Ninety Nine (2025)
Ninety Nine (2025) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 110 Number Cards: values 0 to 10, in 10 different colours (each value appears once in each colour)
- 3 Info Cards: "same colour", "plus 1" and "sum 10"
Personal Card Row
Each player builds a personal card row beside them during the game. Whenever it is your turn, you must place exactly one card into your card row. The first card of the row may be any value. Every following card must be higher than the one before it, reading from left to right, although gaps of any size are allowed. Each new card is always added to the far right of the row.
Very important: each colour may appear only once in your card row.
The more cards are in your row, the more points it is worth. A row of 1 card is worth 1 x 1 = 1 point, a row of 2 cards is worth 2 x 2 = 4 points, a row of 3 cards is worth 3 x 3 = 9 points, a row of 4 cards is worth 4 x 4 = 16 points, and so on.
Example: Tim's row currently consists of 5 cards, so it is worth 25 points (5 x 5). The next card in Tim's row must be higher than 8. It may not be red, yellow, green, grey or light blue.
Setup
- Place the 3 Info Cards face up side by side in the middle of the table. They show the three ways of playing cards onto the piles: same colour, plus 1, and sum 10.
- Shuffle the 110 Number Cards and deal them as follows:
- Each player takes 6 cards into their hand.
- Each player takes 15 cards and places them face down in front of them as their personal draw pile.
- Place two cards face up below the 3 Info Cards in the middle of the table, about 10 cm apart. These two cards form the start of the two shared discard piles.
- All remaining cards form a face-down reserve pile at the edge of the table.
- One player is chosen as the scorekeeper. They take a pen and a sheet of paper and make a table listing all players.
Note: because the game is a race, the scorekeeper should regularly tell the other players how many points they have, or how many points they still need to reach 99.
Turn Structure
The player to the left of the dealer begins. On your turn you have exactly 6 cards in hand, and you carry out three actions in order:
- Action A: place exactly one card from your hand into your personal card row.
- Action B: play up to 5 cards from your hand onto the two shared discard piles.
- Action C: draw cards until you again have 6 cards in hand.
Then the next player clockwise takes their turn and carries out the three actions in the same way.
Action A: Add to Your Card Row
You must place exactly one of your 6 hand cards into your card row, never more than one. As described above, the numbers must increase from left to right and no colour may appear twice.
Example: Sarah starts the game. She places the purple 1 as the first card of her personal card row, to the right of her draw pile. That is all for Action A. She then continues with Action B.
Very important: if a player cannot legally add any card to their row, they must immediately score the entire current row and clear it. The cards of the cleared row go to the edge of the table, next to the reserve pile there. The points are noted in the table. The player must then place one card from their hand to begin a new card row.
Note: on your turn you may also voluntarily score and clear your existing row. This is possible both before and after playing your card. So you may either play 1 card and then score voluntarily, or score voluntarily and then play 1 card. After that, continue with Action B.
Action B: Play Onto the Shared Discard Piles
The player may now play cards into the middle of the table onto the two shared discard piles: as many as they can and want, including all five. They place the cards one at a time, in sequence. Only the top card of each discard pile matters for playing onto it.
Each of the three ways of playing (same colour, plus 1, sum 10) may be used any number of times, including several times in a row. The player decides in which order they use the ways of playing and on which pile they play, and may switch between the piles as they wish.
Note: if the player does not want to play any card, they simply do not do so.
There are three ways of playing:
- Same colour: play a card of the same colour as the top card. For example, purple onto purple, or yellow onto yellow.
- Plus 1: play a card one higher than the top card. For example, an 8 onto a 7, or a 2 onto a 1. Note: you cannot go higher than 10. If a 10 is on top of the pile, "plus 1" cannot be applied to it.
- Sum 10: play a card so that it and the top card add up to exactly 10. For example, an 8 onto a 2, or a 0 onto a 10. The top card of the discard pile plus the played card therefore add up to exactly 10.
Example: Sarah plays "same colour" (dark blue 9 onto dark blue 2) and then "plus 1" (black 10 onto dark blue 9), both onto the left discard pile. She then plays "same colour" again (red 4 onto red 7), followed by "sum 10" (orange 6 onto red 4).
Action C: Draw Cards
The player draws as many cards from their personal draw pile as needed to have 6 cards in hand again. This ends their action, and the next player clockwise takes their turn in the way described above.
Example: Sarah draws 5 cards from her personal draw pile and so has 6 cards in hand again. It is now Tim's turn.
Note: once the player's personal draw pile is exhausted during Action C, the game is briefly paused. The player immediately receives 15 new cards from the reserve pile at the edge of the table and places them face down as their new personal draw pile. In addition, 15 points are immediately noted in the table for the player. The game then continues as normal. It pays to empty your personal draw pile quickly, because then you receive 15 points every time.
Note: if the reserve pile at the edge of the table runs out, all cards of the two discard piles (except the top card of each) and all cards that have been set aside are shuffled and prepared as a new reserve pile.
Attention: to all experienced players, once they recognise the ways of playing quickly enough, we strongly recommend the Pro Variant (see the end of the rules). The Pro Variant brings more dynamism to the game, and you can sometimes make up a larger point deficit through the extra turns it generates.
Ending the Game
Play continues clockwise in this way. Points that players gain during the game (by scoring card rows and by emptying their draw pile) are always noted in the table immediately and added up. As soon as a player reaches or exceeds 99 points, they immediately win the game.
Pro Variant: Extra Turn
Players who know the game and are comfortable with it should play the following Pro Variant. All the rules described above remain completely in force, with this addition:
If a player manages to play all of their cards onto the discard piles during Action B, then, following Action C, they draw as many cards from their draw pile as needed until they again have 6 cards in hand, and they are immediately due to play again. They therefore immediately carry out one further complete turn (with Actions A, B and C, exactly as described).
Note: it is possible, though rather rare, to generate several extra turns in a row in this way, which is of course really great.
The key to victory is recognising the ways of playing onto the middle of the table (first this card, then that one, then the next...). It is more often possible to generate an extra turn than one thinks. Sometimes it makes sense to start or continue your personal card row with a high card, or to score your row voluntarily early, so that you can then generate an extra turn.