Figaro Game Rules

Are you ready to dive into the exciting world of Figaro? This classic game has been around for generations and is loved by people of all ages. I’m here to guide you through the rules of the game, so you can start playing and having fun!

Objective: The goal of Figaro is simple – be the first player to get rid of all your cards. Setup: To start the game, shuffle the deck of Figaro cards and deal 7 cards to each player. Place the remaining cards face-down in a draw pile. Gameplay: The player with the highest card in the “1” suit starts the game. If no one has a card from the “1” suit, the player with the highest card overall starts.

On your turn, you must play a card that matches the suit or rank of the card on top of the discard pile. For example, if the top card is a “4” of clubs, you can play any “4” or any club card from your hand.

If you cannot play a card, you must draw a card from the draw pile. If the card you draw can be played, you may play it immediately. Otherwise, your turn ends.

Special Cards: Figaro has a few special cards that can help or hinder your progress.

– Reverse: When you play a Reverse card, the direction of play is reversed. If the game was going clockwise, it now goes counterclockwise, and vice versa.

– Skip: When you play a Skip card, you can skip the next player’s turn.

– Draw Two: When you play a Draw Two card, the next player must draw 2 cards and their turn is skipped.

– Wild: A Wild card can be played on any card. When you play a Wild card, you choose the new suit for the game.

Winning: The first player to get rid of all their cards is the winner of the round. The other players count the total value of the cards remaining in their hands and add them to their score. The game continues with additional rounds until a player reaches a predetermined score.

Now that you know the rules of Figaro, grab a deck of cards and gather your friends. It’s time to start playing and see who will become the ultimate Figaro champion!

• Get ready for an exciting card game called Figaro! Inside the box, you’ll find everything you need to play:
• 60 cards
• 15 road pieces
• a castle wall
• a King figure with a wooden base
• a linen bag
• a rulebook

Let’s Get Set Up!

Before we start our first game, let’s carefully remove all the pieces from their frames. The King figure goes into his wooden base, and the road pieces go into the bag.

How to Play

Figaro is played in three rounds. Before we begin, we need to randomly select road pieces from the bag for each of the three rounds. You’ll need to have one less road piece than the number of players in the game for each round.

#image.jpg For example, if there are five players, this is how many road pieces you’ll need for the game.

When I sit down to play the game, the first thing I do is reach into the bag and pull out the road pieces. I divide them into three groups, making sure to put the pieces of the same length together. I set the castle wall aside for now, since I won’t be needing it until later on in the game.

#image.jpg Castle Wall

Once the road pieces are sorted, it’s time to start the first round of play. I shuffle all the cards and deal them out evenly to all the players.

If there are only three players, we follow a special rule. We remove one of the five colors from the game, along with two jester cards and three “ring-around-the-rosey” cards. This ensures a balanced and fair gameplay experience.

Before we begin, someone needs to be chosen as the starting player. We can either decide on this ourselves or leave it up to chance. The starting player also gets the King figure as a special token.

The game is played in turns, in clockwise order. When it’s your turn, you have to pick a card from your hand and play it facing up in front of any player, including yourself. The card will reveal one of Figaro’s silly actions that made the King angry! Remember these rules when you play your card:

• Each player can only have cards of one color in front of them. Once a color card is played, all other cards in front of that player must be the same color (or a joker).
• No two players can have cards of the same color in front of them. Each player must have a different color in front of them.

When a player has cards with a total value of 6 or more in front of them, the King has had enough! That player must collect all face-up cards from all players and keep them in a face-down stack in front of them.

It doesn’t matter who played the last card. The player who collected the face-up cards takes the next turn and plays one card from their hand. Then play continues in a clockwise direction.

#image.jpg The King has had enough!

Hey, listen up! The King is sick and tired of everything going on, and he’s putting his foot down! Now, I’m going to explain how this game called Figaro works, so pay attention.

When it’s your turn to play a card, you might find yourself in a tricky situation where you can’t actually play any cards because everyone already has cards of that color. Don’t worry, it happens. In that case, you’ll have to take all the face-up cards and put them in your secret pile, face-down. It’s not the ideal move, but sometimes you have no choice.

Now, here’s another thing you can do on your turn – if you’re feeling like things aren’t going your way and it’s getting worse by the minute, you can decide to just take all the face-up cards instead of playing a card normally. Sometimes, it’s better to cut your losses and accept your fate.

End of the Round

Listen closely, because this is important. The round comes to an end when a player starts their turn with no cards left in their hand. When that happens, be sure to announce it, so we all know that the round is about to wrap up. Oh, and the player who triggers this gets to grab the King figure. That’s right, they become the new ruler!

In this game, I get to count the cards in my stack. I don’t even have to pay attention to what the cards are worth! I just focus on the number of cards.

Once everyone has counted their cards, we figure out who has the most. That person gets the longest road piece for the round. They put it right in front of them so everyone knows they’re the winner. The person with the second most cards gets the second-longest road piece, and so on.

But what about the person with the fewest cards? Well, they don’t get a road piece at all. It doesn’t matter if they have zero cards or just a few. No road piece for them. And if there are multiple players with no cards, none of them get a road piece – we put those pieces back in the bag.

If there’s a tie for the most cards, things get a little tricky. The player who’s closest to the King (starting from the player on the King’s left) gets the longer road piece. So it pays to be close to the King!

After shuffling the cards, they are dealt out again for the next round. If you have the King, it’s your turn to play first.

Now, let me explain a special rule for the third round. When the third round ends and before assigning the road pieces, we have a little twist. The player with the fewest cards, or if there’s a tie, the player with the King, or the player closest to the King in clockwise order, gets to exchange their longest road piece with the shortest one for that round. This adds an element of surprise and strategy to the game!

But wait, there’s a note I need to mention. If all your road pieces are actually shorter than the shortest road available, you don’t have to make the exchange. So it’s not a rule set in stone.

Now, I want to emphasize something important. You can’t count the cards in the stacks during the round. It’s against the rules! Also, you can’t compare your road pieces with what other players have. That’s just not fair. However, you can try to convince the other players to turn against the leader. It’s all part of the game, after all.

Now, let’s talk about some special cards!

When you play a “ring-around-the-rosey” card, you place it face up in front of you. Then, you pass the face-up cards in front of yourself to the player on your left! Don’t forget to include the card you just played.

Jesters are special wildcard cards that can represent any color. Even with six players, you can play jester cards in front of the sixth player when all five colors have been played by the other players.

If you only have jesters and ring-around-the-rosey cards in front of you, your color is unknown. Any color card can be played on you, as long as it doesn’t match a color already in front of another player, of course.

End of the Game

The game comes to an end at the conclusion of the third round. At this point, each player gathers their road pieces and lines them up against the castle wall.

If you’re the player with the shortest road, you’ve got the advantage – you’re closest to the castle, and that means you win! Your Figaro is the one who gets the job done.

If there’s a tie, the person who wins is the one with the King, or the person closest to the King in clockwise order.