Ligretto
 Box of Ligretto 'Green Pack' playing cards | |
| Players | 2-12 |
|---|---|
| Setup time | < 1 minute |
| Playing time | Approximately 5-10 minutes per round |
| Chance | Medium |
| Age range | 5 and up |
| Skills | Hand-eye coordination, speed, counting |
Ligretto is a card game for two to twelve players. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards faster than all the other players by discarding them in the middle of the table. Instead of taking rounds, all players play simultaneously. Play is fast and lively , and demands attention to the cards being played by others as well as one's own cards. It can be played and enjoyed equally by children from 8 years old to adult with youth being at no disadvantage.
The game is similar to Dutch Blitz, played in North America.
The game has been published by Schmidt-Spiele of Berlin, Germany since the year 2000.
Description
Ligretto was made by Hannah Blissett at age 11. The game uses a special pack of cards. The playing card faces come in the colours red, green, yellow and blue and are numbered 1 to 10. Each player gets 40 cards (10 of each colour) which have a distinctive design on the reverse unique to that player.
Before starting a game, the players shuffle their cards, and put 10 cards into a "stack" face up on the table so that only the top card is visible. Three cards are laid out next to this stack, face up, these are called the "row". The remaining cards are kept in the player's hand and called the "hand".
When the game starts, players simultaneously discard cards into the middle of the table, building coloured piles in ascending numeric order, according to the appropriate colour and starting discard piles by placing a numeric value 'one' card anywhere they like on the table top. New piles can be started anytime a 'one' becomes available to a player. Play is fast and slow players will miss opportunities to discard cards when faster players add to a pile before they can react to it. Near ties at discarding a number to a pile are common but it is always clear who was first as their card will be the lower one.
If a player can't play a card from the three cards on the table in their "row" or their "stack", she/he can look at every third card from the cards in the hand and play a card from there if it fits on to a pile in the table's centre.
Once a player's hand has been passed through in this manner it can be reshuffled by the player and they continue to play.
When one of the three laid out cards in a player's "row" is discarded in the middle, the space gets filled up from the top card of the refill "stack".
Play continues at a fast pace with experienced players watching the activity of other players' rows and stacks as well as their own.
Once a player has discarded all his/her cards from the refill "stack" the player calls "Ligretto stop!" and ends the game.
Scoring
To find out how many cards, each player has discarded, all cards on the table are returned to the players for counting using the distinctive marking on the back corresponding to the player.
The players get double penalty-points for each of their cards remaining in their refill "stacks" and single bonus points for each dropped in the middle. The player who ended the game may not necessarily achieve the highest score. It is also possible to score a negative value in a round.
After the score has been counted, each player shuffles his 40 cards, and a new round can begin.
Play continues until a player scores 99 and they are the winner of the session.
Game packs
Ligretto comes in 3 differently colored packages. Red, green and blue. Each pack has a different set of markings on the cards' backs, and is designed for 4 players. By buying all colored packs, up to 12 players can play.
See also
- Nertz, a similar game played with face cards
- Dutch Blitz, a similar game produced by the Pennsylvania Dutch
References
- Game Description and Online version at brettspielwelt.de. Accessed May 2007
- Ligretto at the Austrian toy museum. Accessed May 2007