Rules to Ladders

Components

(188 cards)

168 cards numbered 1-12

20 skip portal cards

Theme

How many blind people does it take to change a light bulb? Just one if you can get a tall enough ladder. In this game players race to complete a joke and if you are the first to finish your climb the punchline is the friends you made along the way.

 

Goal: To clean out your CLIMB stack by creating runs of cards in order 1 to 12.

 

Setup:

Choose a dealer and shuffle the deck. If there are 2-4 players deal each player 30 cards face down. If there are 5 or 6 players only deal 20 cards. These cards will be their CLIMB pile. Each player flips the top card of their CLIMB pile and announces the card’s value placing it back on the pile without viewing the other cards. The player dealing puts the rest of the deck in the center of the table where everyone can reach the DRAW pile.

 

In the center of the table adjacent to the draw pile there will be up to four RUNG piles that the players can while playing. The players can have up to 4 RUNG piles next to their CLIMB pile. The RUNG cards are face up and public information if anyone asks.

At the beginning there will be no cards in either the CLIMB or RUNG piles.

Terms:

CLIMB Pile: Each player has one CLIMB pile that they are trying to get rid of. The top card of this pile is always turned face up with the rest face down.

DRAW Pile: These are the remaining cards and shared between all players. This is face up

ACCENT Piles: Between 0 and 4 different RUNG piles are face up in the middle of the table next to the draw pile. An ACCENT pile can only be started by a 1 or a SKIP PORTAL card. Once started the numbers are built up in sequence 1 through 12. The SKIP PORTAL cards act as wilds and can be played as any number. Once a pile of 12 has been finished it is removed and placed in the DISCARD. A new ACCENT pile can be started in it’s place with a 1 or a SKIP PORTAL card.

RUNG Piles: While playing each player may build up to 4 RUNG piles to the left of his CLIMB pile. Players can place as many cards and in whatever order they like in their RUNG piles, but may only play the top card.

GAMEPLAY

The person to the left of the dealer starts the game.

The current player draws 5 cards from the DRAW pile into their HAND. That player has a SKIP PORTAL card or a 1 card on the top of their CLIMB pile or in their hand they may use it to start an ACCENT pile next to the DRAW pile. The player can then play a card from the CLIMB pile, their RUNG piles, or from their HAND onto the ACCENT piles if they are the next number in order(or a SKIP PORTAL).

If they play your last card from their HAND they may draw 5 more cards and continue playing. If they can no longer play a card onto one of the ACCENT piles or choose not to they must make a final discard from their  HAND onto one of the four RUNG slots in front of you.

On the following turns instead of drawing 5 cards, they draw cards from the DRAW pile to their HAND until they have 5 cards.

 

If on a player’s turn there are no cards in the DRAW pile, shuffle the cards from the DISCARD pile and create a new DRAW pile.

If a player manages to empty their CLIMB pile, they win the round.

SCORING

If you are playing more than one round, all the players with cards left count how many cards are left in their CLIMB pile and receive 5 points for each card in the pile plus 25 points for finishing the round. The first player to 500 points wins the game.

 

PARTNERSHIP GAMES

When playing with partners you may play from both your RUNG and CLIMB piles and your partner’s. Partners are not allowed to communicate their hands.

The game continues until both players have completed their CLIMB piles.