Queen of Scots: The Card Game

The Rules:

Set-up: Remove the 4 royalty reference cards from the deck and give one to each player to be placed face-up on the table for reference throughout the game. They are not playable cards and are there for reference only. These are to remind you of which cards are part of the royal family.

Choose a player to shuffle and deal the cards. Start by dealing 11 cards to each player and finishing with one card turned up beside the deck. The person immediately to their left goes first and will be the scorekeeper. Each player, in clockwise order, takes turns dealing after each round is completed. The first player to reach a cumulative score of 1000 wins. If 2 players cross 1000 on the same turn, the person with the highest score wins. Keep track of scores on a piece of paper.

On each player’s turn, they start by picking up a card and end their turn by discarding a card face-up on the face-up pile. When picking up a card, the player can choose to pick up a card from the face-down pile or pick up the entire face-up pile, based on the most recent discarded card. To do this, the player must have at least 2 cards (in their hand) that match the top card in the face-up discard pile. If so, they pick up the entire discard pile and place the top card of the discard pile on their side of the table with at least 2 of the same card that they already had in their hand before picking up the pile. The remainder of the cards from the face-up pile go into their hand unless they can place any of them down on the table, either by making a new set or adding to an existing set with matching cards. They can only pick up the pile by matching to cards in their hand, not that which is already on the table.

During a player’s turn, they can choose whether to place down sets of cards, add cards to current sets already on their side of the table, and/or keep cards in their hand.

Your strategy will drive your decisions. When placing a set down, it goes on your side of the table only. At the end of a round, any cards on your side of the table count toward your score. Any cards in your hand are deducted from your score. You can only place cards down onto your own sets. Card values are indicated on the bottom right of each card.

You can make a set of matching cards in front of you if you have 3 or more of the same card. You cannot mix and match cards unless they are part of the royal family (see below). You can place as many wild cards that you wish with a set, but the initial set MUST CONTAIN at least 2 matching cards or 2 cards from the royal family. You can add matching cards or wild cards to any set on the table in front of you during your turn.

A round immediately ends when a player can completely empty their hand by placing their last card with a set on the table or the discard pile. Scores are counted at the end of each round. It is possible to go into the negative and scores should be tracked accordingly.

The royal family (indicated by a crown over the coin): Any member of the royal family can be paired with each other (including duplicates of King James). If placed down as an initial set, they can be matched with a wild card as long as at least 2 members of the royal family are placed down with the wild card.

The crown jewels are wild. This card can be placed with any two matching cards to form a set. It can also be added to any set that is already on the table. If this card is face-up on the discard pile, it may be picked up (along with the entire discard pile) only if the player has two crown jewels in their hand. They must show the other players that they have two in their hand to qualify, but they are only required to immediately play the wild card that was picked up. They cannot pick up the discard pile if they can’t immediately play this card.

Special considerations: Cards on the table do not move. You cannot pick a card back up (such as a wild card) and use it for something else. Once you discard at the end of your turn. You cannot make changes to card combinations that have already been played. You can also add to any sets that you have on the table during your turn.