Da Capo! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Refilling the Hand Cards
  • 2. Placing Cards on the Discard Piles
  • 3. Discarding onto an Auxiliary Pile
• End of the Game
• Multiple Games

Components

• 150 number cards, 15 each of the numbers 1 to 10.
• 15 Joker cards.

Setup

All number cards and Jokers are shuffled well together. Each player is dealt 20 cards face down. Each player places these 20 cards face down in front of them on the table as a stack, without looking at them. This stack is called the player stack. The top card of each player stack is turned face up and placed on the player stack.

The undealt cards are placed face down in the middle of the table as the draw pile. From this draw pile the players, in turn, each draw one card until every player has four cards in hand. These four cards are called hand cards.

During play, cards are placed in the middle of the table. For this reason, enough space should be reserved next to the draw pile for up to three discard piles. The same applies to the area in front of each player. There, up to three auxiliary piles will also form during play.

Playing the Game

The player to the left of the dealer begins. The other players take their turns one after another in clockwise order. On his or her turn, a player may carry out the following actions, one after another:

1. Refilling the hand cards to four cards from the draw pile.
2. Placing cards on the discard piles in the middle of the table.
3. Discarding one hand card onto an auxiliary pile, which ends the turn.

These three actions are explained in more detail below.

1. Refilling the Hand Cards

The player first draws cards from the draw pile until he or she again has four hand cards. In the first round of the game this action is skipped, because every player already has four cards in hand.

If the draw pile runs out during the game, the cards of the set-aside discard piles are shuffled well and laid out as a new draw pile.

2. Placing Cards on the Discard Piles

As a second action, the player may place any number of cards on discard piles of his or her choice in the middle of the table. For this, the player may take the following cards:

• The top card of his or her player stack. In this case a new card is immediately turned face up, and that card may also be placed, and so on.
• His or her four hand cards.
• The top cards of his or her three auxiliary piles. Cards lying underneath them may then also be placed.
• The top card of each of the other players' player stacks (do not forget to turn over the newly exposed card). Further placing is allowed.

Caution! A player should only take cards from the player stacks of the other players if this allows him or her to place further cards from his or her own player stack, because it reduces the other players' stacks!

The following rules apply to placing cards:

• No more than three discard piles may be formed in the middle of the table at the same time.
• A discard pile must be started with a "1" or a Joker. Each further card placed must always be exactly one higher than the card it is placed on. Instead, a Joker may also be placed.
• A "10" ends a discard pile, and that pile is set aside. Then there is room again for a new discard pile.
• As long as the player can legally play cards, he or she may continue playing.
• If the player can place all four of his or her hand cards on the discard piles within this action, he or she immediately draws four new cards from the draw pile into hand and continues playing.

Example: A discard pile, read from bottom to top, may consist of the following cards: 1, 2, Joker (3), 4, 5, 6, Joker (7), Joker (8), 9, 10.

If the player cannot place any card, this action is skipped.

3. Discarding onto an Auxiliary Pile

As a third action, the player must place any one hand card face up next to his or her player stack. During the game up to three face-up cards may lie side by side. They are called auxiliary cards. Further cards are simply placed on auxiliary cards already lying there. In this way up to three face-up auxiliary piles are formed.

Caution! The player may also place a further auxiliary card on a first auxiliary card, as long as three auxiliary piles have not yet been formed.

No number sequence has to be observed when building the auxiliary piles. However, the player should think carefully about which auxiliary pile he or she discards a new card onto, because only the top cards of the auxiliary piles may be used for placing on the discard piles.

Caution! Discarding a card onto one of his or her auxiliary piles ends the player's turn. This also applies if he or she places the last hand card onto one of his or her auxiliary piles. He or she may not refill the hand cards immediately.

End of the Game

A player who can place the last card of his or her player stack immediately wins the game. In this case he or she does not have to discard a hand card any more, and it does not matter how many cards he or she still has in hand or in the auxiliary piles.

Multiple Games

If the players want to play several games in a row, then for the winner of each game, plus points are noted on a sheet of paper. The winner receives one point for each card that has not yet been played from the other players' player stacks. The overall winner is the player who first reaches 50 points, or who exceeds it by the greatest margin.