RUTHLESS!

RUTHLESS! is an online card game for two to six players, built on the oldest rule in the family: match the top card by colour, number or symbol. What it adds is everything that makes that rule dangerous. Draw penalties go up to ten cards and stack on top of each other, every 7 forces a swap of whole hands, and a player who reaches 25 cards is out of the round on the spot.

It is the third game in this catalogue that we made ourselves, next to Toy Soccer Cup and STORMHAWK, so this page describes it from the inside.

The deck has 168 cards, sixty more than a standard deck of this kind, and the additions are almost all punishments. That changes how a game feels from the first turn. Emptying your hand is still the goal, but so is not drowning on the way there — and some games are won by the one player nobody managed to bury.

The three rules that make it merciless

Stacking. A +2 can be answered with a +2, +4, +6 or +10. A +10 can only be answered with another +10. The chain keeps growing until it reaches somebody who cannot or will not answer. Skips and Reverses do not stack, and there is no challenge rule for any draw card.

The 7 and the 0. Play any 7 and you must swap your entire hand with a player of your choice. Play any 0 and everybody passes their hand to the next player in the direction of play. Both are compulsory, with one exception that wins games: if the 7 or the 0 is your last card, you win immediately and the swap never happens.

Out at 25. Reach 25 cards in hand and you are eliminated from the round. A meter under each player's avatar turns red as they approach the line, so you usually see it coming — which is worse, not better. Holding nineteen cards, a Wild Draw 6 does not hurt you. It removes you.

Cold Blood, the rule that is only here

No official rulebook has this one. Once per game you can freeze a penalty aimed at you: you draw nothing but lose your turn, and your next draw card is worth double. Everybody at the table sees your token change, so they know you are armed.

It exists because the worst moment in this kind of game is the one where you can only watch the cards pile up. It gives you one answer per game. Spending it on a +2 is the classic mistake; the moment it was made for is nineteen cards in hand and a +6 on the way.

Nine ways to sit down

The same deck plays as nine different games:

• Classic — the official rules plus Cold Blood, four to six players.
• Official rules — no Cold Blood, no extras, exactly as written.
• Table of the day — one mutator for the whole world for 24 hours, such as double punishment or sudden death.
• Arena — ranked, with points that go up and down, a weekly ranking and seasons.
• 2v2 teams — the team whose player empties their hand wins.
• Tournament — three rounds in a row, points by finishing place.
• Sprint — about three minutes: five cards to start, out at fifteen, fifteen seconds a turn.
• Draft — you are dealt ten cards and discard three before the first turn.
• Private table — a code, a link and two to six friends.

Private tables and house rules

Every card table has a player who says "that is not how we play it". At a private table the house rules are switches: stacking can be equal-or-higher, equal only or off; the 7-0 rule on or off; elimination at 15, 25, 35 cards or never; a turn clock of 10, 15 or 30 seconds; drawing until playable or drawing one; and a single game or a match to points. Whoever opens the link lands at your table.

The deck

Cards	In the deck
Numbers 0 to 9, two of each per colour	80
Skip, Reverse, Draw 2 and Discard All, three per colour	48
Draw 4 and Skip Everyone, two per colour	16
Wild Reverse Draw 4 and Wild Colour Roulette	16
Wild Draw 6 and Wild Draw 10	8

The Colour Roulette is the strangest of them: your victim picks a colour and draws, face up, until it appears — one card or fifteen. Discard All dumps every card of its colour from your hand at once, and if that empties your hand, you win.

More card games on this site

For more, browse the multiplayer games, the card games collection and the card and board games for two. If you want another shedding game from a different tradition, try WHOT, the Nigerian card game. And if you arrived from one of our other originals, Toy Soccer Cup and STORMHAWK are one click away.

1. Everyone gets seven cards. One card is turned face up to start the pile.
2. Match the top card by colour, number or symbol. Wilds go on anything.
3. Cannot play? Keep drawing. You do not draw one and pass. You draw until a playable card comes out, and then you must play it at once. One bad turn can cost six cards before you have done anything.
4. Down to one card, call it. Get caught before the next player acts and you draw two.
5. Win by emptying your hand — or by being the only player who has not been eliminated.

Three things decide most games:

• A penalty is a question, not a sentence. When a draw card lands on you, you can answer with a draw card of equal or higher value. The totals add up and move on, and whoever cannot answer eats the whole chain.
• Count the other hands. A 7 lets you swap your hand with anyone at the table. Played at the right moment, it turns fourteen cards into two.
• Hold the heavy cards. There are only four Wild Draw 10s in 168 cards. Fired on turn three at someone with seven cards, it is an annoyance. Held until somebody is about to win, it decides the game.