Whot

The deck

Fifty-four cards: five shapes (ball, angle, cross, carpet, star) numbered up to 14, plus five Whot cards. The shapes are unevenly filled, so some numbers only exist in some of them.

A turn

Six cards each, the rest goes to the stock. Match the shape or the number of the card on top of the pile. A Whot can always be played, and playing one means naming the shape that has to follow. If you cannot play, draw instead.

Special cards

1 — Hold on

You play again.

2 — Pick two

The next player takes two, or stacks another 2 to hand it on. Chained twos add up.

5 — Pick three

The same, in threes.

8 — Suspension

The next player misses a turn. The star 8 makes the next two miss.

14 — General market

Everyone except you draws one.

Whot

Wild. Name the shape that follows.

How the hand ends

Play your last card and you win outright. Otherwise the stock is the clock: the moment it runs out, whoever is holding the fewest cards takes the hand, and every hand is turned face up.

Scoring

Cards you are still holding when the hand ends count against you. A numbered card is worth its face value, a star is worth double, and a Whot is worth 20. So carpet 14, carpet 4, carpet 2 and circle 2 comes to 22. The final table shows what each player was holding and what it added up to.

If you go quiet

Head to head gives you five minutes, then the hand is voided with no winner. At a bigger table your turn is passed after 45 seconds.