Countdown

Countdown is a physical card game for 2 or more players

Materials:

• 1 Standard deck of playing card, jokers removed
• A set of small objects (ex: glass beads) or some other method of visually representing the countdown

Rules:

Objective:

To end the game with the best Poker hand. Note: in Countdown, a Full House is ranked just above a 3 Of a Kind, the rest of the rankings are unchanged

Setup:

• Deal 5 cards to each player
• Start the countdown at 3 + twice the number of players
• Flip the top card from the draw pile onto the open discard (see screenshot for table setup)
• The player to the left of the dealer starts

On Your Turn

1. Draw from the draw pile or take cards from the open discard pile until you have 6 cards in hand
2. Play 1 or more cards from your hand onto the open or closed discard pile

The Countdown

• Decreases whenever a card is played on the closed discard pile
• Decreases when the dealer ends their turn
• When the countdown reaches 0:
  • Starting with the player after the player whose turn it is, each player with a hand of less than 5 cards draws from the draw pile or takes cards from the open discard pile until they have a hand of 5 cards
  • The best Poker hand wins. Note: in Countdown, a Full House is ranked just above a 3 Of a Kind, the rest of the rankings are unchanged

Credits:

Walker McDonald: Lead Designer

Clayton McDonald: Designer

The McDonald Family: Playtesting