Farkle Flip is from a family of Farkle games that first started with a fairly basic press-your-luck dice game. There’s a good chance that you have played this game under some other name in any number of occasions. Cosmic Wimpout, Greed, Trainwreck are some of the aliases that Farkle has assumed over the years. Or maybe Farkle is the alias and one of the others is the original…
I only bring this up to explain why the cards in Farkle Flip have a picture of dice on their faces. The game is paying homage to its dice roots while surpassing it in many significant ways.
Let’s start with the basics (this is, after all, a game that appeals to The Major and he likes things simple). The goal is to make runs and sets of numbers. Make a run or set, score points based on how long or difficult the group of cards is. Each player is dealt one card which is turned face up on the table. When it is your turn to play, you may play on ANY of the face up cards on the table or start a new group in front of you. There are 106 playing cards (84 numbered 1-6 and 22 Farkle cards). 4 reference cards tell you how to keep score.
On your turn, you flip over the cards from the deck. You can use these cards to make runs and sets. You may stop at any time. Each time you flip over a card and put it into a group, you will have to decide if you want to PRESS YOUR LUCK!
I cap lock it so you know it’s a big deal.
When you play a card, you have to decide if you want to score the group in which you just played the card. If you want to score the group at the end of your turn, you move the cards to the center of the table. Once the cards are in the center, you cannot add to that group. You may keep drawing and playing but you may not change any groups in the center of the table. If you decide to stop, tally your score from these cards, remove them from the table, and play moves clockwise.
This is the first way you press your luck. If you have a set of three 2s, it could be worth 200 points OR it could be 1000 points if you get just one more 2. Take the small points now or wait for the mother lode?
The Farkle cards represent the second level of pressing your luck. If you turn over a Farkle card, your turn ends and you don’t to score ANYTHING. That’s right. Nunca. Nada. Zilch. All cards in the middle of the table are moved in front of you and the other players can get their grubby little hands on them if they turn over the right card.
On the plus side, you can collect Farkle cards and score them too. These are the one group of cards that cannot be taken away.
Play is quick and tense and the mechanic of making and putting aside scoring groups is incredibly easy. Scoring is intuitive to anyone who has played Yahtzee or any of the other dice games I mentioned earlier. Farkle Flip successfully makes the transition from a classic dice game to a card game. So successfully that the game is far better with cards than with dice.
For 2 or more players, ages 8+
Farkle Flip game by Wendy Harris, Garrett Donner, and Michael Steer. © 2011 Patch Products, Inc.
I love the game, BUT my question: you cannot take a card from the table (from another person to yours or yours to another person). Okay, but if YOU DRAW a card, that card can be placed on someone else’s cards to make a combination, as long as you have not laid it down in front of you. Correct? And then it can be moved to the center. If you can answer this, I may have more questions later, if you don’t mind. There are things not mentioned in the rules, such as the above question.
Yes indeed, if drawn, you can play that card to another player’s set to add to it and then you have to decide if you want to try and score it by moving it to the middle of the table.
Why put any cards in the middle until you are ready to score them????
If you’re ready to end your turn, then any cards you’ve pushed to the middle will score.
The reason you have to push them to the middle is you have the option to continue to press your luck. They are points on reserve, in other words. Those points are not guaranteed.
If you bust, then any cards pushed to the middle do not score and are now accessible for the next player to possibly score instead.