RAT RACE

How to Play Rat Race

Aim: Finish the five-round game with the lowest score. Keep your card values low, use Solidarity to make matching cards score 0, and try to Clock Off before your opponent to bank Speed Bonuses.

The cards: Rat Race uses two standard packs, including the Jokers. From each pack, remove the Jacks, Queens and Kings (the Establishment). Keep the Aces, cards 2–10 and both Jokers, then shuffle the two packs together. Ace = 1; cards 2–10 score their face value; each Joker is a Wild Rat.

Setting up a round: Each player is dealt nine face-down cards in a 3×3 grid. Do not look at them. Each player reveals any two cards in their own grid and adds their values; the player with the lowest total goes first. Those two cards are then turned face down again. The remaining cards form the Draw Pile and the top card is turned face up to begin the Discard Pile.

Taking a turn: Either take the top card from the Discard Pile or draw the top card from the Draw Pile. If you take the discard, you must use it to replace any card in your grid, whether that card is face up or face down. The replaced card goes face up onto the Discard Pile and the new card stays face up in your grid. If you draw from the Draw Pile, you may replace a grid card in exactly the same way, or reject the drawn card by placing it on the Discard Pile; if you reject it, you must reveal one of your own face-down cards. Once a card in your grid has been revealed, it stays face up unless it is replaced.

Solidarity (VERTICAL): At the end of the round, each of the three vertical columns is scored separately. If two cards anywhere in the same column have the same value, they have Solidarity and both score 0; only the unmatched card counts. They do not need to be next to each other. If all three cards match, the whole column scores 0. If there is no match, all the cards score normally. For example, 6–6–2 = 2, 6–2–6 = 2, and 6–4–2 = 12.

Wild Rats: A Wild Rat is wild for matching. In a vertical column it can copy the value of another card to create Solidarity. For example, Rat–6–2 = 2. If the Rat could match either of two different cards, it takes whichever value gives you the lowest column score. A Wild Rat can also count as a matching card in a Walkout.

Walkout (HORIZONTAL): If all three cards in a horizontal row are face up and have the same value, a Walkout happens immediately. A Wild Rat may complete the matching row. Remove all three cards and put them face down in the Burn Pile; they are permanently out of the game and score nothing. The remaining two rows slide together, leaving you with a 3×2 grid for the rest of that round. You can have only one Walkout per round. With two cards now remaining in each vertical column, a matching pair has Solidarity and scores 0; otherwise both cards score normally.

Clocking Off: The first player to have no face-down cards left Clocks Off. The other player gets one final turn, then the round ends. The player who Clocked Off banks a −3 Speed Bonus. The bonus is not deducted from that round's score; it is saved until the end of the five-round game.

Scoring the round: Reveal any cards still face down. Score each vertical column using the Solidarity and Wild Rat rules above, then add the three column scores together for your round score. Cards removed by a Walkout are already in the Burn Pile and score nothing. Record the round scores without applying Speed Bonuses.

Next round: Cards still in the players' grids are returned to the cards in circulation and combined with the Draw and Discard Piles, then shuffled for the next round. Cards in the Burn Pile stay out of the game permanently.

Winning: After five rounds, add each player's five round scores. Then subtract 3 points for every Speed Bonus that player banked. The player with the lowest final score wins. If the final scores are equal, the game is a tie.

FIND SOLIDARITY. WALK OUT. CLOCK OFF.