Rummikub
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Rummikub is a tile-based game for two, three or four players. It won the 1980 Spiel Des Jahres award (German Game of the Year) and the Spel van het Jaar award (the Dutch Game of the Year) in 1983.
The game is similar, in terms of game play and rules, to a Turkish game with the name Okey.
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[edit] History
The game was originally created in the 1940s by the Jewish Israeli games inventor Ephraim Hertzano. The game was later on exported by Hertzano to Western Europe and America.[1]
In Hertzano's 'Official Rummikub Book', published in 1978, he describes three different games: American, Sabra and International. The rules listed below are that used by Sabra, but there are variations to these rules.
Hertzano founded the company Lemada Light Industries Ltd, but Rummikub is distributed by the following companies:
- Alga (Sweden)
- Crown Andrews (Australia)
- Goliath (Benelux)
- Grow (Brazil)
- Hasbro (France, Spain, Mexico, India, Turkey, Latin America)
- Jumbo (Germany)
- Mathiassen (Denmark)
- Piatnik (Austria, Hungary)
- Pressman (USA, Canada)
- Ravensburger (Switzerland, Italy)
- Tomy (UK)
[edit] Equipment
Rummikub's main component is a pool of 106 tiles, consisting of 104 number tiles and two joker tiles. The number tiles range in value from one to thirteen, in four colors (black, yellow, blue and red). Each combination of color and number is represented twice. Players each have a rack to store tiles, without revealing their tiles to the other players, similar to that used in Scrabble.
Rummikub can also be played with two decks of 52 standard playing cards, plus two of the four jokers. Cards have their face value, with ace counting for 1, jack for 11, queen for 12 and king for 13. It is advisable to use small cards, because space on the playing table is limited, and to deal the cards (rather than taking them from a pool) unless the color on the back is the same for the two decks. Cards are less likely than tiles to read as upside down for any given player; however, large hands may prove slightly difficult to hold, especially for children.
[edit] Set up
Tiles are either placed into a bag for selection, or the entire lot of tiles is placed face down on the table for selection. Every player picks one tile to determine who plays first. The player with the highest number begins, with play proceeding in a clockwise direction. Tiles are returned to the pool. House rules may apply if the player picks up a joker. The game rules list the jokers' penalty value as 30, so that value could be used or the player could be instructed to return the joker and select another tile.
Once the order of play has been determined, players in turn collect 14 random tiles and arrange them on their racks. Play then proceeds.
[edit] Play
For a player's first move, they must play a set with a value of at least 30 points. Point values are taken from the face value of each tile played, with the joker (if played) assuming the value of the tile it is being used in place of. A player's first move is known as the initial meld. The initial meld cannot build on previously played tiles. A joker on the table cannot be retrieved before the initial meld. If a player cannot make an initial meld, they must pick up a single tile from the pool and add it to their rack and play proceeds to the next player.
Once a player has made their initial meld, for each turn a player must either play one or more tiles from their rack, making groups and/or runs. If the player cannot make a group or run they must pick three random tiles from the pool and add it to their rack.
[edit] Sets
All tiles in play must be arranged in sets with at least three tiles. The two valid set types are called runs and groups.
Runs are composed of three or more, same-colored tiles, in consecutive number order. For example- red 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Groups are three or four same-value tiles in distinct colors. For example- red 3, blue 3, black 3 and orange 3.
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Runs: 9 10 11 12 Groups: 7 7 7
Examples of valid sets
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A valid run: 1 2 3 4 A valid group: 1 1 1
Examples of invalid sets
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Numbers in a run must be consecutive: 1 2 4 Numbers in a run must all be the same color: 1 2 3 Colors may not repeat in a group: 1 1 1
[edit] Amending sets
Players may play tiles by amending sets already in play. The only limit to the length of a run is the extremes of the tile values. Groups are limited to four because colors may not repeat within a group.
Example
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Tiles already out-played: 3 4 5 Own tiles: 2 5 5 Recombined result: 2 3 4 and 5 5 5
[edit] Manipulation of played tiles
During a player's turn, sets of tiles that have already been played may be manipulated to allow more tiles to be played. At the end of the turn, all played tiles must be in valid sets.
- Shifting a run
- Players may add the appropriate tile to either end of a run and remove a tile from the other end for use elsewhere. If red 3, 4, and 5 have already been played, a player may add the red 6 to the end and remove the 3 for use elsewhere.
- Splitting a run
- Players may split long runs and insert the corresponding tiles in the middle. Thus, if blue 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are already a run, the player may insert his own 8 to make two runs: 6, 7, 8 and 8, 9, 10.
- Substituting in a group
- Players may replace any of the tiles in a three-tile group with a tile of the fourth color and the same value. If blue 6, red 6, and orange 6 are already a group, the player may add the black 6 and remove any of the other three for use elsewhere.
- Removing tiles
- So long as the remaining tiles form a valid run, tiles can be removed from the ends of runs. Any one tile may be removed from a four-tile group.
- Joker substitution
- A player with a tile matching the color and value of a joker may replace the joker with that tile. The joker must be played that same turn in a set with at least two other tiles from the player's rack. The color and the value of the joker may both change when this happens. Thus, if blue 3, blue 4, joker is an existing run, a player holding a blue 5, a red 7 and an orange 7 may replace the joker with his blue 5 and play the joker with the two sevens as a new group.
[edit] Winning
Game play continues until either a player has used all of the tiles in the rack, at which point they should call out Rummikub, and are declared the winner. If the pool runs out of tiles, play continues until there is a winner or no player can make a valid play.
[edit] Scoring
Once a winner has been declared, the losing players must add up the values of the tiles remaining in their racks (their score for the game). The joker has a penalty value of 30. The players' score for the game is subtracted from their current cumulative score. Each of the losing players scores for the game is added to the winners current cumulative score.
For example- suppose in a game player A wins, player B has a score of 5, player C has a score of 10 and player D a score of 3. Player A will now have a cumulative score of 18, player B will be -5, player C will be -10 and player D will be -3.
Should the game result in no winner, the player with the least number of tiles in their rack is the winner. Scoring is then carried out in the normal manner.
[edit] Awards
Template:Awards jeu logo
[edit] See also
- The rummy family of card games.
