Rummikub
2 to 4 players - ± 30 minutes - based on the official rules of Goliath B.V.
Aim
Be the first to get rid of all your tiles.
What is in the game
106 tiles, 2 of which are jokers. The rest carry the numbers 1 to 13 in four colours: black, red, blue and yellow.
Setup
Lay all the tiles face down on the table, shuffle them and stack them at random in piles of seven. That is the pool. Each player draws one tile from the pool; the highest number begins. Play then goes clockwise. Put the drawn tiles back in the pool.
Each player then takes fourteen tiles and stands them on their rack.
Combinations
There are two kinds of combination you can lay on the table: a run or a group.
- Run: at least three tiles of the same colour with consecutive numbers, for example red 8, 9 and 10. The 13 closes every run; no 1 may be laid after a 13.
- Group: at least three tiles with the same number but in different colours, for example a yellow, a red and a blue 13. A group holds at most four tiles, because each colour may appear in it only once.
The initial meld
To enter the game for the first time, lay one or more runs and groups on the table, in any combination, worth at least 30 points together. If you cannot manage that, take a tile from the pool and your turn is over.
Playing on
Once you are in the game, you may add tiles to any run or group on the table and rearrange those combinations as you see fit. There are three ways of doing this:
- Adding: you add one or more tiles to an existing run or group.
- Combining: blue 8, 9, 10 is on the table. You have blue 11, black 8 and yellow 8. Add the blue 11, take the blue 8 away and use it to make a group of 8-8-8.
- Splitting: red 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 is on the table. You have a red 6. You may now split the run into red 4, 5, 6 and red 6, 7, 8.
At the end of your turn every combination on the table must be valid again and consist of at least three tiles. If you cannot lay anything, take a tile from the pool.
Note: everything on the table is shared. Nobody owns a run or a group.
The joker
The joker stands for any colour and any number, including in your opening meld. If you use it there, it counts for the value of the tile it replaces. Once a joker is on the table, any player may swap it for the tile of the right colour and value. The freed joker has to be played again straight away and may not be put on your rack.
Winner
The first player to get rid of all their tiles. The others add up the numbers on their remaining tiles as penalty points; a joker on the rack counts as 25. The winner scores the total of those penalty points as plus points.
Playing against the clock (variant)
For extra tension, each player gets two minutes per turn. Anyone who runs over takes back onto their rack any tiles that are not in a valid combination and picks up three penalty tiles.