GAP Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Game Setup
Round Setup
Gameplay
End of the Game
Round Flow
What Happens When You Play a Card
End of a Round
- Example 1
- Example 2
Credits

Components

50 cards: 5 colors numbered 0 - 9 (with adjacent numbers noted).

Game Setup

Depending on the number of players, you may first need to remove some cards (return them to the box):

2 players - Remove any 2 colors (20 cards total).
3 players - Remove any 1 color (10 cards total).
For 4 or more players, use all the cards.

Find something to keep track of your points (a paper or your phone). Decide on a point total to play to. For example:

Short game: 15 points
Medium game: 30 points
Long game: 70 points

Alternatively, you can decide on a specific game length instead of a point total.

Round Setup

Shuffle the cards and deal a hand of cards to each player:

2 - 4 players: 6 cards per player.
5 - 6 players: 5 cards per player.

Deal 4 additional cards face-up in the middle of the table. Place the remaining cards face-down in a stack next to them.

Keep your hand cards hidden from the other players.

Gameplay

A game is played over multiple rounds. In each round, you'll play the cards in your hand to collect cards from the middle and place them in front of you. At the end of the round you'll score for the color you collected the most of, minus the color you collected the least of. (This will be explained in more detail below.)

Keep playing new rounds until someone passes the predetermined point total.

End of the Game

The player with the most points at the end of the round when any player reaches the point total, wins the game!

In case of a tie, the tied player who scored the highest total in any single round wins. If still tied, the winner is the player who scored the highest round first. Or else you can always just play another round to determine the winner!

Round Flow

In a round, players take turns clockwise around the table. Choose the first player using whatever method your group prefers.

On your turn, you must play 1 card from your hand - placing it face-up on the table in front of YOURSELF.

What happens then will depend on what numbers are face-up in the middle row (see below).

The color of the cards only matters at the end of the game.

What Happens When You Play a Card

If 1 or more cards in the middle are the same number as the played card:

Take ALL the matching number cards and place them face-up on the table in front of yourself with the card played.

Example: You play a 2, and so must take all 2s from the middle.

OTHERWISE — If any cards in the middle are numerically adjacent to the played card (the 2 numbers under the small symbol in the corners):

Take one card that matches the lower number and one card that matches the higher number. Even if there are multiple cards that qualify, you will only select one higher and one lower card at most. Place the selected cards including the card you played face up on the table in front of yourself.

Example: You play a 0. There are no 0s in the middle. 9 and 1 are the numbers adjacent to 0. You must take a 9 and a 1 if possible. There are no 9s, but you must take 1 of the 1s (your choice).

OTHERWISE — If the played card has no matching cards and no adjacent cards in the middle:

Add the played card face-up to the middle row.

Example: You play a 7. There are no 7s in the middle. 6 and 8 are the numbers adjacent to 7, but there are also no 6s or 8s in the middle. You must add your played 7 to the middle row. On the following turn there will be 5 cards in the middle row.

You must take the required matching cards from the middle if they are available. If cards matching your played number are present you may not choose to take adjacent numbers instead. You may, however, freely choose which of your hand cards to play based on what cards are in the middle row. In this way, you can try to avoid taking cards you don't want.

If there are less than 4 cards in the middle row at the end of your turn, add new cards face-up from the stack until there are 4. If the stack is empty, continue playing normally with less than 4 cards in the middle. Eventually the middle row may even be empty! This is a good time to get rid of cards you don't want!

Organize the cards face-up in front of yourself by color. Place each color in a row so all players can see how many cards of each color you have. NEVER return cards to your hand!

The player to your left then takes the next turn. Do NOT draw new hand cards from the stack!

The round ends when all players have played all the cards in their hands (see below).

End of a Round

When everyone has played all the cards from their hands, score the cards face-up in front of yourselves. (See the examples below!)

Scoring:

Count the number of cards of the color you have the most of. If you have multiple colors tied for the most, add the cards of all these colors together. This is your positive point score for the round.

Then count the number of cards of the DIFFERENT color that you have the least of. If you have multiple colors tied for the least, add the cards of all these colors together. This is your negative point score for the round. Ignore colors that you have none of (see example 1 below). Colors that you have none of, do not count against you in scoring. The only way to completely avoid minus points is to collect the same number of all the colors you have (see example 2 below).

The numbers printed on the cards don't matter when scoring. Only how many cards you have of each color matters.

Subtract the minus points from the positive points to get your total score for the round. It is possible for your total score to be negative. Record your round score on your paper/phone. Start a new round if no player has yet reached the agreed on game point total. The player to the left of the previous start player begins the next round.

Example 1

MOST: 4 red = +4 points. LEAST: 1 yellow and 1 blue = -2 points (-1 each).

The total score for this round is 4-2 = 2 points. Green and purple are not scored. Green because it is neither the most nor the least, and purple because you have not collected any.

Example 2

MOST: 4 red and 4 green = +8 points (+4 each). LEAST: No other colors collected, so no minus points!

The total score for this round is 8 points. The 3 colors not collected have no effect on the score.

Credits

Design: Frank Noack, Rico Besteher – Art: Ronny Libor

Additional assistance: Sven Göhlich, Ryan Palfreyman, Claudio Priore, Maria Klug, Yara Lal Thiel, Quint Wheeler, Anke Lehné, Jonas Schmidt, Monika Harke, Mareike Lepszy, Uwe Koppitz, Björn Kruse, Sonja van der Wyst

Special thanks to Roland Goslar, Inka & Markus Brand, and everyone who tested the game at Leiriacon and Tillis game cafe!