. Once the top card is played, the next card may also be played if there is an opportunity, but the player may not dig through the Playmakers looking for cards to play.
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If the round freezes, and it almost never will, players may each add a sixth card to their Front Five to put the round back in motion. However, the Front Five must be played back down to five cards (in addition to an empty Feeders pile) before a player can call "Out!" and end the round. In nearly all cases, well-played Playmakers will keep a round in full motion.
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If the number of players coupled with the style of the playing table prohibits some players from "equal access" to the Arena, you can rotate player seating positions following each round.
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A player doesn't have to call "Out!" if their Feeders pile is empty, as it may be to their advantage to play more cards into the Arena before ending the round. However, if another player empties their Feeders pile in the meantime and calls "Out!" before the first player, the second player will be the one to receive the bonus points awarded for calling "Out" first.
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You can adjust the difficulty level for younger players by reducing the number of cards in their Feeders pile. This can be especially helpful when younger players are playing along with teens and adults.
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If you lose a card from a particular deck, you may replace it with one of the special replacement cards for that deck. Color the border the color of the missing card and add the correct number in the middle.