PLAYED FOR YOU

Crazy Lab

Red=plus, green=minus

In Crazy Lab you play with negative colors and positive colors. For each player there is a stack of four scoring cards; on one side those cards show one of the four colors in the game, this is the plus side, and the same color on the negative side. Each player is dealt ten cards from the trick-taking stack – number cards in all colors, most of them show up to three colors showing individual values for each of the colors on the card – and now chooses his positive color and lays it out negative side up to keep it secret. From the remaining cards in the scoring deck you now choose two colors for trump to be shuffled and set down face-down for a trump deck.

At the start of each round you turn over the top card of this trump deck to determine the trump color for the round. In turn all players play any card of their choice, there are no rules for color or tricking or using trump. The highest card in the current trump color wins the trick; in case of a tie the winning card is the one played earlier. Should there be no trump card in the trick the highest card wins the trick regardless of color. If you win the trick you take it, turn over the next trump card and lead a card for the new trick. After ten tricks you win with the highest total from points in your positive color minus points in your negative colors in all your tricks.

Why the game is called Crazy lab is not mentioned in the rules; but at least the game is tricky and takes some consideration as to which colors one chooses for trump and which card to use when to trick; memorizing cards played might be tricky because of the multiple color cards. 

Players: 3-5

Age: 10+

Time: 30+

Designer: Gregorio Morales, Jordi Gene

Artist: Marek Blaha

Price: ca. 8 Euro

Publisher: Amigo Spiele 2013

Web: www.amigo-spiele.de

Genre: Trick-taking card game

Users: For families

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: no

Comment:

Multiple colors make memorizing cards rather tricky

Interesting mechanism for choosing scoring and trump colors

Only the negative color of each player is known

Compares to:

Other trick-taking card games with choice of scoring or trump colors

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 2

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0