The Incomplete Guide to Nice Little Card Games

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine breaeareaeareaeareaeareaeaks!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, the play time should probably have been listed as 20-30 minutes.

(Future entries will be rechecked. And. Line. Broken. Into. Submission.)

Another get-the-fewest-points game, in which all players
choose the card they’re going to play at the same time.

6 nimmt! (aka Take 6(!), Take 5(!), Category 5, and Slide 5)
2-10p (very few or many players not recommended) / 8^ / 45m

The object of the game is to score the fewest points, which come from
cards that players will be taking over the course of the game.
The game consists of a deck of cards numbered 1-104 (we’ll talk about
how many points they’re worth later). Gameplay revolves around four
piles of cards. One card is placed on each pile to start, and the players
each start with 10 cards in their hands.
In a round, each of the players chooses one of their cards to play and
places it face down before them. The players then reveal their cards
simultaneously, and the cards are then placed onto the different piles
in lowest-to-highest order, as follows.
Each card is placed on the pile whose top card is the closest to it from
below (the highest number that is still lower than the card’s number).
For example, the 100 would always go on top of the 99 if it was there,
followed by the 98, etc.
If a card is not higher than any of the top cards of the 4 piles,
the player whose card it is must choose a pile and take all the
cards in it to keep, and the card they played then becomes
the top (and only) card of that pile.
If a pile reaches 6 cards, the player whose card was the 6th
must take the first 5 cards to keep, and the card they played
then becomes the top (and only) card of that pile

After 10 rounds, the players have no cards left. Scores are counted up,
and if any player has a score higher than 66, the game ends, and the
player with the fewest points is the winner. If no player has reached
66 points, all the cards are reshuffled and the game starts again,
with players keeping the points they had scored so far.

The point values of the cards are as follows (they have point symbols
on them, so players don’t have to remember all of this when scoring):
Numbers ending with a 5 – 2 points.
Numbers ending with a 0 – 3 points.
Doubled-digit numbers (11, 22, etc.) – 5 points.
“55” – 7 points (it’s doubled and ends with a 5).
All other numbers – 1 point.

This game is pretty high on luck. For a little more predictability and less
chaos, use only cards equal to the number of players times 10, plus 4
more, starting from 1. (For example, with 4 players, 1-40, plus 41-44,
or with 3 players, 1-30, plus 31-34.)

Just redoing No Thanks! (partially rewritten and with variants added).
There will be one more game of taking the fewest points, and then I
think you’ll see a Chanukah-candle-themed game, followed by a few
with food themes (everyone likes food, right?).

No Thanks!
3-5p (3-5 players) / 8^ (age 8 and up) / 20m (Play time: 20-30 minutes)

The object of No Thanks! is to score the fewest points, which come
from cards that players will be taking over the course of the game.
Each card will score as many points as the number on it at the end
of the game; however, if a player has cards with consecutive numbers
(e.g., 11, 12, and 13), only the lowest of those numbers will score.
So, how do you actually play?

The deck consists of 33 cards numbered 3-34. After shuffling them,
9 are removed at random ( face down) and will not be used.
Each player is given 11 tokens, each of which is worth -1 point at the
end of the game, which they keep hidden (any additional tokens
they get during the game are kept along with the starting tokens).
A player is chosen to take the first turn, and the top card of the
deck is revealed, making it available to be taken.
On their turns, players must choose either to keep the currently
available card or place one of their tokens on it (saying “No thanks!”
is optional). If they choose to place a token on it, the next player in
clockwise order must then choose whether to keep the card and
the token or place one of their own tokens on it, and so on.
When a player keeps a card (and the tokens on it), they reveal the
top card of the deck and take another turn. Play continues in this
manner until the last card has been taken. The scores are counted,
and the player with the fewest points wins.

Some variant rules:
You can play with open tokens (which prevents players from taking
cards you didn’t expect them to because they had no tokens left).

To play with a 6th player (and only the included components),
you can give each player only 9 tokens at the start of the game
(I don’t know if I’d recommend this, but you can try it out).

You can play the game as many times as there are players, with each
player taking the first turn once, and have the lowest total score win.
(You can play 3 times, with the player whose score was lowest in the
previous round taking the first turn in the second and third rounds,
and have the lowest total score win.)

The official variant – Instead of removing 9 cards, remove the 10, 20,
and 30 before shuffling the deck, then remove 6 cards after shuffling.

We’ve passed Chanukah, so I’m going to forget about Candle Quest
(by Yehuda Berlinger) for now. Food themes may happen eventually.
For now, here’s a game you can play without having to actually buy it.

Kobayakawa
3-6p (I’ve heard it’s best with 4) / 8^? / 15-20m

You will need:
Cards numbered 1-15
4 tokens per player, plus 8

Initial setup:
Players start with 4 tokens. Another 8 tokens are placed in the center.
Choose a starting player.

Round setup:
In each round, the deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt a card.
One card is put in the center, face up. The rest of the cards remain
as a deck in the center.

Playing a round:
On their turn, players take 1 of 2 possible actions:
1. Draw a card, then discard either of your cards face up.
2. Replace the center card with the top card of the deck.

After each player has had a turn, each player (in turn order) must
choose whether or not to pay a token to stay in the round.
The players who paid then reveal their cards. The player with the
lowest card adds the value of the center card to their own card,
and then the player with the highest card wins all of the tokens paid
that round, plus 1 token from the center. They also become the first
player for the next round. At this point, players with no tokens left
are eliminated from the game.

Play 7 rounds. In the last round, you must pay 2 tokens to stay in
(exception – if you only have 1, you can pay 1), and the winner of
the 7th round gets 2 tokens (not 1) from the center.
After the 7th round, the player with the most tokens is the winner.

And here we go with the food.

Sushi Go! / Sushi Go Party!
2-5p (Party!: 2-8p ) / 7^ / 20-25m

A simple drafting game. Players simultaneously choose one card
from their hand to keep, reveal them, and pass their hand to the
next player. This is repeated until all the cards have been taken.
The players score points according to their cards and then discard
them. After 3 rounds of this, the player with the highest score wins.
That’s the whole game right there. But how do the cards score?
(On each card is a reminder of how it scores, so players
don’t have to constantly remember all of the following.)

Nigiri (yellow): Scores its printed value from 1-3 points.
Wasabi (yellow): Wasabi scores no points by itself. The next Nigiri you
keep goes on top of your Wasabi – it scores 3 times its printed value.

Tempura (purple): Each set of 2 Tempura cards scores 5 points.

Sashimi (green): Each set of 3 Sashimi cards scores 10 points.

Maki Rolls (red): Each Maki Roll card has a value from 1-3.
The player with the highest total of Maki Rolls scores 6 points,
and the second-highest total, 3 points.
(If players tie for first, they split the points and no second place
points are awarded; if players tie for second, they split the points.)

Dumplings (blue): The more Dumplings you have, the more you score.
One Dumpling=1 point, two=3, three=6, four=10, five (or more)=15.

Puddings (pink): Unlike the other cards, Puddings are not discarded
at the end of each round, and are scored only at the end of the game.
The player with the most Puddings scores 6 points, and the player
with the fewest Puddings loses 6 points (both are split if tied). Also,
if 2 players tie for most points, the player with more Puddings wins.
(In a 2-player game, the one with fewer Puddings doesn’t lose points.)

Chopsticks: Chopsticks score no points at the end of the round.
However, they are useful while you have them. If you already
have a Chopsticks card, when choosing a card, you can shout
“Sushi Go!” and choose 2 cards to keep instead of 1. If you do,
you must put the Chopsticks into that hand of cards.

Those are all of the cards in Sushi Go(!). Sushi Go Party! is played the
same way, but includes more cards of each type, allowing for 3 more
players, and more types of cards in each color – the players choose a
type for each color during setup (recommended setups are included).
Additionally (of particular interest to frum Jews), S.G. Party includes
a scoreboard and pawns so that scores don’t have to be written down.