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Board.game Original

Rung

Original · a climbing card duel for two

2 players3–6 minCompetitiveVery light

Match the size, raise the value, or pass — and the first empty hand wins the ladder.

PlayPlayable

Ready to play now.

A demonstration of Rung, played by the computer against itself.

Rung — playing itself

Ways to play

  • Alone, against the computer

    Your own pace, no arranging anything. Take a move back whenever you like.

    4 opponents, weakest first
    • The DreamerAny legal play, by the seed. It wins 27 of 200 against the Keeper and leaves 3.7 cards in the loser’s hand when it does — the widest shed on the ladder, which is what pressing the biggest set you own on every turn looks like from the other chair.
    • The DumperSheds the cheapest legal set and never saves a thing. Seventy-eight per cent over the Dreamer, 155–45, 7.8 sigma — dumping order alone is most of the game.
    • The KeeperSheds singles low when answering but keeps its pairs and triples for leads — a saved set is a rung, and a led triple clears. Sixty-six per cent over the Dumper, 131–69, 4.4 sigma.
    • The PlannerCounts the PLAYS it still needs rather than the cards: a value leaves the hand in one play if all its copies go together, so the turns left are the distinct values left, and an answer that would leave a value broken is passed instead while there is still time. Fifty-nine per cent over the Keeper, 118–82, 2.5 sigma; seventy-one over the Dumper, 142–58. It takes 1.6 rungs a ladder and wins 126 of 200 against the Keeper.
    Play alone

  • Together, in the same room

    2 players. One device goes round the table, or everybody plays off the same screen.

    Play in the same room

  • Online, at a table

    A room code, joinable from anywhere. Pause tonight and pick it up next week from your device.

    Play online

About

Twenty-seven cards — values one to nine in three suits — nine dealt to each hand and nine set aside unseen. The leader plays a set to the table: a single, a pair or a triple of one value, and may not pass. To answer, match the size and raise the value, or pass. Two passes take the rung, the table clears, and the taker leads anew with any set at all. First hand empty wins the ladder; the rungs taken are the story, the shed is the result.

How it feels

  • A pair held back for the lead
  • Passing on 9s and meaning it
  • The triple nobody can match

What the design is for

  • Match the size, raise the value

    The whole climb in six words. A pair answers a pair and nothing else; a higher single does not beat a low pair, however high. Size is the law and value is the argument, and confusing them is the classic first mistake — the tutorial teaches it in step two and the engine test refuses the confusion outright.

  • The pass is an answer’s privilege

    Passing when you cannot beat is obvious; passing when you CAN is the game — save the pair for a lead, let the rung go, take the table when it matters. But a LEAD is never a pass: the table is empty, every set in your hand is legal, and you must table one. The table used to allow it, and a bare-table double pass locked the hand forever — no pile meant no taker, the pass flags never cleared and neither seat could ever do anything but pass again. Forty seeded random walks now end in an outcome every time, in the test that would have caught it.

  • Two passes take the rung

    When both pass, the last player to have played takes the rung, the table clears — and the taker leads with any set, any size. The lead is the only moment the table is yours: it is won, not dealt.

  • First hand empty

    There is no scoring round and no count of pips: the first hand empty wins outright, and the loser’s remaining cards are only the story of where it went wrong. Two and a half to three and seven tenths of them, says the probe, depending on which rung you lost to.

  • Taught rung by rung

    Five steps: the lead, the answer, the pass, the clear-and-lead — and then the ladder itself. Four of the five ask for one particular set and accept nothing else; the fifth is the ladder to yourself. A ladder is eighteen plies on the probe’s average, ten at the shortest and twenty-six at the longest, which is where the minutes on this card come from.

Best at
2
Kind
Cards
Table
Competitive
Studio
Board.game Originals

The opponents

  1. The Dreamer

    Any legal play, by the seed. It wins 27 of 200 against the Keeper and leaves 3.7 cards in the loser’s hand when it does — the widest shed on the ladder, which is what pressing the biggest set you own on every turn looks like from the other chair.

  2. The Dumper

    Sheds the cheapest legal set and never saves a thing. Seventy-eight per cent over the Dreamer, 155–45, 7.8 sigma — dumping order alone is most of the game.

  3. The Keeper

    Sheds singles low when answering but keeps its pairs and triples for leads — a saved set is a rung, and a led triple clears. Sixty-six per cent over the Dumper, 131–69, 4.4 sigma.

  4. The Planner

    Counts the PLAYS it still needs rather than the cards: a value leaves the hand in one play if all its copies go together, so the turns left are the distinct values left, and an answer that would leave a value broken is passed instead while there is still time. Fifty-nine per cent over the Keeper, 118–82, 2.5 sigma; seventy-one over the Dumper, 142–58. It takes 1.6 rungs a ladder and wins 126 of 200 against the Keeper.

Achievements

0 of 5 earned

  • The Ladder Is Yours

    Win a ladder of Rung.

  • Six Rungs

    Win taking six rungs or more on the way.

  • The Triple

    Lead a triple that clears the table.

  • Shut Out

    Win with the rival still holding seven cards or more.

  • Quietly

    Win shedding while taking fewer rungs than the rival.

Key art

Key art — Board.game art system

Rung — key still
Rung — key cover
Rung — key backdrop

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