In our house, Skyjo is a favorite. Its simple game mechanics, quick setup, and lower brain power requirements make the game enjoyable to play, even after a long day at work or school. There have been many nights I’ve pulled out Skyjo and sat at the table with one or more of the kids, giving us a chance to connect with each other without the lure of the screen.
To play SKYJO, players attempt to reveal all face-down cards in their 3×4 card grid by exchanging cards from the deck. The round ends when a player has revealed all cards in their grid. Players count up total card values in their grid, and the player with the least amount of points wins the game.
Printable SKYJO Rules: Skyjo-Printable-Instructions-PDF
Overview
- Ages 7+
- 20 – 40 min gameplay
- 2 – 8 players
The box contains 150 playing cards, with a point value of -2 up to +12. At the end of each round players count the points showing on the face-up cards, which are then tallied together.
Game Set Up
There are 2 types of cards in the deck. Positive points and negative points. Collecting negative points is positive in this game as your goal is to collect the least points. Cards are counted at face value.
Make sure the cards are shuffled well. Every player is dealt 12 cards and places them face down in front of them, four cards across and three rows down.
Place the remaining cards in the center for a draw pile. The discard pile will be formed next to the draw pile.
Game Play
To start the game, every player randomly picks two cards out of their 12 to flip over. The highest card total will be the start player.
During each player’s turn they choose one of two plays:
- They can choose to choose the top open card on a discard or the top card on the draw pile. If they choose a face-up card from the discard pile the player decides which card from their 12 he will exchange with, a face-up card. The card that they choose is a top card from the draw pile, they may look at it and choose whether they wanted to exchange it for a card that is face up in front of them or face down. They cannot look at the face-down card, they just swap it out and even if it is a lower-numbered card, it is still discarded and put on top of the discard pile after the choice is made. If the player chooses not to keep the drawn card, they place it on the discard pile and then have to reveal one of the face-down cards in front of the player. The turn of the player ends and the play continues in a clockwise direction.
- Special Rule: If the player reveals or has three of the same number in a vertical row, that player discards the entire row of three cards into the discard pile, lessening the total score of the player.
- The game ends as one of the players reveals all of his 12 cards. Each subsequent player has one more turn to complete as stated above. If the player who ended the round by revealing their last card does not have the least amount of points when others reveal all of their cards, that player doubles his points collected in that round. This rule only applies to positive points in the player’s hand and does not include negative points and zeroes.
- Each player adds up points of face-up and face-down cards which are added to the current score.
Winning of the Game
At the end of each round, the points of every player are added to their current score. The game ends as soon as one of the players hits 100 points or more and the player with the lowest score is declared the winner.
Notes
This is a great quick game for people of all ages. It uses both luck and some decision-making skills. It is compact and can easily be played on a table. It is fast-paced and has great replayability. Enjoy!
