River (2012)

Requires: Standard 52 card poker deck with 2 jokers.

Theme
Grab your friends and go rafting down the river! Whirlpools will send you for a spin! Be the best rapid wrangler to win!

Gameplay
Setup
Shuffle the deck.

Each player draws 10 cards minus how many players there are. (ex. 4 players, draw 6 cards). The remaining cards are placed in the middle and are known as the Pile.

Turn Order
Turn Order
Start Oour Turn
a) Draw a card from the Pile…
b) Or, place 1 Jack, Queen, or King back into the bottom of the Pile to draw 2, 3, or 4 cards respectively.

Build a Raft
2) Place cards down on the table to start building rafts. You can swap cards in and out of your hand and onto rafts to improve the point totals of rafts.

End Your Turn
a) Play an Ace card…
b) Or, play a Joker card…
c) Or, End your turn.

What is a Raft
Building a Raft: Every raft that has 4 numerically consecutive cards and a face card on top is considered a complete raft. You may continue to improve complete rafts. Card suits do not matter.

Friendly Competition
Playing an Ace Card: This is called a Whirlpool. Say "Whirlpool", show the players your Ace, and put the ace into the deck. Every player places their hand into the deck. Shuffle the deck and draw the same number of cards you had before the Whirlpool (ex. if you put 6 cards into the deck because of the Whirlpool, draw 6 new cards).

Playing a Joker Card: This is called "Let's go down the river". Say "Let's go down the river", show the players your Joker, and put the joker at the bottom of the deck. Each player takes all of their incomplete rafts and puts them back into the deck. Shuffle the deck. Each player gathers all of their complete rafts and puts them aside to now be counted as points. These rafts are no longer in play.

Progress
Ending the Round: The round ends when a player is unable to draw cards from the Pile. The player with the highest point total wins that round.

Calculating Points: Points are calculated by adding up the number cards into a total. Then, add the face value cards into the total. Jacks are worth 1, Queens are 3, and Kings are 5 additional points.

Goal
Have the highest point total at the end of 3 rounds.