Volle Scholle
Volle Scholle Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Players, Age, Duration
3-4 players, ages 8 and up, about 20 minutes per game.
Components
72 penguin cards
3 sets of 4 different colours, with values from 1 to 5 points, plus 12 jokers worth 2 points.
18 ice floe cards
- 2 x value 2
- 3 x value 4
- 4 x value 6
- 4 x value 8
- 4 x value 10
- and 1 "Melting Ice Floe" card
Setup
- Separate the penguin cards from the ice floe cards, then shuffle the penguin deck. Deal face up 12 penguin cards (4 cards to each player if there are three players, or 3 cards to each player if there are four players). Place the remaining cards in a face-down draw deck.
- Set aside the final "Melting Ice Floe" card from the ice floe deck.
- Shuffle the remaining ice floe cards. Take 4 cards from them face down and add them to the "Melting Ice Floe" card. Now shuffle these 5 cards, stack them face down, and put the remaining ice floe cards on top. Ice floe cards will be drawn from this deck during the game.
Turn Sequence
- Turn over the top card of the ice floe deck.
- The first player (in the first round, the youngest player) plays one penguin card face up from their hand. The next player clockwise must lay out in front of them one or more penguin cards of the same colour and of greater value, or skip the turn (pass).
- Going around in this way, each player must lay out one or more cards.
- A player who did not pass must, in the next circuit, again raise the bid, adding cards of the current colour to those already laid out in front of them so that the sum of points of all their cards on the table exceeds the sum of the previous player.
Joker: The two-point joker can be added to cards of any colour or played on its own, but a round cannot be started with it.
- The round continues until all players have exhausted their possibilities to play (all pass). The player who remains last receives the ice floe card and places it face up in front of them.
- Then all players who played cards in this round draw cards from the penguin deck:
- A player who played no cards this round receives no new cards.
- A player who played 1 card receives 1 new card.
- A player who played 2 penguin cards receives 2 cards.
- A player who played 3 or more penguin cards also receives 2 cards. If a player plays more than two cards in a round, the number of cards in their hand decreases.
When the penguin deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled and becomes the draw deck again.
- At the end of the round, the player who won the ice floe card discards their played penguin cards face up onto a discard pile, which is placed next to the penguin draw deck. The other players in turn decide whether to discard their played cards likewise face up onto the discard pile, or to place them face down next to themselves. These face-down penguin cards form, at the end of the game, the penguins that bring victory points and that will need to be seated on the won ice floes.
Example of one round
An ice floe card worth 6 points was revealed.
- Alexander lays out a blue three. Boris must raise the bid and lays out a blue four. Vika has only two blue twos in hand. Since she must play a bigger card, she is forced to pass. Dmitry raises the bid with a blue five and additionally lays out a blue one, which makes 6 in total.
- It is Alexander's turn again. He plays a blue four, making 7 in total. Boris passes. Dmitry adds a two-point joker to his 6 points: 8 in total.
- Now Alexander also passes. Dmitry wins the ice floe card, which he places face up in front of him.
After this the players draw cards from the penguin deck. Alexander played 2 cards and receives 2 new ones. Boris played 1 card and likewise receives 1. Vika, who passed at the very beginning, receives no cards, since she played none. Dmitry, who played 3 cards, receives only 2 (he has fewer cards in hand).
Now Dmitry discards his played penguin cards onto the discard pile. Alexander and Boris in turn must decide whether to keep their played penguin cards for victory points or also send them to the discard pile.
Important! Once ice floe and penguin cards have been sent to the discard pile, they may not be looked through.
New Round, New Ice Floes
At the start of the next round the next ice floe card is revealed. The player to the left of the winner of the last ice floe again plays a penguin card of any colour. It may be the same colour as before or a different one. As in the previous round, the players try to win this ice floe card by laying out penguin cards of the colour being played and raising the sum of points.
End of the Game and Scoring
- The game continues until the "Melting Ice Floe" card is revealed. This means the game is over. Penguin cards remaining in the players' hands are discarded. Then each player counts their points. To do this, the collected penguin cards are turned face up (only they bring points). The final total depends also on the ice floes collected.
- First the points on the penguin cards are summed: these are the penguin points.
- Then the points on the won ice floe cards are summed: these are the ice floe points.
- From the sum of penguin points each player subtracts the ice floe points and obtains their final result.
- If a player has an equal number of penguin points and ice floe points, the result is still not zero. For example: 25 ice floe points minus 25 penguin points = 0! Result: 25 points.
- If a player has more ice floe points than penguin points, the penguin points are their result. For example: 24 ice floe points minus 20 penguin points = 4. Result: 20 points.
- If a player has more penguin points than ice floe points, the difference is doubled and subtracted from the penguin points. Thus for each extra penguin point, 2 points are lost. For example: 24 ice floe points and 27 penguin points give a difference of 3 points. This difference is doubled (= 6) and subtracted from the penguin points. Result: 21 points.
The winner is the player who has scored the most points. In case of a tie, the player who has collected more ice floe cards wins. If the result is still equal, there are several winners.