Rommé rules

Overview

• 2 to 4 players, each playing alone.
• Goal of a round: be the first to get rid of all your cards.
• Goal of the game: finish with the lowest penalty total. Players tied on the lowest total share the win.
• By default every player deals once, so a game has as many rounds as players. It can be set from 1 round up to 5 rounds per player.
• Play goes clockwise.

Cards

• Two standard 52-card decks plus 2, 4 or 6 jokers.
• 2 to 10 are worth their pip value, in a meld and as a penalty in your hand.
• J, Q and K are worth 10, in a meld and as a penalty.
• An ace in a meld is worth 11. Depending on the game, an ace that starts a run (A-2-3) is worth 1 or 11. As a penalty it is worth 11.
• A joker in a meld is worth the card it represents. As a penalty it is worth 20, 30 or 50.

Setting up

1. The first dealer is chosen at random. The deal then passes clockwise each round.
2. Each player receives 13 or 14 cards.
3. Either the next card is turned face up to start the discard pile, or no card is turned up and the dealer receives one extra card instead.
4. The remaining cards form the face-down stock.
5. The dealer starts the round. With a turned-up card they play a normal turn. With an extra card they skip the draw.

Melds

• A meld has at least 3 cards and is a set or a run.
• Set: 3 or 4 cards of the same rank, all in different suits.
• Run: 3 or more consecutive cards of the same suit.
• Aces are high or low: Q-K-A and A-2-3 are valid.
• Depending on the game, runs may wrap through the ace: K-A-2 and Q-K-A-2-3 are valid, and an ace after a king is worth 11. Otherwise an ace may only end a run or start one.
• No rank may appear twice in a run, so a run has at most 13 cards.

Jokers

• A joker can stand in for any card.
• A meld must contain at least 2 natural cards, so joker + joker + natural card is not valid.
• Two adjacent jokers are allowed in a run of 4 or more cards.
• Depending on the game, a run may contain no more jokers than natural cards, or any number of jokers as long as it has 2 natural cards.
• A joker in a run represents the exact card at its position. When you place a joker at the open end of a run, you choose which end.
• A joker in a set represents the card you name when placing it, which must be a suit not already in the set. For example, ♠7 ♥7 Joker named as ♦7 can only take ♣7 as a lay-off.

Your turn

1. Draw one card, from the top of the stock or the top of the discard pile.
2. Play if you wish: in any order, lay down melds, lay off cards and exchange jokers.
3. Discard one card face up.

Taking the discard

• A card you took from the discard pile may not be discarded again in the same turn.
• Depending on the game, you can take the card freely, whether or not you have opened. Otherwise it must go on the table that turn, in a new meld or as a lay-off, and you can only take it if such a play exists.
• A card that must be played counts towards an opening, so you may take it before opening if you can open that turn.
• This also applies to the card turned up at the start of a round.

When the stock runs out

• The stock is checked before each draw. If it is empty, all discards except the top card are shuffled to form a new stock.
• This can happen 1, 3 or 5 times in a round, or with no limit. With no limit, a round can in principle go on indefinitely.
• If the stock is empty and no reshuffle is left, or there are no discards to shuffle, the round ends with no winner.

Opening

• Your first play is your opening: new melds from your hand totalling at least the opening minimum of 30, 40, 50 or 51 points.
• You may combine several melds to reach the total. Only new melds played before your first lay-off of the turn count. Depending on the game, your first joker exchange also ends the count.
• A joker counts as the card it represents: ♠10 ♠J Joker, with the joker as ♠Q, is worth 30.
• You cannot lay off until you have opened, but you can in the same turn, once your opening is on the table. Depending on the game, the same goes for joker exchanges, or you may exchange a joker while opening and use it in your opening melds.

After opening

• New melds have no point minimum.
• You may lay off cards on any meld on the table, your own or an opponent's. A set can never exceed 4 cards.
• Laid cards stay on the table. They cannot return to your hand or be discarded, and melds cannot be rearranged. Joker exchange is the only exception.

Joker exchange

• You may take a joker from a meld on the table by replacing it with a natural card, leaving the meld valid. Depending on the game, you must have opened first, or you may do this while opening.
• In a run, the natural card must be the exact card the joker represents.
• In a set, it depends on the game: the natural card must be the exact card named for the joker, or that card and only on a 4-card set, or any suit missing from the set.
• The joker you take cannot go to your hand. You must play it in the same turn, in a new meld or as a lay-off.

Going out

• The round ends immediately when a player has no cards left.
• Depending on the game, you must finish with a discard, so you may not make a play that leaves you no card to discard. Otherwise the final discard is optional, and your last card may instead be melded or laid off.
• Hand-Rommé: if you have not melded before, you may play out your whole hand in a single turn, whatever opponents have done. You may use new melds, lay-offs and joker exchanges, and the opening minimum does not apply. The rule for your last card still applies, and all penalties for that round are doubled.

Scoring

• The player who went out scores 0 for the round.
• Every other player adds the penalty value of the cards left in their hand.
• If a round ends with no winner, every player adds the penalty value of their hand.
• All penalties are doubled after a Hand-Rommé.

Rule sets

A game uses one of three rule sets. Classic and House 51 fix every rule. With Custom, each rule is chosen when the game is set up. The number of rounds is chosen with any rule set.