Shed your hand by matching the colour or the number, survive everybody else's draw cards, and remember to say something when you are down to one. Two to ten players.
A shedding game: the first player with an empty hand ends the round, and everybody else pays for what they are still holding. Simple to start and surprisingly tactical once the table is big, because the turn order itself becomes a weapon.
108 cards, in four colours.
| Card | How many | Points if left in hand |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | one per colour — 4 | 0 |
| 1 to 9 | two of each per colour — 72 | face value |
| Skip, Reverse, Draw Two | two of each per colour — 24 | 20 |
| Wild | 4 | 50 |
| Wild Draw Four | 4 | 50 |
Everyone starts with seven cards. One card is turned up to start the pile and play begins to the left.
On your turn you may play any card that matches the top of the pile by colour or by number/symbol. A wild may be played at any time, and you name the colour it becomes. If you cannot play, you draw one card — and if that one is playable you may play it immediately.
| Card | What it does |
|---|---|
| Skip | The next player loses their turn. |
| Reverse | Play changes direction. At two players it acts as a skip. |
| Draw Two | The next player draws 2 and loses their turn — unless they can stack. |
| Wild | You choose the colour in play. |
| Wild Draw Four | You choose the colour and the next player draws 4. |
Draw Twos and Draw Fours stack by default. Hit with a Draw Two, you may answer with your own and pass the total on; the next player faces four, then six, and whoever cannot answer picks up the lot.
The host can turn stacking off — and doing so brings a different rule with it, because the two cannot coexist:
A Wild Draw Four is only meant to be played when you hold nothing of the current colour. If the player you hit suspects otherwise they can challenge: if you were bluffing you draw 4 yourself, and if you were honest the challenger draws 6 instead of 4.
With stacking on there is no challenge, because a Draw Four you could have answered is no longer an accusation — it is just a card you pass along. That is the trade-off between the two settings, and it is worth picking deliberately rather than leaving on the default.
When you play your second-to-last card you must call it. Fail to, and get caught before the next player acts, and you draw four.
It is the rule everybody knows and most people misplay in the other direction: the penalty is for being caught, so a table that is not paying attention costs you nothing, and a table that is paying attention costs you four cards and usually the round.
The first player out ends the round and scores the value of every card still in everybody else's hands — numbers at face value, coloured actions at 20, wilds at 50.
A match runs to 500 points, or the host can set a single round where the first player out simply wins. Five hundred is several rounds, which changes the play: dumping a 50-point wild early is worth more than holding it for a clever moment you may never get.
Nine cards worth 3 points each is a better hand to be caught with than three cards worth 50. When a round is clearly ending, play your biggest cards even if a smaller one is tidier.
The commonest way to get stuck is holding a hand of one colour while the pile sits on another. Spread your risk — a hand of four colours can always answer, a hand of one is hostage to whatever the person before you does.
Skips and reverses are aimed. At a big table a reverse can move the turn away from the player about to go out; at two players it is simply another skip and effectively a free extra turn.
With stacking on, a Draw Two in hand is not an attack — it is armour. Being the player who cannot answer is how you pick up six.
Only where you finished counts, not the points you finished with. Colour Match seats up to ten, so the top-half rule does most of the work.
| Finish | Points |
|---|---|
| Winner | 3 |
| Anywhere else in the top half of the table | 1 |
| Below halfway | 0 |
Half is rounded up, so an odd table splits your way. At a table of two, second place is the loss and pays nothing — and a match somebody walks out of pays the other player nothing either, while the one who left still takes the defeat.