Crazy Lab
Crazy Lab Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Materials
- 95 trick cards (face, back)
- 20 scoring cards in 5 colours (plus side, minus side)
Aim and Idea of the Game
You will need good tactics and a bit of luck in this particular trick-taking game. The number of tricks you win does not matter, only their content is what counts.
Each player gets a minus colour, which he will try to avoid because it gives him minus points. Each player also secretly picks a plus colour which will give him or her plus points. At the end of the game, the player with the best card mix among taken tricks is the winner.
Preparation
The scoring cards are sorted by their minus sides and then put in 5 stacks of 4 cards each. Each player chooses one of the stacks and places it in front of him minus side face-up. The stack each player chooses also determines his minus colour.
Each stack of 4 cards shows the minus colour on its minus side and the plus colour on the reverse.
Shuffle the trick cards and deal 10 cards to each player.
How to Play
Each player decides which colour will give him plus points (= plus colour), as well as some of the trump cards that will be drawn during the game. Then the game can start.
1. Choosing a plus colour
After each player has taken a look at the trick cards he was dealt, he picks the scoring card with his chosen plus colour. He places that card in front of him with the minus colour face-up. He keeps his plus colour secret until the end of the game.
2. Choosing trump colours
Each player secretly chooses 2 of the remaining 3 scoring cards and places them with the scoring cards chosen by the other players in a stack in the middle of the table. This stack of trump cards determines the trump colour for each individual trick during the game (see "The Trick-taking Game").
The last remaining trump card is not needed for the current round and is returned to the box.
When first playing the game don't worry too much about choosing plus and trump colours, just pick them randomly from your scoring cards!
Crazy Lab with 3 or 4 players
In a game with 3 or 4 players, draw 2 random scoring cards (without looking at them) from each of the stacks not used in that game and add them to the trump colours stack. In this way, the trump stack will always contain 10 cards. Remaining scoring cards are returned to the box.
3. The Trick-taking Game
Mix the trump colours stack and turn over the top card so the plus colour is face up. This will be the trump colour for the first trick. The eldest player starts the round and plays the first card for the first trick. For the following tricks, the player who won the latest trick always plays the first card.
What is a trick and who wins it?
Clockwise each player plays one card - these cards make up the trick. Each player places his card face-up in front of him so that all players can see it. Unlike in many other trick-taking games, in Crazy Lab you can play any card you choose, there are no conditions.
After each player has played a card, check who played the highest card in the current trump colour. That player wins the trick. He takes all cards played in this trick and places them in front of him, face-down.
Example: Yellow is trump for this trick. After each player has played a card, Jordi wins the trick because he played the highest yellow card.
Several players have played the same highest card in the trump colour?
In this case, winner of the trick is the player who placed his card first, this could be the player who played the first card of the trick or a following player, clockwise.
Example: Blue is trump for this trick. Jordi played the first card. Both Cristiano and Gregorio have played the blue "5". But Cristiano played his card before Gregorio, so he wins the trick.
No card in the current trump colour has been played?
If none of the cards played shows the trump colour, the player who played the highest card of any colour wins the trick. If there are several cards with the highest value, the player who placed his card first wins the trick.
Example: Green is trump for this trick. Cristiano played the first card. No-one played a card in the trump colour green. Jordi wins the trick since he has played a blue "6", which is the highest value among cards played.
The next trick
The winner of a trick puts the cards he won on a stack in front of him face-down. He discards the trump colour of the last trick and turns over the next trump colour card. Then he plays the first card for the next trick.
Game End and Scores
The game ends when the tenth and last trick has been played. To determine their scores, each player counts the points on the cards he won in his plus colour. Then he counts the points on the cards in his minus colour and subtracts them from his plus points. The player with the most (plus) points wins the game.
Of course you can play several rounds of Crazy Lab. In this case, the starting player changes after each round. Scores are noted after each round and after a determined number of rounds, the total of all points determines the winner.