Description

The 80-card deck contains cards ranked from 12 to 1 based on the "Twelve Days of Christmas" Christmas carol, along with two Wild Cards. There are twelve 12s, eleven 11s, and so forth, with a single card ranked 1. The lower the number, the better the rank.

Before starting, each player draws a card to determine their position. Lowest number is the King/Queen, up to the highest number being the Junior Townsperson. The Wild card counts as 13 for this.

The deck is dealt out to all players and the object is to get rid of your cards as fast as possible. The hand begins with one person playing one or more card to the center of the table. The cards played must all be of the same rank (Wild cards may be played with any other cards). Each player in turn must now either play the same number of cards of a better rank, or pass. Play continues around the table until everyone has passed; at that point, the cards are cleared and whoever played the last set of cards leads the next round. After everyone has gone out, the players are ranked. For example, the person who first got rid of all his cards becomes the new King/Queen. At the end of each round, points are tallied based on the new position. King/Queen is 5, Prince/Princess (second) is 3, Duke/Duchess (third) is 2 and all others are Junior Townspeople are 1 point. Players then change seat position to represent the new hierarchy and begin another round. Highest score at the end of 5 rounds wins.

Gameplay is like The Great Dalmuti, except that game has a finite end after 5 rounds, and maximum players are 6 instead of 8.