DuCo
DuCo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 75 cards
- Rules
Summary
Score points by matching cards with colored icons next to each other. Find the best location to maximize your score and get to 50 points!
Preparations
- You will need a pen and paper to write down the scores.
- Shuffle the cards and stack them face down.
- Draw 9 cards and place them in a cross.
- Each player draws one card from the stack.
- The player with the most colorful clothing goes first.
Playing
On your turn, place your card so the icons at the edges match up in color or shape with the icons on adjacent cards.
When you play your card, you may rotate it to get a better match.
Scoring
When you've placed your card, compare the icons that are now touching other cards. Corner icons may need to be compared with two icons. Each match is scored separately and if the icons match in either shape or color, you score points.
You get 1 point if the colors or the shapes match. You get 2 points if both the colors and the shapes match.
All your points are combined and added to your total score. Once scored, draw your next card and the turn continues to the next player.
You only score horizontally and vertically and the DuCo logo at the center of each card is only used in special game modes.
Rectangle Rule
If a rectangle or a square is formed at any time, draw four cards and add one to the center of each of the sides before play continues. If a side has an even number of cards, place it next to either of the centered cards. The player who placed the previous card decides the location before looking at the new card.
Winning
When a player reaches 50 points, finish the round so all players have played the same number of cards. The player with the most points after this wins!
Players finishing on a tied score will share their position.
Special Icons
Icons with 2X doubles the score for the icon being scored.
If either colors or shapes match, you get 2 points. If both colors and shapes match, you get 4 points.
Matching a 2X icon with another 2X icon gives you 4X and quadruples the score.
Icons with the Rainbow Color are all colors at the same time. They match with every color, including other Rainbow Color shapes.
Icons with Any Shape are all shapes at the same time. They match with every shape including other Any Shape icons.
A match with a Rainbow Colored icon and an Any Shape icon counts as a match of both Color and Shape and gives you 2 points.
Scoring Examples
The printed manual shows two example layouts: the first scores 4 points, and the second scores 17 points.
Advanced Rules
The following optional rules and game modes can be added to the game individually or combined with other rules and modes.
- Change the winning condition to 75 points.
- Each player has only 10 seconds to play their card.
- Allow diagonal scoring.
- Always have 3 open cards as your hand.
Extra Game Modes
Rotation
When placing a new card the active player may rotate one already placed card on the table before scoring.
Lineup
Place 5 cards in a row where all players can see. Instead of drawing a random card to play, the active player chooses one of the cards on either end of the row and plays it instead. When a card has been selected and scored, add a new card to the center of the line. No cards are held between rounds.
Disorder
Players are allowed to place cards without perfectly matching the edges. A card can be played even if it overlaps multiple edges or sticks out from the edge of another card.
Chaos
Start the game with a 3x3 grid of cards. Players are now allowed to place cards overlapping other cards. The center squares count as colored icons that can't be matched against shapes.
Corner Cluster
(The printed page carries no separate heading for the following three modes; they are listed here as the remaining extra game modes.)
Start the game with a 5x5 grid of cards. The goal is to have a set of four corner icons with the same color touching. Once per turn you may switch places of two adjacent cards and rotate one card.
It is possible to get more than one set of four corner icons at the same turn, if you do, score all sets at the end of your turn.
When one player has scored 5 sets of cards, finish the current round so each player has taken the same amount of turns and the player with the highest amount of sets wins the game.
Stress
Sort the cards in stacks by the color of the center square. Each player takes 10 cards from one of the stacks and discards the rest. Players draw cards from their own stack.
Players play simultaneously with their own cards. When a player has placed all of their cards, they start a countdown of 30 seconds. Any unplayed cards after this time is up are not played or scored.
Conquest
For 2-4 players. Sort the cards in stacks by the color of the center square. Each player takes 10 cards from one of the stacks and discards the rest. Players draw cards from their own stack.
Place 5 cards like a cross with the center square of an unused color.
Do not count scores when placing a card. When the game is over the players count the score for all the cards of their color.
Players also get +3 points for each of the cards connected to their largest group of connected cards.
The printed diagram key reads: "No bonus for Green", "Bonus 12 points" (blue swatch), "Bonus 6 points" (green swatch). The printed key does not state explicitly which group each bonus applies to beyond the swatch colors.