Pass Pass Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Individual Mode
  • Playing a Round
    • 1. Playing a Card
    • 2. Winning a Trick
    • Examples of the 4 Different Situations That Could Occur
    • 3. Getting a Pass Pass
  • Round End
  • Pass Pass Victory
  • Points Victory
• Team Mode (4 or 6 Players)

Components

48 cards showing 3 pieces of information:

• A color: purple, blue, green or yellow;
• A value: between 1 and 12;
• 0, 1, 2 or 3 diamonds.

1 score pad.

Setup

Shuffle the cards and deal out 8 cards (one at a time) to each player, face down. Set the remaining cards aside for now.

The most cunning player plays first.

Individual Mode

A game plays out over a maximum of 3 rounds.

Playing a Round

A round is made up of 8 tricks.

On their turn, each player will play one card. The players who win the trick will take cards, which will score them points and will help them get a Pass Pass.

1. Playing a Card

Starting with the first player and going around clockwise, each player plays a card from their hand, face up, in the middle of the table.

Players can choose to play any card, irrespective of the color and value of the card played by the first player.

The backs of the cards give information about the colors that the players have in hand. They must always be visible.

However, players must not give precise information about the value of their cards.

2. Winning a Trick

Once each player has played a card, you need to determine who has won the trick.

1. Players first determine the majority color, i.e. the color with the highest total value.
2. From among the players who have played a card of the majority color, the player who played the card with the highest value chooses one of the cards played and places it in front of themselves. Note: The number of diamonds doesn't affect the card's value when determining who won the trick.
3. The player who played the card with the second highest value of the majority color takes the two lowest value cards and places the cards in front of themselves. If there is a tie between more than one card, the player chooses the cards they want to take. Note: If there are 3 players, this player will have to take the 2 remaining cards.
4. Discard the rest of the cards as they will not be used for the rest of the round.
5. The player who won 2 cards begins the next trick/next round.

Examples of the 4 Different Situations That Could Occur

Example 1: The cards are all the same color.

1. David starts and plays the purple 10.
2. Stephanie plays the purple 11. Alex wins with the 12 and so wins a card of his choice (the 12, for example), which he places in front of himself. Stephanie played the purple card with the second highest value (the 11) and so wins the 2 cards with the lowest value (the 6 and the 10), which she places in front of herself.
3. Alex plays the purple 12.
4. Fiona ends the trick by playing the purple 6.

Example 2: More than one card creates the majority color.

1. David starts by playing the purple 10.
2. Stephanie plays the blue 11. The players with purple cards win with the 10 and the 6 (10 + 6 = 16), because blue has a value of 11 and green has a value of 4. David played the highest value purple card and so wins a card of his choice (for example, the 4). Fiona played the second highest value purple card (the 6) and so wins the two lowest value cards (the 6 and the 10).
3. Alex plays the green 4.
4. Fiona ends the trick by playing the purple 6.

Example 3: Only one card determines the majority color.

1. David starts by playing the purple 10.
2. Stephanie plays the blue 11. If only one player played a card of the majority color, the second winner is the person who played the highest value card in the next highest value color group. Stephanie wins with the 11, and David is second, with the 10. Where there is a tie, as is the case with the purple player (10) and green players (4 + 6 = 10), the highest value card always wins.
3. Alex plays the green 4.
4. Fiona ends the trick by playing the green 6.

If Fiona had played a 7, there would have been a tie for first between Stephanie's blue card (11) and the green players (4 + 7 = 11). Stephanie would still win with the 11, but this time Fiona would be second, with the 7.

Example 4: The cards played are identical or there is more than one majority color.

1. David starts by playing the purple 10.
2. Stephanie plays the green 10.
3. Alex plays the purple 6.
4. Fiona ends the trick by playing the green 6.

If there is a tie between more than one majority color, the highest value card always wins the trick. However, if there is also a tie between the highest value cards, the player who played first wins it.

David wins with the 10, followed by Alex with the 6.

3. Getting a Pass Pass

When a player has 4 different colored cards in front of themselves, they get a Pass Pass and immediately mark this on the score pad.

Round End

If no player gets their third Pass Pass by the end of the round, players count up their points as follows:

• 1 point per card;
• 1 additional point for each diamond on their cards.

Then shuffle all the cards, including the ones you put aside during setup, and start a new round. (You play a maximum of 3 rounds.)

Example of scoring one player's cards at the end of a round: this player has won 6 cards, which earns them 6 points, and 3 additional points, because there are 3 diamonds on those cards. The player earns a total of 9 points.

During the round, this player checked off 1 Pass Pass, as they had 4 different colored cards. If they had had another blue and another yellow card, they would have checked off a second Pass Pass.

Pass Pass Victory

At any point in any of the rounds, if a player checks off their 3rd Pass Pass, they immediately win the game without anyone's points being counted up.

If the two winners of the trick win cards that enable them both to get their third Pass Pass, the player who gets it first wins the game.

Points Victory

At the end of the third and final round, if no player gets 3 Pass Passes, the players add up their points from all 3 rounds.

The player with the most points wins the game.

In the event of a tie, the player with the most Pass Passes wins. If there is still a tie, the players share the victory.

Team Mode (4 or 6 Players)

The players divide into two teams, sitting in between each other.

The game is played similarly to the individual mode but with a few differences.

Each player on the team counts up their points and their Pass Passes at the end of the round. However, each team marks down the score (points + Pass Passes) of just one player in that team. They will therefore need to decide together, at the end of the round, which player's score will be marked down for that round.

During a round, if a player accumulates enough Pass Passes for their team to reach 3 Pass Passes (counting the Pass Passes from previous rounds), their team immediately wins.