Dumm gelaufen!
Dumm gelaufen! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Separate the cards by back design and shuffle each group well.
Each player receives one Murphy card, which they look at and place face down in front of themselves. The remaining Murphy cards are also set aside face down.
The other cards are dealt as follows: the player to the left of the dealer receives eight cards, the next player nine, the third player ten, and so on. If a player is dealt a red action card during the deal, it is immediately placed face down on a separate discard pile for action cards. That player receives a replacement card.
Then there is Mac. Mac is a fictional fellow player. He cannot win and only takes part as a passive trading partner. At the start of the game he receives seven number cards, which are laid face up on the table. If an action card (red or green) appears here, it goes onto the matching discard pile and is replaced by a number card.
The number and action cards that remain form a face-down stack in the middle of the table, the draw pile. One card from this stack is turned face up to the right of it and one to the left, but these must be number cards. If an action card is revealed while laying these out, it is immediately placed on the separate action-card discard pile.
Margin notes: 1 Murphy card per player; 8, 9, 10 etc. cards per player; Mac receives 7 cards; remaining cards form the draw pile.
Gameplay
Maggie or another player begins. Play then continues clockwise.
The task of your Murphy card can be fulfilled by laying down and taking number and action cards.
Here is how to play.
Card exchange
To get rid of cards or to receive new cards, the ONE-FOR-TWO or TWO-FOR-ONE rule always applies. That means: take one card and lay down two cards, or take two cards and lay down one card.
You must always take cards before you may lay down cards. Furthermore, you must make sure that after each take you still hold at least one number card. After all, you want to keep playing. So if you have only one number card in hand and then draw two action cards, these are immediately placed on the action-card discard pile and two new cards are drawn.
A number card that has just been taken may be laid down again immediately.
Cards can be exchanged either with the draw pile or with Mac.
Margin notes: Exchange ONE-FOR-TWO or TWO-FOR-ONE; take first, then lay down.
Exchange with the draw pile
Taken is either:
- from the face-down pile,
- from one of the two face-up piles, or
- from both face-up piles.
Laid down is either:
- onto one face-up pile, or
- onto both face-up piles.
Exchange with Mac
Exchanges with Mac are also always made in the ratio ONE-FOR-TWO or TWO-FOR-ONE. However, Mac may never hold more than seven cards after an exchange.
When exchanging, cards must always be taken from the draw pile or from Mac and also laid down there. So you may not take from the draw pile and lay down with Mac, or vice versa.
Margin note: Mac holds at most 7 cards.
Murphy cards
Basically, to fulfil the task of your own Murphy card, you may hold ONLY the cards in your hand that fulfil the task. All other number cards must first be played out. Independently of this, green action cards may be kept in hand.
Example: The task of the Murphy card is: collect only cards of one colour, which add up to no more than 29. You need at least 5 cards.
With the red 1, the red 3, two red 4s and the red 8, the Murphy card would be fulfilled. The red 7 could also be added, but with, for example, the additional green 1 the task would not be fulfilled. The sum is still below 29, but to fulfil this task the player may have only one colour (in this case red) in hand.
Margin notes: The Murphy card must be fulfilled exactly. Green action cards may remain in hand.
Action cards
Whoever draws a red action card while exchanging must show it to the other players immediately and follow it. Afterwards the turn is over. The player may no longer lay down number cards.
If a player draws two red action cards, they must follow both immediately and one after the other. The player decides which one to carry out first.
Green action cards may be collected and played at any later point in time. Instead of exchanging cards, a green action card may then be played and followed.
If following an action card means that a player no longer holds any number card in hand, that player may immediately draw one or more cards from the face-down draw pile until they hold a number card again.
Played action cards are collected on the separate discard pile for action cards.
Margin notes: Red action cards are followed immediately; green action cards may also be collected.
Discard piles
When the face-down draw pile, which contained both number and action cards, has been used up, the played action cards and the number cards of the face-up piles are shuffled together to form a new draw pile. Only the top two cards of the face-up piles remain unchanged.
Margin note: Number and action cards are shuffled into a new draw pile.
Completing a Murphy card
Whoever can fulfil the task of their Murphy card after a card exchange shows the other players their cards as proof. The player then leaves the Murphy card lying face up in front of them.
Margin note: The round winner keeps the Murphy card; the others return their Murphy cards.
End of round
All other players return their Murphy cards. Probably they were just about to fulfil their card ... had someone not got there first. Dumm gelaufen! Each player now receives a new Murphy card, which must now be fulfilled.
Each player keeps the number and action cards they hold in hand. These are played with in the next round. Of course it may now happen that the cards held in hand no longer fit the new Murphy card at all ...
The new round is begun by the left-hand neighbour of the player who has just fulfilled their Murphy card.
If the stack of Murphy cards has run out, the returned cards are shuffled and form a new face-down stack.
Margin notes: All players receive a new Murphy card. The number and action cards are kept.
End of the game
If a player has fulfilled three Murphy cards, the game ends and that player has won. (This does not call the validity of Murphy's Law into question.)