Schwarz Rot Gelb Extreme
Schwarz Rot Gelb Extreme Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 80 symbol cards
- 30 point cards
Players: 2 to 6. Age: from 8 years. Duration: about 20 minutes.
Setup
Shuffle all symbol cards well and place them face down in the middle of the table, spread out irregularly. Each player draws one symbol card at the start of a round and places it face up in front of them as the starting card of their card row. Further cards are added later, to the right.
Shuffle the point cards and place them as a face-down stack. Draw as many point cards as there are players and lay them face up. The points on these cards can be won in the first round. For each further round, new point cards are revealed.
Starting setup with 6 players: the point cards shown in the example are 0, 1, 3, 3, 7 and 9.
Gameplay
All players always play at the same time. Each player takes a symbol card from the middle and checks whether it fits into their row. The new card must not match the card furthest to the right in the row in any criterion.
The criteria are:
- Number of different colours on a card (any colours). The colours are black, red, yellow, blue and green.
- Number of different shapes on a card (any shapes). The shapes are circles, triangles, squares, stars and bars.
- Total number of symbols on a card. A card can show 1 to 9 symbols.
Example card: this card shows, for instance:
- 4 different colours (yellow, red, green, blue)
- 3 different shapes (square, circle, star)
- 5 symbols in total (1 + 1 + 3)
Start of a Round
On the start signal "Schwarz, Rot, Gelb!" (Black, Red, Yellow!), each player takes a card from the middle and checks whether it fits to the right of the last card in their row. If it fits, they place it at the end of the row and immediately look for the next card. A card that does not fit is placed face up back in the middle, where any player may take it again.
Example: Günter takes a card from the middle and compares it with the last card in his row. Both cards have 4 different colours (any colours). So he places the card face up back in the middle and takes a new card.
The new card has only one colour, which is different from the last card in his row. Great!
Günter now checks the shapes on the new card. Both cards have 3 different shapes (any shapes). So Günter also places this card back in the middle and takes another card from there.
With the next card, Günter again checks the colours first and then the shapes. Both criteria are different.
He still has to check the number of symbols. This one is also different.
Because all three criteria are different, Günter places the card to the right in his row.
So each player tries to lay a row of cards from left to right in front of them as fast as possible.
The maximum length of a card row is seven cards.
End of a Round
As soon as a player has placed the seventh card to the right in their row, they call out loudly "Stopp!" and end the round. All players must immediately stop searching for suitable cards. Any card that a player is still holding to check the criteria goes back to the middle.
Scoring
To distribute the point cards, each player's row is now checked. Checking begins with the player who ended the round.
Tip: It has proven useful to check the same criterion for every card in a row before moving on: first the number of different colours, then the number of different shapes, and finally the number of symbols.
If an error is found, all cards in the row from the first error onwards are removed, even if everything after it would have been correct. The players in the following examples would therefore have 7, 2, 4, 1, 3 and 5 cards in front of them.
Example of a correct card row (columns are the cards in order from left to right):
| Number of different colours | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Number of different shapes | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Total number of symbols | 5 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 3 |
Five examples of errors (each table shows one player's row, columns are the cards in order from left to right):
Example 1:
| Number of different colours | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Number of different shapes | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Total number of symbols | 6 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
Example 2:
| Number of different colours | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Number of different shapes | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Total number of symbols | 6 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
Example 3:
| Number of different colours | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Number of different shapes | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Total number of symbols | 8 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
Example 4:
| Number of different colours | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Number of different shapes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Total number of symbols | 7 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
Example 5:
| Number of different colours | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Number of different shapes | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Total number of symbols | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 3 |
The player with the longest error-free row (at most seven cards) may take the highest of the face-up point cards. The other players follow in order of the number of cards in their rows.
If players are tied, the players involved add up the number of symbols on all their correct cards. The player with the higher total takes a point card first. If there is still a tie, the point cards that are being contested are shuffled and dealt face down to the players involved.
A New Round
After all players have received a point card, a new round begins. New point cards are revealed according to the number of players. All symbol cards go face down back into the middle and are shuffled carefully. Each player again takes a starting card, and the next round begins.
End of the Game
The game ends after five rounds. Players add up their points. The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the player with the higher point card, or the higher point cards, wins.