Five Crowns
- Board's Eye View
- Mar 3
- 2 min read
Five Crowns was designed by Marsha J Falco and originally published in 1996. It's a card game that has had several publishers worldwide, including PlayMonster, which is now distributed by Goliath. The game comprises two decks of cards numbered 3 to King; so similar to a standard playing card deck except that there's no Ace or 2 in any suit. Most striking tho' is that, in addition to hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs, the decks contain a fifth suit: stars.
The basic game of Five Crowns is essentially a variant on the traditional card game Rummy. Players are trying to make sets of at least three cards that are either in runs or are cards of the same rank. The deck includes jokers, which are wild, but in addition one of the ranked cards is wild. The game is played over 11 rounds, with the number of cards in hand (so the number that need to be organised into sets) starting at three cards in the first round and increasing by one each round. The card that is wild always matches players' hand size: so 3s are wild in the first round and it will be Kings that are wild in the final (11th) round.
On your turn you draw a card, either from the face-down draw deck or the face-up card on top of the discard pile, and you discard a card. The round ends when a player can organise all their cards into sets, tho' they must still be able to discard a card. When a round ends, other players get to take one last turn and can lay down whatever sets they can make, but they take points equal to the value of the cards they have left in hand. The object is to be the player who ends the game with the fewest points.
Five Crowns has proved to be a popular Rummy variant, tho' it's apparently better known in the USA than in the UK and Europe. For us tho' it's particular appeal is the inclusion of that fifth suit. There's no end to the number of traditional card games that can be modified by adding a fifth suit; the only proviso being that you have to be able to make do with not having the Ace or 2 in any of the suits. For that reason, the Five Crowns decks are definitely worth picking up even for those who might not otherwise be interested in the Rummy-style card game.
