Line-it Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• What Makes a Line?
  • Number Cards
  • Bet Cards
  • Scoring Stack
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Set Out the Market
  • 2. Play a Turn
  • 3. End of the Round
• Win a Jackpot
• End of the Game

Contents

• 100 Number cards (divided into 4 colors)
• 6 Bet cards (3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5)
• 6 Bonus/Penalty tokens (+3/-3, +4/-4, +5/-5)
• 4 Jackpot tokens (1 for each color)
• 1 first player token

What Makes a Line?

A line is made up of several Number cards and a maximum of 1 Bet card.

You can only have a single line in front of you at one time.

To start a line, you place a Number or Bet card in front of you. This card can either come from the "market" or your hand.

The second Number card you add to your line determines whether the line is ascending or descending. The Bet card does not count.

• Ascending: Each card played must have a higher value than the previous card.
• Descending: Each card placed must have a lower value than the previous card.

Number Cards

A Number card has a color and a number. The numbers range from 1 to 100 and are divided into 4 colors. Each number only appears once in the deck and there are 25 cards in each color. Each color shows one of four symbols.

Bet Cards

Each of the Bet cards has a number between +3 and +5. This number indicates the number of points you will win (or lose) when you complete your line.

To win the points on the Bet card, place down the corresponding number of Number cards (as specified on that Bet card) after the Bet card. If you do not have enough Number cards, you lose that number of points (see "2 - Completing a Line").

Reminder: You can only have 1 Bet card in your line.

Scoring Stack

When you gain cards, place them face down in front of you to form your scoring stack.

Each Number card in your pile will earn you 1 point at the end of the game.

Setup

1. Shuffle the Number and Bet cards together to form the draw pile.
2. Place the 4 Jackpot tokens face up, next to the draw pile.
3. Decide who will play first and give them the first player token.

How to Play

In Line-it, you play until the draw pile runs out. During each round of the game, you will draw cards to complete your line, and can try to win a jackpot or make a bet.

Each round of the game has 3 steps:

1. Set out the market
2. Play your turns
3. End of the round

1. Set Out the Market

At the start of the round, draw as many cards as the number of players plus 2, then place the cards drawn face up in the middle of the table.

These cards form the market.

2. Play a Turn

Take turns to play, starting with the player with the first player token and going around clockwise.

On your turn, you will:

• Take a card from the market (mandatory).

You may also:

• Play a card from your hand (optional).
• Complete your line (optional).

Take a card from the market

When you take a card from the market, you may either add it to your line immediately or put it in your hand.

You can only have 2 cards in your hand at any point.

Important: If you can neither play the card you've taken from the market nor add it to your hand, you must complete your line so that you can play that card.

Play a card from your hand

At any point during your turn, you can take one, and only one, card from your hand and add it to your line.

Complete your line

You can complete your line at any point during your turn.

If you have played a Bet card, start by checking:

• If you have met the conditions, exchange your Bet card for the corresponding Bonus token: +3, +4, +5.
• If you haven't met the conditions, exchange your Bet card for the corresponding Penalty token: -3, -4, -5.

Then you discard 3 cards from your line and add the remaining cards to your scoring stack, face down.

Example: Alan completes his line. He has successfully placed 4 cards after his Bet card and so exchanges this card for a +4 token. Then he discards 3 cards and adds the remaining cards to his scoring stack. Alan scores 10 points in total (6 + 4) for this line.

3. End of the Round

After each player has taken their turn, the round ends. The remaining Number cards from the market are placed under the Jackpot token for that color. The Bet cards are discarded.

The player with the first player token passes it to the player on their left and the players begin a new round.

Win a Jackpot

When you add a third card of one color to your line, put all the cards from that color's jackpot pile into your scoring stack.

Important: You can only win one jackpot per color for each line.

Example: Simon adds a red card to his line, bringing his total number of red cards to 3. He wins the red jackpot, containing 4 cards, and adds those cards to his scoring stack.

End of the Game

When there are no longer enough cards to play a new round, the game ends.

The final cards of the draw pile are placed under the corresponding Jackpot tokens.

The first player plays one more card from their hand, followed by the next player and so on.

Each player must then complete their final line and add up their points.

Each Number card in your scoring stack is worth 1 point, and then add or subtract any Bonus or Penalties gained from your Bet tokens.

The player with the highest score wins the game.

In the event of a tie, the players share the victory.