Pacal
Pacal Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Material
- 50 cards (with values 1 - 50)
- 2 player markers
- 1 game board
Getting Prepared
Place the game board between the two players. Each player chooses his marker and places it over the biggest spot on their side of the board. The rounds won will be marked this way.
Shuffle the 50 cards and give ten face down to each. With these, each player makes a pyramid of 10 cards in front of them (these cards are not in play). This pyramid is the base on which the other cards will be placed face up.
From the remaining 30 cards, each player takes 15.
Game Flow
The game is played in rounds. In each round the players have to build their pyramids block by block. The first player to win three rounds wins the game.
To determine who starts, each player shows the card from the top of his pyramid and then places it down again. The one who showed the higher value starts.
The start player offers his opponent two cards from his hand by placing them on the table face up. The opponent picks one card and returns the other. Now the card that each player received must be placed on one of the 10 fields of his respective pyramid.
Now it is the next player's turn to offer two cards face up. The game goes on with players alternately taking turns in this manner.
Building Rules
The cards must be ordered so that the highest value is on the top of the pyramid. All the other values must be ordered from left to right. On the base of the pyramid the card on the right must have the lowest value.
Once placed, cards may no longer be moved. Each card value can be covered by a second one, but each card can be covered only once.
Example: The 26 can no longer be placed, because the 33 and the 21 are already covering a card played earlier. The 17 can be placed on the 18 or the 16, since they have not been covered yet.
After each player has played 14 cards, the last card in player's hand may be built into his own pyramid, if possible.
The End of a Round
As soon as one of the players finishes his pyramid (meaning that all 10 fields are full), the round ends. This player is the winner. It's possible that both players finish their pyramids on the same turn - in such cases the winner is the one has the smallest difference between the lowest and the highest card value.
If at any point a player is unable to place his card on one of the fields in accordance with the building rules (because he has to cover a card for the second time), he immediately loses the game.
The winner of the round advances his marker on the board. Shuffle the entire deck before starting the next round.
End of Game
As soon as one of the players wins three rounds and reaches the middle spot on the board, he has won the game and may call himself the successor of King Pacal!
Solo Game
You can try the game on your own. All cards are shuffled. A pyramid is formed of 10 cards face down. The remaining 40 cards form a drawpile.
On each turn, take the top card from the drawpile and immediately try to build it into the pyramid. The same building rules as above apply.
The game is over and won when the pyramid is completed (each field is occupied). Count the number of cards used to see how well you did. The best possible result is 10 cards.
If a card no longer fits in the pyramid, you have lost - but feel free to try again.