A Rummy Style Card Game – Five Crowns Overview

Sometimes I think how life was so much easier when I was younger. There were no problems with the things that come with social media or what comes with the internet. Extra things like cartoons and entertainment were saved for Saturday mornings. If you wanted to get into trouble, you had to go looking for it. Rather, these days trouble tends to creep in on its own through phones, internet, and media. 

I had a good conversation with Lauren about how it would be nice to raise kids during the times when we were kids. I don’t know if it was because I was a kid then, but life seemed simpler. While we talked about things being simple, we switched our conversation to what I always tend to talk about, board games. We love board games, and I know you know this by now. 

I remember the board games I grew up playing that taught me so much and made me who I am today. I think sometimes we need to teach these types of games to our kids. If we enjoyed them, maybe they would as well. My kids and I play so many new games, most being made after I was born. My dad’s favorite game is a card game called Four Corners (Kings Corners). I was a fan of card games like hearts and spades when I was younger. Many classic games use face cards and they require making runs or sets. When I asked my kids if they understood what a run or a set consisted of when playing cards, they didn’t know what I was referring to. Something had to change.

So, naturally, I had to teach them some of the classic card games that I once enjoyed. While doing this, I also found a copy of Five Crowns which was sent to me by PlayMonster. Five Crowns has been around for a long time. In fact, I remember playing this game more than 10 years ago with some friends. Five Crowns is a rummy-style card game with 5 suits. The game is fun for casual gamers as well as those of us who love playing games every day of the year. 

In Five Crowns, players will be playing 11 rounds with an increasing hand of cards each round to form sets and runs. The setup is quick each time you play. Shuffle all cards and deal out a hand to all players. The number of cards will depend upon which round you are in. For the first round, each player gets 3 cards, the next round is 4 cards, and so on until the 11th round where each player has 13 cards. The game really builds up.

Again, you are trying to form sets which are a group of cards of the same number, or runs, which are a group of cards of the same color but increasing in number one from another. On your turn, you will draw a card. This will be either the top face down card from the deck, or the face up card is the discard pile. Players continue going around in the clockwise direction taking a turn.

Jokers are wild in the game, as well as the number card that matches the starting hand for that round. So, if you are dealt out 6 cards, then the number 6 card is also wild. Everyone likes wilds, but remembering which number card that round is wild is another story. In the game, they refer to “books”. This consists of 3 cards that fit in a set or run. 

Players continue to change cards in their hand until someone can play out all their cards into books to go out. They must also discard the last card in the discard pile. Then all other players have one last turn. Players will lay out any of their books at this time. All other cards still in a player’s hand count as points. Players do not want points in this game. The higher the card value, the more points you will score. At the end of 11 rounds, the player who has the least number of points wins the game. 

This game settled well with the family. The rules were straight forward and simple enough for the kids to really understand and know what they were doing. Sometimes it takes time to understand how to play some of our new games. It just takes a nice simple game at times to feel like we are back in the “old days” and things might just feel simpler.

We will be focusing on some old classic games that I feel like the kids should learn to play. Again, it’s nice to play a new game that really shows you how board games can be fun and challenging. At times it’s nice to go back to the basics and play something simple and fun. Something that reminds you of when you were a kid.

If you want some quality offline time with your family, check out Five Crowns at your favorite local game store or on Amazon. This is not the only game from PlayMonster that fits the bill. Head over to their website or follow them on Facebook to learn about their entire product line!

Do you play classic card games with your family?