Sono – learn to play with

By: Dennis B. B. Taylor

SONO

Hey there! Welcome to the world of Sono, a game designed by the brilliant Reiner Knizia. In this game, we’re going to challenge each other to build the most impressive rows or columns and score some major points. Sounds exciting, right?

THE CARDS & THE DEAL

First things first, let’s talk about the cards. We’ve got a deck of 25 cards here. It includes all the 9s up to the Aces of each suit, and we’ve even got a special Joker card. Keep that Joker separate for now, we’ll be needing it later. Alright, now give the deck a good shuffle and deal out ten cards to each player face down. Take your time, one card at a time.

Once everyone’s got their ten cards, we’re going to take the remaining five cards and place them face down in a diagonal line. These cards are important because they represent the rows in our tableau.

THE PLAY

Hey there! Let me tell you about the exciting game of Sono. When you play Sono, you get to choose a card from your hand and place it on the tableau, which is a 5×5 grid we all share. The goal is to create rows if you’re not the dealer, or columns if you are the dealer.

Here’s how it goes: during your turn, you pick a card from your hand and place it on the tableau. The trick is that you can only place a card next to another card that’s already on the table. So choose wisely!

But wait, there’s more! When you have a face-down diagonal card with two adjacent cards next to it, that card can be flipped over and revealed. And here’s the catch: once all five of the diagonal cards are revealed, you must show your remaining cards for the rest of the game. Just lay them face up on the table, easy as pie!

Ready for the thrilling part? Once all the cards have been played, the game comes to an end. Exciting, right?

Now, let’s talk about scoring!

Once you’ve finished filling out the grid, it’s time to calculate your score. Here’s how you do it:

If you have a pair in a row, you get 1 point.

Two pairs in a row will earn you 2 points.

Hitting three of a kind in a row is worth 3 points.

If you manage to get a full house in a row, that’s 5 points.

A straight in a row is also worth 5 points.

Getting four of a kind in a row will give you 6 points.

And if you get five of a kind in a row, wow, that’s worth a whopping 10 points!

Now, let’s talk about clans. A clan is when you have five red cards, five black cards, five numbered cards (including aces), or five face cards. If you manage to do that, you’ll earn 3 points.

When it’s time to calculate your score, you have the option of using the Joker card. You can place the Joker card on top of any one card in order to get the highest score possible. Just remember, you can only use the Joker once.

Winning

When the game is over, the player with the highest score wins.

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