Author’s Notes

• On Clecania, husbands are responsible for taking care of all chores. Therefore, if a husband is present, he shall always shuffle and deal the cards. Could you imagine Rhaego allowing any female to strain their delicate fingers by shuffling?
• Though they are avid competitors, gameplay with Gninzoli, Boshie, or other glutinous species is not recommended due to excessive glooping
• A round of mott pairs quite nicely with gameplay
• Warning to males: cheating during gameplay will void eligibility for marriage

Setting

Players: 2-4

Goal: The object is for players to end with the fewest points by taking turns swapping cards from the deck or discard pile in order to match their cards in columns. A match is made by lining up two of the same characters in a column or matching a character to their mate in a column.

Setup:

• Shuffle the full deck including the 2 jokers (requires Clecanian Series Playing Cards)
• 2-3 players: Deal each player 10 cards face down
• 4 players: Deal each player 8 cards face down
• Place the remainder of the deck face-down in the center of the game area, then turn over the top card beside it to start the discard pile. Players arrange their 10 cards in 2 rows of 5 (or 2 rows of 4 if playing with 4 players) in front of them and turn any 2 of these cards face-up. The remaining cards stay face-down and cannot be looked at.

The Play

• Gameplay proceeds clockwise, starting with the player to the dealer’s left
• On their turn, a player draws a card from either the top of the discard pile or the deck. The drawn card may be swapped for any of that player’s cards, or discarded face-up in the discard pile. If the drawn card is swapped for one of the face-down cards, the card swapped-in remains face-up and the swapped-out card is placed face up in the discard pile (the swapped out card must be placed in the discard pile and not further exchanged within the players hand).
• Plot twist! If a player draws or turns over a joker at any time (even when discarding a face-down card), that player must immediately discard one of their face-up female character cards. The person to that player’s left gets to choose which female character card gets discarded. The player draws a new card from the deck and places it face-up in the abducted human’s spot. The joker is placed in the discard pile under the discarded female character card. If the player does not have a face-up female character card, the joker is simply discarded, and that player’s turn is over.
• Once any player has turned all of their cards face-up, each of the other players gets one final turn, then the round is over, and scores are tallied. At the end of each player’s final turn they must flip all of their remaining face-down cards face-up.

Scoring

Mated character pairs in a column score negative points as follows:

• Jade and Theo, Sophia and Sikthand, or Katie and Maladek: -10 points
• Alice and Luka, Lily and Verakko, Alejandra and Auzed, Vanessa and Fejo, or Meg and Maxu: -5 points

A pair of characters in the same column (i.e. two Vanessa’s) scores zero points for the column.

Otherwise the column is scored by adding the point value of the two cards in the column:

• Ace: 1 point
• Cards 2-10: Face value
• Jack, Queen, and King: 10 points

The End

Play continues for 3 rounds (as in a 3-month Clecanian marriage). After 3 rounds, the lowest total score wins.

Epilogue

For an added challenge (Victoria’s preferred way to play), continually shuffle jokers back into the deck rather than discarding them.