Are you quick enough for Ratuki?
Card games are a favorite pastime of many families the world over.
Imagine a nice, leisurely, Norman Rockwell type setting with family members kicking back, holding their hand of cards, taking turns, and visiting the night away.
Of course, if you’re imagining a leisurely game of taking turns, then you’re not imagining a game of Ratuki.
Because Ratuki is anything but leisurely.
Ratuki is a fast-paced, race for cards.
How to play Ratuki
Ratuki is extremely simple to play.
It’s all about being quick to place and collect cards. The more you collect, the more points you get. And the first player to 100 points (over several rounds) wins the game.
Ratuki consists of 175 cards – 35 in each colored set (red, blue, yellow, orange, green) – that are numbered from 1 to 5. Players race to place their cards on piles in the center of the table in ascending order (1 to 5) and collect the pile if they place the top card (#5 or a wild).
Since there’s no taking turns in Ratuki, players play simultaneously as fast as they can to get rid of their cards.
Very simple.
But there’s a catch…
Let’s first start at the beginning, then we’ll get to the catch.
Each player has their own color deck of 35 cards that they place facedown in front of them – from which they’ll draw 3 cards into their hand.
Whoever has a 1 in their hand, can start a new pile in the center of the table. Anyone with a 2 can then place their 2 on top of the 1 and so on.
Once a 5 is placed on top of a pile (or a wild card), the person that placed that card will collect the pile and put it in their score area.
But since everyone plays simultaneously, you better not take your time in placing card and collecting. It’s a very fast-paced, rapid-firing card game.
Yet, it’s not total pandemonium.
There are a few stipulations:
- There can only be as many piles in the center of the table as there are players. So in a 4-player game, there can only be 4 piles at a time in the center.
- Players can only hold 3 cards in their hand at a time.
- Players can only play cards with one hand (one hand to hold cards and one hand to play them).
- Players can only draw, discard, and play one card at a time in any pile.
- After playing a card, players draw a new ard from their deck into their hand. Or if they don’t like cards they have in hand, they can place them in their “junk” pile and draw another from their deck and continue.
- Once a player goes through their deck, they grab their junk pile to become their draw deck.
Play continues until someone runs out of cards or until no one can play another card.
Then players score.
Each card collected is worth 1 point. Simply add the cards collected and subtract the number of cards remaining in hand, in their draw deck, and in their junk pile. That total is then recorded. If someone has reached 100 points, they win. If not, play continues with another round – sorting all cards back out into color decks and playing again.
The Catch
Ratuki really is a simple game to play – stack cards in ascending order as fast as you can.
However, the style of numbers vary on the cards and inevitably cause players to pause and think before placing cards.
As you can see from the photos, the numbers displayed on the cards can be numbers, words, Roman numerals, fingers, or dice pips.
It takes some processing time to realize that the card in your hand showing three fingers can be placed on a pile with the top card showing 2 dice pips.
While players will get a bit used to it as the game progresses, there will still be moments of hesitation and thought processing.
And that numerical twist adds to the quick slapping fun.
Can the whole family enjoy Ratuki?
Ratuki can be enjoyed by young and old alike.
Once your youngsters can recognize the numbers on the cards, they can be right in the mix. It’s also a great way to develop recognition and reaction skills along the way.
And let’s not forget that it can help older players stay sharp on their recognition and reaction skills as well.
