BASICS

REQUIREMENTS

• 2 - 4 players.
• A normal deck of 52 playing cards with 1 joker.
• Simple bookkeeping equipment (pen & paper, or an abacus).

BASIC IDEA (the game in a nutshell)

Round Robbin' is a slow paced rummy game, where you pick cards and put excess in dump, while searching for special sets of cards.

• The aim is to build villages: sets of 3 cards - either 3 same number (eg. ♤7 + ♧7 + ♥7) or 3 same suit of subsequent numbers (eg. ♦9 + ♦10 + ♦J).
• The worth of each village comes from the red cards in them: each low card (2 - 10) is 1 p., while face cards and aces (J, Q, K, A) are 2 p. each.
  • In other words, red straights are the most precious villages (3 p. - 6 p.), then horizontal (either 1 p., 2 p. or 4 p.), while black straights never carry points.
• Each player starts with 6 hand cards, and on his turn draws a new card from the deck or dump pile.
  • The player can then optionally do some robbing. Otherwise, if he has now 7 cards in hand when the turn ends, puts 1 face up to the dump.
• A chain of robbing is always started by placing 3 hand cards face up as action cards (or 2 cards when charming the joker).
  • These action cards can then be used for smaller actions, but eventually the chain must end in building a new village - or the whole chain is invalid.
  • Exceptionally, 1. a chain cannot be started by a red straight (out of pocket), and 2. any time the 3 action cards form a red straight, it solidifies instantly.
• When the deck runs out, it's reshuffled once from the dump cards (except the topmost card), and another half-round is played. Finally the last moves are played out, and points added up for the round. (One round usually takes about 30 minutes or more.)

LAYOUT & START UP

The layout is divided into the dump pile in the middle, the players (tribes) and their villages around it, and the deck somewhere on the side.

• The two red kings (♥K and ♦K) are put face up and sideways below the deck (waiting to be awakened), and one joker face up in front of the deck.
• The dealer shuffles the remaining deck including the black kings (= 50 cards) and deals each player 6 hand cards, while the player on his left starts. The dealing turns move clockwise each round.

PLAYING

ON YOUR TURN

Each player starts his turn by drawing 1 new hand card, either the topmost card of the deck or topmost dump card (if any).

• The player can then perform a chain of robbing in order to build a new village, or just do nothing.
• If didn't play anything and has 6 or fewer cards, the player should indicate that the turn is over (eg. by a hand movement or saying "nothing more").
• If has too many (= 7) cards in hand, the player puts 1 card face up on the dump and the turn ends. (Otherwise not allowed to put a card to the dump.)
  • The cards in the dump are organized so that only the two topmost cards are visible. It's not allowed to dig into the dump - keep it clean.

CHAIN OF ROBBING

A chain of robbing always starts by placing 3 hand cards (or 2 for charming the joker) face up on the table as action cards.

• The player can then use these cards to do actions (~ swapping them with cards in existing villages).
• Finally, the 3 action cards must be combined together to build a new village (= a coherent set of 3 cards), or the whole chain is invalid.
  • In case the chain fails, the whole set of actions is reversed back. Preferably shouldn't even start the chain unless is sure can finish it.
  • There is no time limit to the turns (unless specifically agreed on, eg. using a 1 minute hourglass). The gameplay pace is slow, but flowy.
• After creating a village, the player's turn is over: Only one village per turn (always powered by drawing a new card first).
  • The villages are always independent from each other - they cannot be combined together into bigger combinations.
• There are two special restrictions concerning red straights (= 3 cards of the same red suit and subsequent numbers) as action cards.
  • A chain of robbing can never be started by a red straight - so you cannot directly lay down a red straight from hand.
  • Whenever the 3 action cards form a red straight, the cards instantly solidify into a village and the chain stops right there (the turn is over).

ABOUT NUMBERS

• The face cards are their number equivalents (J = 11, Q = 12, K = 13) and aces (A) number 14 or 1, or both (in King + Ace + 2).
• Joker represents any normal card that fits the set. Its order in the set does not matter, and the jokers never carry points.
  • For example, with J + Q + joker, the joker could equally well be 10 or K of the same suit (see transforming actions below).

NATURAL ACTIONS

creation action: CREATING A VILLAGE

• Build a new village from 3 action cards: either from 3 same number (round), or 3 same suit of subsequent numbers (straight).
  • For example, from ♦4 + ♦5 + ♦6, or from ♥9 + ♧9 + ♤9. (Note that you cannot lay down the red straight directly from hand - but build it through smaller actions.)
  • For visual clarity, all straight villages should be ordered so that the middle card is in the middle (see the rolling action below).
• You can also create a village that includes 1 joker and 2 same number or 2 subsqeuent of same suit. (This implies having recycled or charmed the joker.)

transforming action: ROLLING A VILLAGE

• Any village on the table can be rolled by adding a fitting action card and taking back one card as an action card (leaving behind a coherent village).
  • For example, you can roll a round village of ♦J + ♥J + ♤J with the missing ♧J, and as a result get any of the jacks as an action card.
  • Or you can roll a straight village of ♤9 + ♤10 + ♤J with either ♤8 or ♤Q. If you roll it with ♤8, you get ♤J as an action card - with ♤Q you'd get ♤9.
    • Note. You can sometimes "degrade-swap" someone's straight village by rolling it down / up three times (and collect it as your own) - but only as long as the action cards won't form a red straight, and thus solidify and end the chain. (So you can do this trick indirectly, never directly at the end of a turn.)
• Rolling a village that includes a joker (while keeping the joker in it) follows the same principles, but becomes very flexible in practice.
  • For example, the seemingly locked village of ♥Q + joker + ♥A can actually be rolled by ♥J, ♥10, ♥2 or ♥3 (each results in a coherent village).
  • In addition, you can change the type of the village by any Q or A. For example with ♤Q, you'd get ♥A back (leaving a half-round village of ♤Q + ♥Q + joker).
    • You could then follow this up by recycling the joker out (see below) by one more Q (leaving 3 x Q in the village), see below.
  • Note that it's not allowed to use the joker as the rolling card. So you cannot add the joker to an existing village (unless playing the Joker Roll extension).

JOKER ACTIONS

creation action: CHARMING A ("SINGLE") JOKER

The joker starts the game face up in front of the deck. In this form, it's often called a single or free.

• A free joker is charmed into the game as the 3rd card of a new village with 2 action cards - one of which must be a face card or ace (J, Q, K or A).
  • For example, form a new joker village from ♦10 + ♦J + joker, or from ♥Q + joker + ♥A, or ♤A + ♦A + joker.
• Exceptionally, the chain of robbing (leading to charming a joker) must be started by laying down 2 hand cards as action cards (not 3 as normally).
• Once the joker is part of a village, it can no longer be charmed by 2 cards, but can instead be recycled by a fitting card (see below).
  • Note that a face card or an ace is only required when charming the joker from its free status - the joker can eventually end up in any kind of village.

transforming action: RECYCLING THE JOKER

• You can swap the joker out of its village by a fitting card (= the set must be coherent afterwards). As a result you get the joker as an action card.
  • For example, recycle the joker out of ♦10 + ♦J + joker with either ♦9 or ♦Q, or from ♥2 + ♦2 + joker with either black 2 (you could also swap red and black 2's).
• As always, the chain must result in a new coherent village. It can be of any kind, so for example two low cards and joker is fine (eg. ♥4, ♦4 + joker).

transforming action: RETURNING THE JOKER (= AWAKENING A KING)

• With a recycled joker, the player can also play a special move and return the joker (in front of the deck) and take a free red king as an action card.
  • For example, recycle the joker out of ♥5 + ♧5 + joker with either ♦5 or ♤5, and then swap it with a free red king (= ♥K or ♦K under the deck).
  • As always, the chain must result in a new village, and so the king must either be rolled to an existing set or taken into the new one (eg. ♥K + ♥Q + ♥J).
• Implications of the action:
  • This action requires a free red king (= under the deck), and can thus be performed max. twice per round. Once awakened, the king functions normally.
  • The returned joker becomes free again, and can thus be re-charmed back into the game (by two cards with at least one face card or ace).
  • It is not allowed to both return the joker and re-charm it back during one chain of robbing. (Charming requires the joker to be free when the chain starts (2 cards).)

ENDING

DECK RUNS OUT

When the deck runs out for the first time, it's reshuffled from the cards in the dump pile.

• The topmost dump card is left as the new dump, while the cards below are reshuffled by the dealer.
• If there's no dump cards left, the round ends immediately. If only 1, no shuffling but the end game rules apply.

After (the turn when) the deck runs out the second time, the round continues on with one significant change:

• The players can either pass the turn, or pick the topmost dump card and perform a chain of actions (does not need to use the picked card).
• The round ends when either all pass their turn in succession (= 1 empty cycle), or there's no more dump pile left (= no source of power).

SCORING & ENDING

After the round ends, the points are counted from the collected red cards in the villages.

• Each low red card (2 - 10) is worth 1 p., while red face cards and aces (J, Q, K, A) are worth 2 p. each. Jokers are worthless.
  • The score is added to each player's cumulative score. (With 2 players you can just keep track of the relative point difference: one number to one's advantage.)
• Traditionally the game is played for 3 rounds (or indefinitely), but you can also use a point limit (often 30 p. or 50 p.) The one with the most points wins.

PLAYER VARIATIONS

team mode: UNITED TRIBES (for 4 players - recommended)

• With 4 players you can also play in teams, so that the two players opposite to each other are in the same team.
• The only difference is that when the points are counted, the teams combine their villages together.
  • Like with 2 players, you can cancel out equal sets on both sides, and only keep track of the point difference between the teams (= no bookkeeping).

tournament mode: ROUNDABOUT

• You can also play the game as a single tournament, where players are gradually dropped out - leaving only the winner at the round table.
  • From the 3rd round onwards, each round the player with the fewest cumulative points is dropped out of the game - until only one left.
  • In case there are many players with equally few points, each of them gets a "burn" (marked into bookkeeping, or a token). If gets burned again, drops out.
• For 6 - 10 players: Make two qualifier rings, which end when only 2 tribes left, and then one final ring (of 4 players) to find the ultimate round robber.

EXTENSIONS

The extensions below are for more wild minded: The gameplay gets more slippery and strategies more complex (-> rounds take longer).

DOUBLE JOKER (more complexity)

If you like complex and quickly changing strategies, introduce another joker into the game: so each round starts with 2 single jokers.

• The only refinement rule is that the villages can only contain max. 1 joker - never more. (So the basic game mechanics remain unchanged.)
  • This implies that if you have 2 recycled jokers simultaneously, at least one must be returned back (requiring a free red king) before the chain can be finished. Note that you can actually return both jokers during one chain of actions to gain both red kings as action cards.
  • Combined with Joker Roll you have more options for recycled jokers - but you can never put another joker into a set that already has one (max. 1 per set).

JOKER ROLL (more chaos)

In this extension jokers are allowed to be rolled into an existing village to retrieve a normal card out of it - converting certainties to probabilities.

transforming action: JOKER ROLL

• You are allowed to do the natural roll action with the joker (as if it was a normal card).
  • For example, you can roll the joker into a horizontal village of ♥9 + ♦9 + ♧9 and get any of the jacks in return.
  • Or roll a vertical village of ♦4 + ♦5 + ♦6 with joker being either ♦3 or ♦7 at the moment of rolling. As a result you'd get ♦4 or ♦6 out (but not the middle card ♦5).
• Note that this has some serious indications for villages that would normally be relatively stable:
  • For example, you can actually totally steal an innocent set and leave some trash behind. Say, an opponent has a set of ♥10 + ♥J + ♥Q, while you have an action joker and either two black 10's, J's or Q's. You would first joker roll ♥10 or ♥Q out, then hit it with, say, a black 10 to get the other ♥Q or ♥10 out, and another black 10 to get the ♥J (or joker) out, and form the ♥10 + ♥J + ♥Q set as your own (= 5 points), leaving behind worthless black cards and a joker.
• Variations:
  • JOKER INJECTION: If you want to go even wilder play Joker Injection: Same rules as above, but joker can also be inserted as the middle card in a straight.
  • BLACK JOKER: Or you can play Black Joker Roll or Black Joker Injection, where the joker roll / injection is only applicable to black straights.

STRATEGY

GLOSSARY & STORY (Raiders of the Round Robbin')

• Each player represents a (barbarian) tribe, that tries to build and enhance their villages, essentially going 'round robbin'.
• There are two main kind types of villages, and then their mixes with a joker:
  • Round villages are made of cards of the same number. If low, gives you 1 p. or 2 p., if high 2 p. or 4 p.
  • Straight villages are made of subsequent numbers of the same suit. If black worthless, if red delivers from 3 p. to 6 p.
  • With a joker, the village can be called wild, or to imply the type half-round or half-straight village (or half-round half-wild, ...).
• The 3 cards of a village indicate what it's made of and how worthy it is to the tribe.
  • The low cards are 1 p. and represent valuables, livestock and workers, while the high cards are powerful people in the villages (J, Q, K, A) and 2 p. each.
  • The red cards represent good and useful things (eg. good horses, leaders, warriors, ...), while the black cards represent the useless kind.
• The winner of a season is the tribe with the most worthy villages, and the final winner the one with the most cumulative points after enough rounds.

HAND CARDS

• Because everyone is after the valuable red cards - especially the high ones (J, Q, (K), A) - the dump mostly consists of black cards.
• Often it's good to collect hand cards that can potentially fit many patterns. For example, having ♥5, ♥6 and ♦6 go together well.
• However, always remember that a red straight in hand gets you nowhere by itself. Here is a tricky example:
  • Say, you have in hand ♥2, ♥3, ♥4 and ♤4. One strategy is to hope to get a 3rd 4 and make a round village with 4s and forget about ♥4 for the straight.
  • Or, you could throw the ♥4 away, hoping someone uses it for a round village, and then trigger the trap by juggling it with the ♤4 to form your red straight.
  • Or, you could just wait it in hoping opportunities will arise - though you might end up overflowing the goodies out from your hand.
• In terms of black cards, they can be directly useful if they fit with red cards of the same number in your hand.
• However, most often the real "key cards" of the round are the ones that unlock access to other cards by rolling a village (or sometimes two). Because of this, it's not uncommon that a black card is one such key - very often numbers J, Q, A along with their neighbours (10, K and 2) are of importance.
• Similarly, there are often "key card combos", and sometimes it's known that the other key(s) will reappear from the deck on the latter half round.

LIFECYCLE OF A ROBBIN' ROUND

• The basic orientation is that everyone is after red straights - this is because they guarantee you 3 p. - 6 p. (minding Joker Rolls or Black Joker extensions).
• However, since you can't make them straight out of your hand cards, most villages in the beginning are round.
  • The round villages give you some space in hand while guaranteeing a couple of points (1 p. or 2 p. with low cards, and 2 p. or 4 p. with high).
• Another key feature in the beginning is to charm the joker by 2 hand cards (one of which must be a face card or ace).
  • The joker set is useful as a stepping stone, and at best it can even end up as a red straight - though don't expect anyone else to do you this favour.
• Gradually the game starts to open up due to the existence of the joker and round villages, and then the first straight villages appear.
  • One pattern is that a joker set "fails" and becomes a black straight, or a round with some luck - even if it had started out with 2 red cards + joker.
  • Another pattern is that someone gets to "stabilize" their earlier built joker set in a favourable way (= round or red straight) and builds a new one.
  • The players are also often eyeing at the red kings, and scheming on how to collect one into a red straight (implied worth of 5 p. or 6 p.).
  • And finally the more tricky patterns emerge, where a player juggles all around the table to form one precious red straight - out of whatever initial cards.
• As the game continues, the opportunities and strategies grow more and more complex, and the gameplay more slippery.
  • However, sometimes it's clear that certain sets are more or less "locked". These locks are formed by combinations of round and straight villages where the key cards to roll a set are locked in another, and that in another, and so on - forming a "knot" over itself.
  • Skilled players often try to lock and hide the key cards to their precious red high straights, so that they won't be rolled down or over and lose points (by turning high cards to low ones). Everyone's eyes are on the red high cards.

WORDS OF WISDOM

To help strategize, here are a few important miscellaneous patterns implicit in the dynamics.

• Each round, there are 30 p. to gain (15 for each red suit), or up to 34 p. if both red kings come into play. (Often the richest get a bit over 30 p. / player count.)
• Never expect a joker set to be stable. While it might start off as a partial red straight, after a few fitting actions it might turn into a black straight. However that said, it's not rare to make a joker village first and then later enhance it.
• Accordingly, near the end game (= 2nd half), if you make a joker village with high red cards make sure that you hold the keys or they're buried deep. Otherwise you might be better off saving your resources for a later time. In early game, you might try to use joker sets as stepping stones as well.
• You should always be scanning around the slowly (or sometimes rapidly) changing overall situation on the table and its potential key cards. Even if you don't have a strategy or specific plans, just examining how the existing sets can roll helps you recognize the key patterns to success (or failure).
• As the round progresses, one special point of focus is whether any red king will enter the game or not. This depends much on how the related key cards happen to get distributed among the players - although it becomes more feasible the more sets there are.
• Take use of the dump and its burying features. For example, you might sometimes hold building a new village just so that you can first dump an excess card to bury something beneath it. Accordingly it's beneficial to keep track of which players are "full" (= max. hand cards).
• In the end game, don't open the Pandora's box if you're doing well. It's often very tricky to see all the implications and things can accumulate quickly.
• Learn the rhythms of the game and use them. Sometimes rounds are yieldy, at other times things are bottled up (and might unravel at the end, or then not).
• The more there are players, the more the situations can flux before its your turn again, and the fewer opportunities you get - it's scavenging. With just 2 players, the progress is more predictable and plans more steady - in the later half round, you're both very aware of the situation and its key cards.
• If you play Joker's Roll, nothing is stable - expect your most precious sets to be wrecked and transformed. If you play Double Joker, situations can change very quickly - some opportunities might rise and already fall out before you even get a turn (especially with many players).

HISTORY

v1.4 (end of 2023)

• v1.4.0 (2023-10-15): Added Returning the Joker action, Round Table tournament mode and refined extensions. Renamed to Rotunda (from Slords).
• v1.4.1 (2023-10-26): Name and story changed (from Rotunda), and restricted that chains cannot be started by 3 red hand cards (= no pocket red straights).
• v1.4.2 (2023-11-15): Refined: 1. a chain cannot be started by a red straight, and 2. any time the 3 action cards form a red straight it solidifies instantly.
• v1.4.3 (2023-12-13 - only variations): Added United Tribes team mode for 4 players and refined that max. number of players is 4 (not 5).

v1.3 (2023-08-05)

• Tiny refines: 1. Colors flipped (red is attractive), 2. The black kings are included in the deck (and K + A + 2 allowed), and 3. Bad Lords extension removed. Also detached from being a split of the Four Kingdoms, as it has really nothing to do with it anymore -> versioning dropped from v3 to v1.

v1.2 (2023-08-02)

• (After a lot of variation tests) the changes are: 1. there's only 1 joker, 2. only one chain of actions per turn, 3. some end game refines, and 4. minor changes to scoring and related extensions. Also refined Rude Jokers to Joker Roll (no injections), and shortened name from Slippery Lords to Slords.

v1.1 (2023-07-31)

• Mechanism for "rolling" introduced. Separated joker injection to its own extension (Rude Jokers). Refined how end game works.

v1.0 (2023-07-23)

• Totally reinvented the gameplay from the early inspiration of the king deck. This game used to be Four Kingdoms but was split into two simpler games: Slippery Lords (kings with rummy gameplay) and Scavengers (= no kings, red vs. black trick gameplay).

THANKS

SPECIAL THANKS (for many analyses, ideas and dev. sessions)

Ville Viitala and Johannes Aho

FOR IDEAS, HELP WITH DEVELOPMENT & PLAYING

Johannes Aho, Ville Viitala