Description

Garner is a combinatorial card game for two players where you seek to collect a majority of cards in a majority of suits. It is played with a deck of cards containing 5 suits of 15 numbers each.

Setup:
Shuffle the deck and fan out 25 stacks of 3 cards each in a regular layout of 5 rows and 5 columns. All cards should be visible, and it should be clear which cards are on which layer of the layout. (The 25 top cards in the initial position are on the top layer, and underneath that there are two more layers of 25 cards each.)

Definitions:
Every card belongs in a number group together with all and only those cards which are connected to it by a sequence of orthogonal steps between cards with equal numbers. The members of a group all lie on the same layer.
A suit group is defined the same way, except "number" is replaced with "suit".

Play:
On your turn, you first distribute a number group, then you collect a suit group.

Distribute: Pick up a number group from the current top layer and distribute them anew on the layout. You may not place two of these cards in the same stack, and you may not place them underneath any cards. Other than that, you are free to choose any of the 25 sites in the layout. There is no limit on how many cards there can be at each site.

Collect: Pick up any suit group from the current top layer and store those cards in a personal scoring pile on your side of the board.

Ending the game:
When all cards are collected, the winner is the player whose scoring pile contains the majority of the cards in the majority of the suits.

• Add the requirement that all cards (or at least one card) in the chosen number group are in a new position after distributing.
• When distributing, cards must be moved in a straight (diagonal or orthogonal) line.

Decks you can play Garner with:
Rage
Stick 'Em
5°Dimension Playing Card Game
Sluff Off!
Tricky Bid
David & Goliath

Ways of playing with more traditional decks:

• 9 cards in 3 suits from a standard French deck.
• Layout: 9 stacks of 3 cards each in a 3x3 grid.

• 12 cards in 3 suits from a standard French deck.
• Layout: 9 stacks of 4 cards each in a 3x3 grid.
• Extra rule: You may never have exactly 6 cards in a suit in your scoring pile. If collecting a suit group would bring the number of cards you have in that suit to 6, you must leave behind a card in the layout, even if it means collecting 0 cards.

• 13 cards in 3 suits and 9 cards in 1 suit from a standard French deck.
• Layout: 16 stacks of 3 cards each in a 4x4 grid.
• Extra rule: The suit with 9 cards is worth half a suit.

• 9 cards in 4 suits from a standard French deck and 9 cards in a suit form a different deck, like a German deck or Tarot deck.
• Layout: 15 stacks of 3 cards each in a 3x5 grid.

• 12 cards in 4 suits from a standard French deck and 12 cards in a suit form a different deck, like a German deck or Tarot deck.
• Layout: 20 stacks of 3 cards each in a 4x5 grid.
• Extra rule: You may never have exactly 6 cards in a suit in your scoring pile. If collecting a suit group would bring the number of cards you have in that suit to 6, you must leave behind a card in the layout, even if it means collecting 0 cards.

—description from the designer