Skip-Bo

Separate stock, draw and building piles

Remove blanks or reference cards. Shuffle the complete deck. Deal each player a face-down stock of 30 cards for two to four players, or 20 for five or six. Reveal only its top card. Remaining cards become the central draw pile. Leave four central building spaces empty, plus four empty personal discard spaces per player.

Choose a dealer; the person on their left starts, then go clockwise. No initial hand is dealt: draw it when your first turn begins.

Draw to five, then build freely

At the start of your turn draw enough to hold five cards. Play any number of cards from your hand, the exposed top of your stock or the top of any of your discard piles. Start an empty shared building pile only with a 1 or a Skip-Bo wild; thereafter its next number must be one higher, through 12. A wild represents the required number.

When you play your stock top, immediately reveal the next stock card. When you play a discard top, the card beneath becomes available. Finish a build pile at 12, remove those twelve cards to a completed pile, and make that space available for a new 1. You may not build past 12 or create a fifth shared pile.

If you play all five hand cards, immediately draw five more and continue this same turn. You may stop even if a play is available. End by placing one hand card on one of your own four discard piles. Discards need no numerical order; only their top cards can later be played. You cannot take another person's discards or move cards between discard piles.

When the draw pile runs out, shuffle completed building piles into a new draw pile. Do not recycle personal stock or discards.

Empty the stock to win

Playing the last card of your stock wins immediately, even if cards remain in your hand or discard piles. Those other cards do not need to be cleared. One game has no points or equal-turn finish.

For a separately agreed match, the publisher awards each winner 25 points plus five for every card remaining in opponents' stocks; first to 500 wins. This is optional and requires paper and pen.

Point to each pile before the first turn

The shared draw pile supplies hands; personal stock is the victory target; personal discards are future options; central building piles accept plays. Correct those names first. If someone draws too many, this edition puts the extra drawn cards into their own stock and shuffles it. Resolve mistakes promptly before later hidden information makes repair difficult.

Players discuss alternative stock-pile formats. Start with the standard stock so everyone first learns which discard cards remain available.

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Ideas & Twists

Choose a variation together before you start.