Skip-Bo

Skip-Bo - a funny name for a card game, isn't it? I admit that I thought the same when I first saw it. I must have been about six years of age and my great-aunt gave it to me for my birthday. I preferred games I knew from nursery or TV so I wasn't too keen first - but soon I started to love that game and so I do still today, nearly 16 years later.

Skip-Bo has been played in families for more than 40 years now, but surprisingly it's ...
...it is suitable for 2 to 6 players from 7 years of age.
The age recommendation sounds fine to me; I played it around that age and never had any trouble with the rules. But what's just as important: It's a game for the whole family, grandparents can play it with their grandchildren and neither side will get bored.

Amazon.co.uk has it in stock for £5.99, a price the game certainly is worth. On the marketplace the by Mattel manufactured ... more

Skip-Bo - a funny name for a card game, isn't it? I admit that I thought the same when I first saw it. I must have been about six years of age and my great-aunt gave it to me for my birthday. I preferred games I knew from nursery or TV so I wasn't too keen first - but soon I started to love that game and so I do still today, nearly 16 years later.

Skip-Bo has been played in families for more than 40 years now, but surprisingly it's not half as popular as for example Uno is and it is suitable for 2 to 6 players from 7 years of age.
The age recommendation sounds fine to me; I played it around that age and never had any trouble with the rules. But what's just as important: It's a game for the whole family, grandparents can play it with their grandchildren and neither side will get bored.

Amazon.co.uk has it in stock for £5.99, a price the game certainly is worth. On the marketplace the by Mattel manufactured game is sold from 4.75 onwards.

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What is the game all about?
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What you're aiming for is to be the first player to get rid of all their cards in the stock pile. This would be easy enough, if not certain rules applied. The most important one: The cards have to be placed onto only up to four building piles in order from 1 to 12. Sounds irritating? Come on and join me, we're playing a game, you soon will understand the rules.

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Playing Skip-Bo
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The game includes 144 cards - that's 12 sets of cards from 1 to 12. On top of that there are 18 joker cards with the lettering "Skip-Bo" on it.
Do you help me scrambling the cards? As you see they've got an ordinary size and are quite stable, so they won't be damaged too quickly. I've been using these cards quite a lot over the last years but they still look like new.

Now each of us gets 30 cards to put onto theirwo STOCK PILE. This amount depends on the number of people playing and is stated in the instructions. Only turn the most upper card around to see the number on it, you are not allowed to glance at the others. The rest of the cards I put into the middle of the table, they make our DRAW PILE; of course they are faced down as well.

I've dealt the cards, so you start with the game. Actually, it's usually up to the player sitting left to the person who has dealt the cards to start, but you can vary that, in my family it's kind of a tradition that the youngest player has the first turn.

You now take five cards from the draw pile. Look at them carefully. If there is a card with a 1 amongst them you can play it - put it into the middle of the table, it is the fundament of a BUILDING PILE. (Or, in other words, you can only start a new building pile with a "1" or a joker).
If the top card of your stock pile is a "1" you should play that first; in that case you turn around the second card on your pile after you'd played the first one. You can go on as long as you have got cards to place onto the building pile in numerical order from 1 to 12.
So if after playing the "1" you have got a card with a "2" as well, you can play that. If you've got another "1" you can start another building pile - up to four are allowed. In case you can play all your five cards you can draw another five cards from the draw pile. But don't forget to keep an eye on your stock pile! Always play those cards first!

Now let's see… You played a 1 and a 2 but don't have a 3 (or don't want to play it to prevent me from getting rid of the "4" on my stock pile… Clever you!), so you've finished your turn now, yes? The rules say that to finish your turn, you have to place one of your cards onto a DISCARD PILE in front of you, the cards lying face up. Think about which card you take well, as only four of these piles are allowed. If you already have got four in front of you, you have to overlay one of the cards, but keep in mind that you only can play the top card of each pile. So it's advised to build piles with cards of the same numbers, e.g. put one 8 onto a pile where's already an "8" on top etc.

Now it's my turn. I draw my cards from the stock pile and…Ha! Joker! The name already suggests it; this card can be used as any number. So, let me see… Joker, 4, 5, 6… 12. I've just put the 12 onto a building pile; this means that it is removed to make room for a new one. The cards are put aside and late are used for the draw pile again. I've finished my turn now, so you go on. Take as many cards from the draw pile as you need to have five in your hand again (this will be at least one as you always have to put one onto your discard piles) and then… well, you know how it works now, don't you?

The person who first got rid of all their cards from their stock pile has won that round. If you like, you can play several rounds; in this case the winner gets 25 points plus five points on top for every card the opponents have in their stock pile. Who has the most points after a set amount of rounds has won.

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Variations
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To make it more interesting, you can vary the rules.

~~~ Partners~~~

Obviously, this only makes sense if you have at least four players taking part in the game.
The rules basically are the same as for the single player game, just that two persons make a team, they don't have to sit next to each other as they are not allowed to know what card the team-member has in their hands. So what's the point of the team then? Well, team-members are allowed to use the others person's top card from the stock pile as well as their cards from the discard piles. Only the player whose turn it is, is allowed to decide what cards to use though and he/she has to give instructions to their partner, e.g. "Please place your seven from your (second) discard pile onto the (third) building pile" or "Please use your Skip-Bo-card/joker as five". The partners are not allowed to give each other any hints during the game, if they do though one of them has to get two cards from the draw pile and put them to the bottom of their own stock pile. A team has won, when both players got rid of their cards. From the point that one player has used all his cards from the draw pile he/she goes on playing with their cards from the discard pile, the hand - and the partners cards.

~~~ Short version ~~~

If you want to finish a game quicker, just play with smaller draw piles. Recommended are 10 cards for each player, but of course you can vary hat. Personally, I think 10 cards are too few - if anything, I play with 20. Otherwise, if somebody is really lucky, the game could already be over after just two or three turns.

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My opinion
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I don't think you could miss that I really enjoy playing this game. It's great to play with two players and every round is different, it's never predictable how it ends.
Plus, everything can turn so quickly - that one player could get rid of 10 cards directly in the beginning certainly doesn't mean that he's going to win the game. You can easily leave it for a while (if the kids are hungry, somebody's at the door, the relatives want their tea…) and get back to it. An average game takes good 20 to 30 minutes if you play with 30 cards per player. But I also had games that have been finished far quicker or took longer.

Also, a lot of tactics can be involved into that game; the more experienced you are with playing it, the more you will notice it. That you can play a card doesn't mean that you also have to play it… And you can nicely spoil other people's turns with holding back a card they would need. But that's something even younger kids will find out soon (I remember vividly how mad my great uncle went with me when he found out that I did exactly that!) and in the end all the tactics don't help if you don't have a big portion of luck with you as nobody knows what happens next.

Another plus: You don't need to be highly concentrated all the time as you only can influence the game when it's your turn anyway. It can nicely be played while having a chat to the other players as well or even whilst watching TV with your partner.

The rules are easy, even if in the beginning all the piles might be a bit irritating. But having played it once or twice it's absolutely clear how things work.

And finally the biggest plus: It's a game for the whole family. A seven-year-old can beat a 40-year-old, a 90-year-old a 20-year-old. As soon as children know the numbers from 1 to 12 and can count in that range they can join the game, even though there is a special version for children meanwhile.

Altogether a simple concept that works and a game that never gets boring. But take your time when you want to play it, it's addictive!

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also posted on dooyoo  

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