Skip Bo

Setup

1

Shuffle all cards and deal them out

Are you 2-4 players? Then each gets 30 cards.

With 5-6 players, it's only 20 cards per person.

Stack your cards face down in front of you. This is your player stack, marked here in green.

2

The remaining cards go face down in the center of the table

This is the draw pile!

3

Turn the top card of your stack face up

and place it visibly back on top.

4

Whoever has the highest card starts!

5

A brief overview of the card stacks:

A: Player stack

Your personal supply. It has to go!

The top card is no secret and can be played.

B: Helping stack

Here you can make up to 4 of your own stacks, from which you play cards into the game.

C: Draw pile

The pile for everyone – this is where you get new cards.

D: Discard pile

Your target zone. Up to 4 open stacks, on which you place cards from 1 to 12 in ascending order.

Goal

1

Whoever gets rid of all the cards in their player stack first, wins!

Your goal: Move all cards from green to orange!

2

The cards must be placed in ascending order

3

The color of the cards? Doesn't matter at all!

Gameplay

1

The starting player begins, then play continues clockwise

2

Here's how it goes, step by step:

1) Draw cards from the draw pile in the middle

until you have 5 cards in your hand.

Often you'll still have cards from the last turn in your hand.

2) Place cards on the 4 discard piles

Next to the draw pile in the middle of the table, up to 4 discard piles will form during the game.

Here everyone tries to get rid of their cards.

A discard pile starts with a 1.

Do you have a 1? Off it goes onto an empty discard pile.

Then it continues ascending.

Skip-Bo cards are the wildcards and always fit.

Without skipping numbers, please!

Skip-Bo cards can be used as any number in the game.

If a pile is full with 12, it's set aside.

Now someone can start anew with a 1.

Goal: Place hand cards so that the next card of the player stack fits.

Have you placed the top card of your player stack?

Then reveal the next card to make it visible.

3) If you cannot place any more cards in the center,

then place one card from your hand face up on one of your helper piles

Up to 4 helper piles can be formed next to your player pile.

Only one helper card from the hand lands on the helper pile at the end of your turn

Here, you can place the cards in any order.

Starting from the next round, you are allowed to play the visible cards of your helper piles at any time.

3

Cards and helper piles after the first turn

When it's your turn again, there is already at least one card on the helper pile.

Now you can place any cards in the center,

from the hand

from the helper piles

from the player pile (important!)

As long as you cannot or do not want to place any more cards

Then another card from your hand goes on one of your helper piles.

And it's the next player's turn.