Garden Variety Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Are you looking for a specific Garden Variety rule?  |  Setup  |  Playing the Game  |  Types of Cards  |  Winning the Game  |  FAQ  |  Components  |

Objective

The objective of Garden Variety is to collect the most cards by winning rounds.

Setup

• One of the players takes all of the cards and shuffles them together.
• The dealer deals five cards facedown to each player. You can look at your own cards, but you shouldn’t show them to the other players.
• Place the rest of the cards facedown in the middle of the table in order to form the draw pile.
• The youngest player starts the game.

How to Play Garden Variety

The current player starts each round by rolling the die. What the player rolls on the die determines the rule for the current round:

• 0 – The card closest to 0 wins.
• 3 – The card closest to 3 wins.
• 5 – The card closest to 5 wins.
• 7 – The card closest to 7 wins.
• 10 – The card closest to 10 wins.
• ! – You will reroll the die again after all of the players have played their card.

After the player rolls the die, they will choose one of the cards from their hand to play. They will play their chosen card face up to the table.

After the first player has played their card, the player to their left/clockwise chooses a card from their hand to play. In turn order each player chooses one card from their hand to play to the table.

Determining the Winner of the Round

After all of the players have played a card, you will determine the winner of the round based on the round rule rolled on the die.

The player who played the first card compares the card they played with the player on their left. The two players figure out whose card is closest to the number rolled on the die. The player whose number is further away from the target number is eliminated from the round. The player who won the matchup then compares their number to the next player to the left. This continues until all of the cards are compared, and only one player remains in the round.

Sometimes there will be one card that is closest to the number, but there will be times where two cards are equally close to the target number. In this case there are a number of tiebreakers that the game uses to determine the winner for the round.

If both players are equally close to the target number and both played a Critter card (see below), you will use the color of the cards to determine which card wins the tiebreaker. The game uses a simple Rock, Paper, Scissors style mechanic to determine which color beats each other color.

• Blue Opossum beats Red Snail
• Red Snail beats Green Frog
• Green Frog beats Yellow Bee
• Yellow Bee beats Blue Opossum

Should there be a tie between a Critter card and a Wildflower card, the Wildflower card always beats the Critter card.

If a tie cannot be broken using either of these tiebreaking rules, the player who played their card first (is closest clockwise to the start player) wins the matchup.

The player who played the card closest to the number rolled on the die (won the last matchup), wins the round. The winner collects all of the cards that were played and adds them to their garden bed (scoring pile).

Preparing for the Next Round

Starting with the player that won the round and moving clockwise, each player draws cards from the draw pile until they have five cards in their hand.

Should one or more players have no cards in their hand and there are no cards left to draw, the game ends. Otherwise you will play another round. The winner of the current round starts the next round by rolling the die.

Types of Cards

Critter Cards

There are four different types of Critter cards. Most Critter cards are a number between one and nine. There are a few cards that show 0 and 10 on them. When you play one of these cards, you must immediately decide whether the card will be a 0 or 10. You cannot change the number after you pick which one it will represent.

When two Critter cards are compared and the numbers are equally close to the target number, the game uses the colors of the cards to determine which card wins the tiebreaker.

• Blue Opossum beats Red Snail
• Red Snail beats Green Frog
• Green Frog beats Yellow Bee
• Yellow Bee beats Blue Opossum

Wildflower Cards

Wildflower cards have a number between one and nine on them.

Should there be a tie between a Wildflower and Critter card, the Wildflower card always beats the Critter card.

Gnome Cards

Every Gnome card has a special effect printed on it. Whenever you play a Gnome card, you will read off its effect and immediately apply it.

Gnome cards have no number printed on them, but they give you other advantages.

Winning Garden Variety

The game ends when there is a player that has no cards in their hand and there are no cards left to draw. In this case any cards players have left in their hand are immediately added to their garden bed (score pile).

Each player then counts up how many cards they collected during the game. The player that collected the most cards wins Garden Variety.

If two or more players tie for the most cards, each tied player counts up how many Gnomes they collected. The player that collected the most Gnomes wins the game. If there is still a tie, the tied players will play a game of rock, paper, scissors.

Garden Variety FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

• 54 Cards
• Die
• Instructions

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Year: 2024 | Publisher: Unstable Games

Genres: Card, Family

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-5 | Length of Game: 10-15 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

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For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.