FIVE CUCUMBERS

OBJECTIVE OF FIVE CUCUMBERS: The objective of Five Cucumbers is to not be eliminated.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:  2-6 Players

MATERIALS: A rulebook, a 60-card deck, and 30 cucumber cards.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game 

AUDIENCE: 8+

OVERVIEW OF FIVE CUCUMBERS

Five Cucumbers is a trick-taking game for 2 to 6 players. The goal of the game is to avoid being eliminated.

SETUP

To set up a player will be the dealer for the round. They will shuffle the deck and deal each player 7 cards facedown. The remaining cards will not be used and are set aside. The cucumbers are stacked and kept centrally to all players.

Card Ranking and Special Rules

There are 60 cards total in the deck. There are 4 of each card ranked 1 (lowest) to 15 (highest). Each card has a number of cucumbers printed on them. If this rank of card is what wins the last trick, then that is how many cucumbers the player who played the card must take.

1s are special; they have a 2x printed on them. This is because whenever a 1 is played to the last trick it doubles the number of cucumbers the losing player must take.

GAMEPLAY

Five Cucumbers is played over a series of rounds. To start the game the youngest player will start the game with the first trick. From then on, the winner of the trick will start the next one. 

When playing a trick in Five Cucumbers the player who starts the trick may play any card they would like. The remaining players must then play a card that is the same or higher rank, or they must play their lowest ranking card. The player with the highest-ranked card or the highest-ranked card played last. 

Players are trying to avoid winning the last, AKA the 7th trick of each round. The player who wins the final trick will be penalized.

SCORING

When the last trick of the round is won, the player who won the trick is penalized. They receive a score equal to the rank of the card the trick was won with.

1s double the score, and result in 0 cucumbers. 2 through 5 ranks take 1 cucumber. 6 through 9 results in 2 cucumbers. 10 through 11 takes 3 cucumbers. 12 through 14 takes 4 cucumbers, and 15 results in 5 cucumbers automatically.

A player is eliminated once they have 5 or more cucumbers.

New rounds are started by the player to win the last trick. If they have been eliminated the player to their left starts.

END OF GAME

The game ends once there is only one player who is not eliminated. They are the winner.

Amber Crook
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