Take 5 & Take A Number Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Take a Number
  • Object of the Game
  • Contents
  • Setup
  • Playing the Game
  • Winning the Game
• Take 5
• Components
• Basic Rules
  • Goal of the Game
  • Getting Ready to Play
  • Create Four Rows
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Playing Cards
  • 2. Taking a Row
  • Bullheads = Negative Points
  • Your Bull Pile
• The End of a Round
• The End of the Game
• Pro Variant for 2–6 Players
• 6 nimmt! Anniversary Variant With New Special Cards for 2–8 Players
  • Setup
  • Playing the Game
    • How to Play a Special Card
  • These Are The Special Cards:
    • 5th Row
    • 7 nimmt!
    • Insert
    • Replace
    • Shift
    • Stop
    • Negative = Positive
  • Swapping Special Cards

Take a Number

Object of the Game

To score the fewest penalty points. Every card you collect counts as one or more points – the player with the lowest number of points at the end of the game is the winner.

Contents

• 100 Number Cards
• 7 Row Cards
• Instructions

Setup

1. Place the 3→, 4→, and 5→ Row Cards in a column, with the 3→ at the top.
2. Place 1 #→ Row Card face-up in front of each player.
3. Shuffle the Number Cards and deal one, face-up, to the right of each Row Card.
4. Deal 8 Number Cards to each player. All players look at their cards and form them into hands so the other players can't see them.
5. Put the rest of the deck (both Row and Number Cards) aside; you won't need these cards until the next round.
6. Each card has two parts – a number and penalty points.

Sample card labels: "This is the number" (pointing to the large number) and "These are the penalty points – each bullhead is one penalty point" (pointing to the bullheads at the foot of the card).

Playing the Game

1. Selecting Cards: Players choose one card from their hands and put it face-down on the table in front of themselves. After the last player puts a card face-down, all players simultaneously reveal their cards by turning them over.

2. Playing Cards: The player who revealed the card with the lowest number goes first for this round, by adding that card onto one of the three rows in the middle of the table. The player must play the card onto the end of a row (to the right of the last card in the row) following both of these rules:

a. Ascending Order: The number on the card must be higher than the card at the end of the row, so that the numbers in every row increase from left to right.

b. Least Difference: The number on the card must be closest to, but still higher than, the card at the end of the row.

Example: The 18, 22, and 60 were revealed. According to the Ascending Order and Least Difference Rules, the 18 and the 22 are played onto the middle row, and the 60 goes into the bottom row.

3. Playing in Turns: After the player with the lowest card plays, the player with the second-lowest card plays. Play continues until all players have played the cards they revealed. This ends the first turn. Players then choose another card from their hands and place it face-down on the table. Players reveal their cards – the player with the lowest number goes first, the player with the second-lowest card goes second, and so on. This continues until one player runs out of cards (unlike in Take 5, players will be adding cards to their hands).

4. Taking a Row: A row is full when it has the number of cards shown on its Row Card. So, for example, the top row is full when the 3rd card is played. When players play the third card in the 3→ row they must pick up all cards in that row. They then play the card they revealed to start a replacement row in the same spot as the row they took.

Example: The 59, 81, and 94 were revealed. The player who revealed the 59 must play it in the middle row. According to the 4→ Row Card, this row is full when the 4th card is played, so this player must take the three Number Cards in the 4→ row. The 59 becomes the first card of the replacement row.

5. Playing a Low Card: When players play a card with a number that is lower than any of the last cards in the rows, they must take all of the cards in the row of their choice. They then play the card they revealed to start a replacement row in the same spot as the row they took.

Example: The 43, 66, and 89 were revealed. The 43 is too low to be played in any row since it's lower than all the cards at the ends of the rows. The player who revealed the 43 must choose one row and take all the Number Cards in that row. In this example, the player takes the middle row, which only has the 59 in it. The 43 becomes the first card in a replacement row for the middle row.

6. Taking Cards: When players take Number Cards from a row, they choose one card to go into their #-Row (see #-Row and #-Pile, below) and put the rest of the cards into their hands. Starting on their next turn they may play these cards. If players only take one card, they must put it into their #-Row (they don't put any cards into their hand).

Example: This player took a row with three cards. The player chooses one to go into his/her #-Row and puts the other two cards into his/her hand.

7. #-Row & #-Pile: Players place the first Number Card they collect face-up right next to their #→ Row Card. As they collect more Number Cards, they place these cards to the right of the card at the end of their #-Row. They must follow the Ascending Order rule. Every time players must put a new card in their #-Row that is a lower number than the card at the end of their #-Row, they pick up all the cards already in their #-Row. They then put these cards face-down in an #-Pile to the left of their #→ Row Card.

Example: A player is forced to take two Number Cards that are both lower than the card on the right end of his/her #-Row. This player takes all the cards from his/her #-Row and puts them into the #-Pile, face down. One of the two Number Cards taken on this round becomes the new first card in his/her #-Row, the other one goes into his/her hand.

8. Ending a Round & Scoring: On a round when a player reveals and plays the last card from his/her hand and doesn't collect any new cards, players finish playing all the cards that have been revealed and the round ends. Players add up their scores:

a. Every penalty point (bullhead) on a Number Card still in a player's hand counts as 1 point.

b. Every penalty point on a Number Card in a #-Pile counts as 2 points.

c. Penalty points in players' #-Rows are safe – they are not counted.

Example: Hand Cards: 5 Bullheads = 5 Penalty Points. #-Pile Cards: 9 Bullheads = 18 Penalty Points. #-Row Cards: All Cards Are Safe = 0 Penalty Points. TOTAL = 23 Penalty Points.

Winning the Game

Players play two rounds in this manner and add up their scores. The player with the smallest number of penalty points wins the game.

Take 5

Components

• 132 playing cards
  • 104 number cards with values from 1–104
  • 28 special cards (4 each of Stop, Shift, Insert, Replace, Negative = Positive, 5th Row, and 7 nimmt!)
• 1 notepad

You will only need the special cards for the Anniversary Variant. Leave them in the box when playing the basic game.

Basic Rules

Goal of the Game

Your goal is to avoid taking cards. Each card you must take gives you one negative point for each bullhead printed on it. The player with the fewest points after several rounds is the winner.

Getting Ready to Play

Shuffle all the cards and deal ten to each player. One of you takes the notepad and a pencil to keep score.

Create Four Rows

Take the leftover cards and place four of them in the center of the table face-up as shown to the right. Each of these cards is the start of a row which can hold a maximum of five cards, including this first one. Put the other cards aside. You won’t need them until the next round.

Playing the Game

1. Playing Cards

Each player chooses one card from their hand and puts it face down on the table. Once all players have a card in front of them, reveal the cards.

The player who has played the card with the lowest value goes first, placing it in one of the four rows. Cards always go next to each other in their row. Next, the player with the second-lowest-value card goes, and so on, until the highest card played has been placed in a row. Repeat this process 9 more times, until you’ve played all ten of your cards.

Where do the cards go?
Each card you play can only go in one particular row, following these rules:

Rule 1: Ascending Order
The cards in each row must be added in ascending order of value.

Rule 2: Lowest Difference
Always place your card in the row where the difference between the last card and the new card is the smallest.

2. Taking a Row

As long as you can play your card in an existing row, everything’s fine. However, what happens if a row is full or your card won’t fit in any row? In these cases, you must take a row.

Rule 3: Full Row
A row containing five cards is full. If you play a sixth card into a full row, you have to take all five cards in this row. Your played card becomes the new first card for this row.

Rule 4: Low Card
If you play a card whose value is too low for it to fit in any row, you must take all the cards from one row of your choice. Your low card becomes the new first card for this row.

Hint: If a low card forces you to take a row, as a rule you should pick the row with the fewest bullheads!

Bullheads = Negative Points

Each card has at least one bullhead printed at the top and bottom between the numbers. Each bullhead counts as one point.

All cards with:
Numbers ending in 5 (5, 15, 25 etc.) have two bullheads,
Multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30 etc.) have three bullheads,
Doublets (11, 22, 33 etc.) have five bullheads.

The number 55 is both a doublet and a number ending in 5, so it has seven bullheads.

Your Bull Pile

Every time you must take a row, put the cards in front of you on your face-down bull pile.

Important: Cards you’ve taken don’t go back in your hand!

The End of a Round

The round ends when you’ve played all cards from your hands. Take your bull piles and count the bullheads (= negative points) on the cards.

The scorekeeper writes down how many negative points each player has earned, and the next round starts.

The End of the Game

Continue playing round after round, until one of you has earned at least 66 negative points. The player with the fewest points is the winner! If there is a tie, you have multiple winners.

Of course, you can choose a different target number of points or simply agree on a set number of rounds.

Pro Variant for 2–6 Players

If you love tactical play, we recommend this variant. The rules of the base game all remain valid. However, follow these additional rules:

1. You know all the cards in the game
   The cards you’ll use depend on the number of players. Multiply the player count by 10 and add 4.
   Example:
   3 players ➔ 34 cards numbered 1–34
   4 players ➔ 44 cards numbered 1–44
   and so on
   Put all higher-value cards aside.

2. Each player picks their own ten cards
   Next, spread out the cards on the table face-up. Take turns picking one card and adding it to your hand until you each have ten cards. Four cards are left over. These are the starting cards for your four rows.

   Other than that, gameplay goes just like in the basic game.

6 nimmt! Anniversary Variant With New Special Cards for 2–8 Players

Setup

Shuffle the number cards and special cards separately. Deal twelve number cards and three special cards to each player. Just like in the base game, place four number cards in the center of the table to start your four rows. Set aside the leftover number cards. The remaining special cards go in a face-down deck within easy reach of all players.

One of you takes the notepad and a pencil to keep score.

Playing the Game

All rules from the basic game remain in effect in this variant. However, you only play two rounds. The first round ends when you’ve played all of your number cards. You’ll get new number cards and more special cards for the second round.

How to Play a Special Card

Every time you would have to place the number card you’ve played in a row, you may play one of your special cards. First, place your special card next to the number card you’ve played. Then, place your number card as determined by the special card you played. Used special cards go next to the special card deck, face up.

These Are The Special Cards:

• 5th Row
• 7 nimmt!
• Insert
• Replace
• Shift
• Stop
• Negative = Positive

5th Row

When you play this card, start a 5th row. The number card you played becomes the first card of the 5th row. As long as there are five rows to place cards in, another 5th Row card can’t be played. As soon as any player must take a row, they don’t just have to put that row on their bull pile: they also take the number card they played. After that, you have four rows again.

Hint: To help you keep this in mind, place the special card to the left of the 5th row and only put it on the discard pile when you’re back to four rows.

7 nimmt!

When you play this card, you don’t have to take a full row. Instead, place the number card you’ve played in the 6th place of the full row and this special card in the 7th place. Now, whoever adds the 7th card has to take this row. The special card remains in place until that row has to be taken. The player who takes the row takes the six cards, and their number card becomes the new first card for the row. You may place this special card in the seventh place of a row even if it holds fewer than five cards at the time.

Insert

When you play this card, don’t add the number card you’ve played to the end of the matching row. Instead, insert it between two number cards in any row of your choice or even at the start of a row. The played card only has to fit in its row in ascending order. If the row is full, you’ll still have to take it. In this case, the last card in the row becomes the new first card.

Replace

When you play this card, take the number card you’ve played back into your hand. Pick another number card from your hand instead and place it in a matching row immediately. The new number card does not change the order in which the other players place their cards.

Shift

When you play this card, move any number card to another row before placing your card. The new row may contain the special card “7 nimmt!,” but not the special card “Stop.” The card you move only has to fit into its new row in ascending order. When you’re done, place the number card you played earlier at the end of a row following the normal rules.

Stop

When you play this card, place it at the end of any row before placing your number card. This row is blocked: No one can add cards to it, remove cards from it, or take the whole row. Then place your number card in another row according to the normal rules.

Important: There can only be two rows with a “Stop” card at the same time.

The next time one of you must take a row, also remove all “Stop” cards from their rows.

You may place a “Stop” card next to a “7 nimmt!” card.

Negative = Positive

You can only use this card when you’re about to take a row. It transforms the negative points of one number card from that row into positive points. Take the row and immediately subtract the bullheads on one of those cards from those on your other cards, either from the same row or that you’ve taken earlier. Put the number cards you’ve cancelled out with the leftover cards you did not use in this round. If you don’t have enough bullheads in your bull pile, the remaining positive points go to waste.

Swapping Special Cards

Whenever you take a row, you may swap one of your special cards by placing it next to the special card deck face up and drawing the top card from that deck. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discarded special cards and turn them into a new deck.

The End of the First Round

The first round ends when you’ve played all of your number cards. The scorekeeper writes down your respective negative points on the pad. Then you shuffle all 104 number cards and deal twelve to each player again. If you still have any special cards left from the first round, you may keep them for the second round. In addition, each player receives three more special cards. If you don’t have enough special cards left to give three to each player, everyone only gets two (or one).

The End of the Game

The game ends when you’ve played all of your number cards in the second round. Set aside any special cards you still have left in your hand. Write down your negative points from the second round and add them to those from the first round. The player with the fewest negative points is the winner. If there is a tie, you may have multiple winners.

Overview of the Special Cards

5th Row

Start a 5th row. If there are 5 rows already, you can’t play this card.

7 nimmt!

You don’t have to take this row when playing the 6th card, but you do for the 7th.

Insert

Play your number card in any position in any row in ascending order.

Replace

Swap your played card for another number card from your hand.

Shift

Move a number card to another row in ascending order: at the start, the middle, or the end.

Stop

Block a row. This row cannot be changed. At any time, there can only be two copies of this card on the table.

Negative = Positive

When you take a row, this card turns the bullheads on one card from negative to positive points.