Jalape-NO! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Card Anatomy
• Game Setup
• How to Play
• Game Play Examples
• Taking Tricks
• Scoring
• Credits

Components

• 108 cards in 6 colors with values from 1 to 18
• Rulebook

Card Anatomy

Every card in Jalape-NO! has these features:

Card value — Ranges from 1 to 18. The number always matches the type of food dish. For example, every Jalapeno is a 1.

Card suit — Shown with both a color and a symbol. The symbol always matches the color.

Player numbers — Shows whether this card is used with a particular number of players or not.

Game Setup

To set up for the number of players in your game, go through the deck and look at the small numbers at the bottom of each card. If your number of players is marked on the card, put that card in the active pile of cards to use. If your number of players is not marked on the card, put it aside. You can quickly divide the cards into two piles this way. Put the unused cards back in the box.

EXAMPLE: If you have 5 players in your game, keep all the cards that have a "5" in the player numbers, and leave out all the cards that do not have a "5". All the cards you need for a 5-player game are marked with a "5", so you don't need to think about any other numbers.

Shuffle the active cards and deal 12 cards to each player. Anyone who was dealt any Jalapeno cards must immediately place them face-up on the table in front of them. Jalapeno cards score a penalty if you still have them at game end. Only Jalapeno cards are ever kept face-up on the table this way.

Choose a starting player by any method you wish (for example, you could pick the person who most recently ate spicy food).

How to Play

The starting player begins by choosing one card from their hand or one of their Jalapeno cards, then playing their choice face-up in the center of the table.

The card played by the starting player determines the lead color, which all other players must use, provided they have at least one card of that color in their hand or in their Jalapenos. In clockwise order, the other players play one card from their hand or from their Jalapenos. Those who do not have the lead color can play a card of any other color from their hand or from their Jalapenos.

Game Play Examples

The starting player chooses to lead a RED card. On your turn, you must also play the lead color if possible. These are the possibilities:

• You have RED and other colors in hand, and you have a RED and another Jalapeno on the table. You can play any RED card from your hand or your RED Jalapeno.
• You have RED and other colors in hand, but only a Jalapeno of another color on the table. You must play a RED card from your hand.
• You have no red cards in hand, but you have a RED and another color Jalapeno on the table. You must play your RED Jalapeno.
• You have no red cards in hand, and no red Jalapeno on the table. You can play any card from your hand or your Jalapenos.

Taking Tricks

One turn of each player choosing and playing a card is called a trick. The player who played the highest value card that matches the lead color wins the trick. Cards that do not match the lead color cannot win the trick, no matter how high their value.

If you win the trick, you take those cards. If any Jalapeno cards are included, immediately add them to your collection of Jalapenos, face-up on the table, which you can play in future tricks. Place any other cards you won face-down in a pile. They are not used again until the end of the round.

As the winner of the trick, you become the new starting player.

Players continue playing tricks until at least one player has no cards left in their hand. The round ends after that trick, and any cards a player has remaining in hand are placed in their own face-down card pile.

Scoring

Each Jalapeno card is worth -2 points. Each card in your pile that matches the color of one of your Jalapenos is worth -1 point.

All other cards in your face-down pile score 0 points. If you don't have a Jalapeno card, you don't get any penalty points.

At the end of a round, the player with the most penalty points becomes the starting player for the new round. After 5 rounds, the player with the fewest penalty points wins.

Credits

A Game by Michael Kiesling, Wolfgang Kramer Illustration by Danny Aldana www.25thcenturygames.com | www.playte.com © 2023 25th Century Games. All rights reserved.