KerPlunk Ker Plunk Board Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Objective of KerPlunk

The objective of KerPlunk is to carefully remove sticks from the tube to limit the number of marbles that drop during your turn.

Setup for Ker Plunk

Assemble the tube by attaching the top and bottom pieces to the tube connector.
Place the tube inside the base.
Insert sticks inside the tube connector. Place the stick through a hole in one side of the tube and out through a hole on the other side. You should do this as randomly as possible so you create a crisscross pattern.
Drop the marbles into the top of the tube. The marbles should stay on top of the sticks that you placed. If any fall through the sticks, drop the marble through the top again until it stays in place.
Each player chooses a number compartment at the bottom of the base that they will use for the rest of the game.
Choose a player to go first. Play will move left throughout the game.

Playing KerPlunk

To start your turn you will turn the tube until the hole in the bottom is lined up with your compartment. You should carefully turn the tube to prevent any marbles from falling.

Turning the tube to the current player — Before they start their turn, the current player turns the tube so the hole points towards their section of the base.

You will then choose one of the sticks from the tube. Once you touch a stick, you cannot change your mind and choose another stick. Pull out the stick trying not to move any of the marbles. While pulling out the stick you can hold the tube to stabilize it.

Pulling out a stick in Kerplunk — The current player has decided to pull out a yellow stick.

If any marbles fall after you pull out the stick, they will fall into your compartment. They will stay there until the end of the game.

Marbles falling down after pulling out a stick — After the first player pulled out a stick, two marbles fell down and rolled into their compartment at the bottom of the tube.

Play then passes to the player on your left. Their turn does not officially start until they touch a stick or the tube. If any marbles fall before they touch the tube, you will have to take them.

Winning Ker Plunk

The players will keep taking turns removing one stick. The game ends once all of the marbles have fallen into a players’ scoring compartment.

At the end of the game all of the players will count up how many marbles they collected during the game. The player that collected the least marbles wins the game.

Winning the Game Kerplunk — At the end of the game this is the distribution of marbles players collected. The player at the bottom collected the least marbles (6) so they won the game.

KerPlunk FAQ

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

Components

There have been many different versions of KerPlunk. The components that come with each version may differ. The 2000s version of KerPlunk have the following components.

Game Base
Tube in 3 Parts
30 Sticks
32 Marbles
Instructions

Year: 1967 | Publisher: Hasbro, Ideal, Mattel, Milton Bradley, Tyco | Designer: Eddie Goldfarb, Rene Soriano

Genres: Children’s, Dexterity, Family, Party

Ages: 5+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 15-20 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

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