Dickory
Dickory Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object
Be the first to empty your hand of cards.
Equipment
A clock board and Dickory (the mouse).
A pack of 48 cards with twelve ranks and four copies of each rank. (If your deck has suits, ignore the suits).
In general, the cards rank, from low to high:
(low) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 (high)
However, during gameplay, both players will reposition Dickory to manipulate this ordering.
Deal
Pick a dealer. Shuffle the cards. Deal 11 cards to each player; then deal 6 cards face up in a row to the table (these cards are called the queue). Set the remaining cards aside, face-down, as a draw pile.
The Queue
The rightmost card in the queue determines the current highest rank for the round. Point Dickory at this number on the clock.
Example: If the following ranks are in the queue, 11 9 4 2 10 7, then 7 is the rightmost and its rank becomes the current highest. The current highest card re-orders the ranks. In the case of 7 being the highest, the new ranking follows:
(low) 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (high)
If the ranks in the queue were 4 10 2 2 12 10, the new highest card is 10. The new ranking would be:
(low) 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (high)
On Your Turn
The non-dealer has the first lead.
If you have the lead, you must play a meld (a combination of cards) from your hand. You may lead a:
- Single: One (1) card.
- Double: Two (2) cards of the same rank.
- Triple: Three (3) cards of the same rank.
- Quadruple: Four (4) cards of the same rank.
- Run of 3: Exactly three (3) cards of consecutive rank. (Suits do not matter).
If you do not have the lead, you must do one of the following actions:
- Beat the previous meld.
- Take cards from the queue & beat the previous meld.
- Pass & refill the queue.
1. Beat the Previous Meld
Play a meld of the same type as was led to start the round but with cards of higher rank than the last one played.
Rank order: The rank order of the cards depends on the rightmost card in the queue. If the queue contains 4 12 5 7 11 2, for example, the rank order is:
(low) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 (high)
The lowest meld of each type would be:
- Single: 3
- Double: 3-3
- Triple: 3-3-3
- Quadruple: 3-3-3-3
- Run of 3: 1-2-3
(The rank of a run is always determined by its last, or rightmost, card)
Play a meld with a rank of 4 or higher to beat these.
The highest meld of each type would be:
- Single: 2
- Double: 2-2
- Triple: 2-2-2
- Quadruple: 2-2-2-2
- Run of 3: 12-1-2
So long as the rightmost card in the queue remains unchanged, you cannot beat this meld.
But! The queue can change...
2. Take Cards From the Queue & Beat the Previous Meld
You may take the rightmost card from the queue into your hand. And you may continue to take the rightmost card from the queue as many times as you wish (possibly up to 5 cards) but you may never take its last (or leftmost) card.
Taking cards from the queue can change the rank order of the cards.
Using the queue from our previous example, 4 12 5 7 11 2, if you take the 2 & 11 into your hand, the queue becomes 4 12 5 7, and the rank order switches from:
(low) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 (high)
to:
(low) 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (high)
After taking cards from the queue, you MUST beat the previous meld. (If you cannot beat the previous meld, you CANNOT take this action!). You are NOT required to use the cards that you took from the queue in the new, higher meld.
For example, if the previous meld was 2-2 when the rightmost card was a 2 (making 2-2 unbeatable), you take the 2 & 11 from the queue so that the rightmost card is a 7, and you can now beat the previous meld by playing 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, or 7-7.
3. Pass & Refill the Queue
If there is no way for you to beat the previous meld — or you choose not to — you can pass by saying "Pass".
If there is only one card in the queue and you cannot beat the previous meld, you MUST pass.
When you pass, if there is more than one card in the queue, discard the rightmost card. If there is only one card in the queue, do not discard it.
Shift any cards remaining in the queue over to the right, and then add cards (from the draw pile) to the left side of the queue until it has 6 cards (or until the draw pile is empty). Passing is the only way to refill the queue.
If the queue was 4 12 5 7 and a player passed, the 7 would be discarded, the 5 would be the current highest card, and three cards would be added to the queue behind (to the left of) 4 12 5, provided that there were at least three cards in the deck. If there were fewer than three cards in the deck, all remaining cards would be added to the queue.
If the queue was just a single 7, it would not be discarded and five cards (or all remaining cards if fewer than five remained in the deck) would be added to the queue behind the 7, and it would remain the highest card.
When the deck becomes empty you no longer add cards to the queue. From this point, when you pass, if there is more than one card in the queue, discard the rightmost; if there is only one card in the queue, do NOT discard it.
Discard all cards played to the previous round. Whoever played the last meld now has the lead, and must play a meld to start a new round.
Round End
A round is played with each player taking turns to do one of the actions outlined above. The round ends after one player chooses (or is forced) to pass. The other player leads to start a new round.
Continue playing until one player empties their hand of cards.
Game End
If you empty your hand of cards, the game ends immediately. You win!
If you want to have a longer session, switch dealers and play a match (Best of 3).
Dock Variant
This variant provides a slightly different experience from the main game.
Additional Melds: Two new meld types are added to the game. You may now also play a:
- Run of 2: Exactly two (2) cards of consecutive rank. (Suits do not matter).
- Run of 4: Exactly four (4) cards of consecutive rank. (Suits do not matter).
That's it.
Hickory Variant
This variant provides a slightly different experience from the Dock variant.
Additional Melds: As in Dock, two new meld types are added to the game. You may now play a:
- Run of 2: Exactly two (2) cards of consecutive rank. (Suits do not matter).
- Run of 4: Exactly four (4) cards of consecutive rank. (Suits do not matter).
But, also:
In the cases outlined below, you may now alter the previous meld by adding one (1) card to it:
- If the previous meld was a single, double, or triple, you can beat the previous meld by playing a higher ranking meld of the same type OR you may now add one card to the previous meld to form a double, triple, or quadruple.
- If the previous meld was a single, run of 2, or run of 3, you can beat the previous meld by playing a higher ranking meld of the same type OR you may now add one card to make it a run of 2, run of 3, or run of 4.
You CANNOT add a card to a quadruple or to a run of 4; you would have to beat these melds with a higher-ranking meld of the same type.
Credits
Designers: Hanibal Sonderegger & Sean Ross
Playtesters: Mark S. Ball, Robert B, Emmy Caldwell, Teak Caldwell, Ryan Campbell, Martin Griffiths, Hunter R. Hennigar, Daniel Kenel, Adam Kramer, Carol LaGrow, John Owen, Lucinda Owen, Taylor Reiner, Bram Tebbut, Peter Winckles, Daniel G Vieu.
Licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA).