Lucky Luau
Lucky Luau Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Contents
- 4 Red Flowers
- 5 Blue Flowers
- 6 Pink Flowers
- 7 Yellow Flowers
- 8 Ti Leaves
- 2 Mega Leaves
- 6 Spacers
- 2 Purple Flowers
- 2 Orange Flowers
- 2 Green Flowers
- 2 Rainbow Flowers
- 6 Kukui Nuts
- 6 Fish Hooks
- 6 Knives
- 16 Characters – 8 cards dual sided
- 6 Point & Scoring Reference Cards
Overview
Lucky Luau is played by drawing flowers and stringing them to your lei. Since you are stringing them one after another, you may only continue in one direction; cards must be placed from left to right.
Whoever has the best scoring lei when the cards run out is the winner.
Each card has a point value in the upper left and a scoring condition in the text box at the bottom.
Tip: Most Flowers and Leaves score for being next to flowers of the same type. Rare Flowers, Nuts, and the Mega Leaf have special scoring rules.
The number in the upper right corner is the quantity of that card type in the deck.
Example of Scoring a Flower
For example, to score points for a Yellow Flower, it would need to be next to another Yellow Flower or a Rare Flower that gives points for being next to Yellow Flowers. A single Yellow Flower on its own will not give you any points at the end of the game.
Multiple Yellow Flowers next to one another will all score 2 points each at the end.
Game Setup
Each player starts with a Knife, a Fish Hook, and a Spacers card. Each may only be used once per game. Each player also gets a random Flower Reference / Scoring Example card.
3 Guest cards are drawn at random and placed near the center of the table so all players can see the bonus scoring for the round.
The other Guests won't be used for this game.
Shuffle the rest of the cards into a big pile and place them face down in the center of the table.
How to Play
On your turn, draw 1 card from anywhere in the pile. You may keep it and immediately string it to your lei, or toss it back to the pile face up.
- Cards strung to your lei must go left to right and may not be moved once placed.
- You may draw face up cards that other players have tossed back.
- If you draw a face up card, you must string it to your lei and cannot toss it back.
- You may shuffle the pile around as you'd like.
- No cards are kept in hand.
The player with the highest Scoring Example card goes first, then play continues clockwise.
The game ends when there are no cards left to take from the center of the table.
All players score their leis, adding any bonuses from the Guest cards, and the player with the highest total wins!
Scoring: Since a lei turns into a necklace when completed, the first card may also score points when paired with the last card on your lei.
Special Cards
Knife
The Knife may cut any 1 card from your lei. Remove that card from the game. This may be done at any point during the game on any player's turn, or at the end of the game after all cards have been drawn from the pile.
Fish Hook
The Fish Hook scores 10 points for being the center card on your lei or 5 points if off by 1 card.
(ex: 5 on the left, 6 on the right)
You may string it before or after you draw, but it must be placed in order while stringing other cards.
Spacers
The Spacers act as a placeholder, allowing you to keep a gap in your lei to place on later. The Spacers may be placed at any time, before or after you draw, and on any player's turn. The Spacers count as a card on your lei for purposes of Guests, the Fish Hook, or the Knife.
Kukui Nuts
Kukui Nuts do not need to be adjacent to score. They give 2 points for having just 1, 4 for having 2 anywhere on your lei, 8 for having 3, and 16 for having 4. No additional points for having above 4.
Mega Leaf
The Mega Leaf gives you 1 point for every leaf anywhere on your lei - including itself or the other Mega Leaf. Regular leaves will score when next to a Mega Leaf.
Rainbow Flowers
Rainbow flowers act as a wild card, allowing you to score it as any non-Rare flower (Yellow, Pink, Blue, or Red) it is next to. You may only choose one color, it cannot be scored twice.
Rare Flowers
Orange, Green, and Purple act as two colors and score when next to one or both colors that it is made of.
Example: If you have a Yellow Flower next to a Rare Green Flower, they would score 2 points each. If you have a Blue Flower on the other side of the Rare Green Flower, it would score all three cards as 2, 6, 4.
It does not matter which side the flowers are on.
Sample Lei & Scoring
A sample lei is shown on the rulebook page with the following scoring:
- Blue = 4 points for pairing with Rainbow Blue on the other end
- Pink = 3 points for being next to Purple
- Purple = 7 points for being next to both Pink and Blue
- Spacers were replaced by Blue
- Blue = 4 points for being next to Purple
- Knife was used to cut/remove Yellow
- Fish Hook = 5 points for being off by 1 from the center
- Kukui Nut = 2 points for having 1 of them
- Blue = 4 points for being next to Rainbow
- Rainbow acting as Blue = 4 points
Total: 33 points, plus any Guest bonuses.
Tiebreaker
In the event of a tie, flip the first Guest card to the opposite side, then compare scores. Repeat with additional Guests until the tie is broken.