Rummikub
Tiles are laid down in runs and groups, and what is already on the table may be pulled apart and rebuilt — so long as it all adds up again by the end of the turn.
Rummikub differs from card rummy in a single permission: what has been laid down is not frozen. Other people's runs may be broken up, dragged apart and reassembled — provided the table is legitimate again by the end of the turn.
Because of that a turn lasts not as long as it takes to draw a tile but as long as it takes to rethink the whole table. Hence the minute on the clock, and the penalty for whoever pulls it apart and cannot put it back.
The further in, the more there is to do
Until the is made, a player takes no part in the table at all: they only draw and wait for their thirty points.
The first turns are slow: there is almost nothing out, and nothing to . Every combination played gives everyone else material to build with.
So holding tiles back early pays — let the others fill the table. But a joker left on the rack when somebody goes out costs thirty penalty points, and that is exactly the tension the game runs on.
Rummikub Tiles
Under these rules: One hundred and six tiles. Sets for five or six players hold a hundred and sixty: twelve runs of numbers and four jokers.
One hundred and six tiles: numbers one to thirteen in four colours, two of each, plus two jokers.
Every number-and-colour pairing appears twice, so the same combination can be built two ways and what is on the table does not say unambiguously what the others still hold. The jokers carry no number and no colour, only a smiling face.
Tile Rack
Under these rules: One per player.
A ledge holding the tiles facing their owner and backing everyone else.
The game does not work without one: fourteen tiles and more will not stay in a hand, and laid on the table they are visible to all.
The rules of Rummikub
The set
One hundred and six tiles: numbers one to thirteen in four colours, each pairing twice over, and two jokers. Each player has a rack.
Setting up
The tiles are mixed face down. Each player draws one; the higher number goes first. The tiles are then returned and mixed again.
Each player takes fourteen tiles onto their rack. The rest form a face-down pool.
Combinations
A is three or four tiles of the same number in different colours.
A is three or more consecutive numbers in one colour. The one is always low: it does not follow the thirteen.
The initial meld
To open, a player lays down combinations worth thirty points or more built only from their own rack. Tiles from the table may not be used for it.
A tile is worth its face value; a joker is worth the tile it stands for.
The turn
While a player cannot open, they draw a tile from the pool and the turn ends there. A tile just drawn cannot be played on the same turn.
After the initial meld a player may lay down new combinations, add tiles to anything on the table, and rearrange the table.
Play passes clockwise.
Manipulation
Combinations already down may be broken up and rebuilt with the player's own tiles added. The only requirement is that by the end of the turn the table again holds only legitimate combinations and no loose tile.
The joker
A joker stands for any tile. It may be taken from the table by replacing it with tiles that keep the combination legitimate — from the rack or from the table. In a group of three the joker may be replaced by a tile of either missing colour.
Having taken a joker, the player must play it that same turn into a new combination, and must use at least one tile from their own rack in doing so.
A joker may not be taken before the player's own initial meld.
Time
A turn takes a minute. Go over it and you draw a tile from the pool, ending your turn.
A player who has begun rearranging the table and has not restored it by the end of the minute must put the table back as it was, take back their own tiles, and draw three tiles as a penalty.
End of a game
A game ends when somebody plays their last tile and calls "Rummikub".
If the pool runs out and nobody has emptied their rack, play continues while moves remain.
Scoring
The others total the numbers on the tiles left on their racks and record that as a negative; a joker on a rack counts thirty. The winner receives the total of everything they lost.
If the game ends with nobody out, whoever holds the lowest total wins, and the others subtract that total from their own.
End of play
A round holds as many games as there are players. Whoever has won the most games across all rounds wins; on a tie, whoever has the higher score.
Sources
- Rummikub — rules · Lemada Light Industries Ltd. Open source
Glossary of terms
- Group
- Three or four tiles of the same number, each in a different colour.
- Initial meld
- Combinations worth thirty points or more, built from the player's own rack alone. Until it is made, a player may neither touch the table nor take a joker.
- Manipulation
- Breaking up and rebuilding combinations already on the table. Allowed as long as, by the end of the turn, only legitimate combinations remain and no tile is left loose.
- Run
- Three or more consecutive numbers all in one colour.