Seven Cycles

Seven Cycles is a card game I have developed. You can find the rules below, or download them as a PDF file if you prefer. 

Seven Cycles

Seven cycles is a card game for between 2 and 4 players. It is easy to learn, games are relatively short, and it can be played with just about any cards you have to hand, though depending on how many people you play with a single set of cards might not be enough.

The goal of the game is to collect as many cards as possible, by playing sets of cards, or stealing them from the other players.

Setup

Shuffle the cards, then deal cards to each player. Players start with six cards in hand, except for the player going first, who starts with only five.

Gameplay

Except for the first turn of the game, turns always begin with a draw step, where the player may draw cards so they have six in hand if they have fewer. If any opponent has more sets of cards in play, they instead draw to seven cards in hand. If they already have more than that, they do not get to draw during the draw step, though drawing as an action is still possible.

After this a player may perform ONE of the following actions:

The first possible action is to play cards in a new set. Any number of cards can be played this way, even just one. However, each set must follow at least one of the following rules:

- All cards must have the same suit. (flush)

- All cards must have the same value. (tuple)

- The cards must have ascending values. (straight)(for traditional cards, ace is adjacent to both the king and the two, allowing looping straights.)

Once a set is played this way, the cards in it can no longer be removed.

Only one set can be played this way as an action. You cannot play two different sets as part of the same action.

The second possible action is to add to an existing set. You can add any number of cards to any set that is already faceup on the table. Note that at the end the set must still follow one of the rules for sets, being either a tuple, a flush or a straight, though theoretically it could be a different one than before. Similarly to playing a set, when adding to one, you can only add cards to a single set, not to multiple ones.

Adding cards to an opponent’s set is possible, and if you add an amount of cards to a set, that is equal or greater than the number already in it, you may steal the entire set.

Lastly, if playing cards seems to risky, and adding cards is not possible, you are also allowed to draw one card as your action for your turn.

After your turn is over the next players turn begins.

Game End

This turn order then repeats until a certain number of total sets has been reached. The number is three per play plus one, making it seven for two players, ten for three players and thirteen for four players. After the last set has been played each player may perform one draw step, after which points are counted.

Each Card on a players hand grants one point.

Each Card in a set the player controls grants one point.

If the player controls a set that fulfils multiple conditions (e.g. Straight Flush) each card in that set grants one additional point.

The player with the most points wins.

There are a few optional bonus rules:

As an alternative action a player may set their entire hand facedown. This counts as a set, but does not provide any points. This can allow a player to refresh their hand though, if they have drawn particularly poorly.

Other types of cards can be used in place of normal playing cards. The definitions for what possible rules sets can follow changes in this case, and players will have to define them clearly before a game. However, theoretically a slightly adjusted version of this game could be played with a magic the gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh! deck.

When playing or adding to a set you may also add any number of additional cards to it face down. These face down cards do not provide points, and even count as negative points at the end of the game. However, they make it more difficult for your opponent to steal your cards.