Luau Rummy– Seaside Publications

Welcome to Big Bad Wolf’s Luau Rummy!

In this fun game, you help the Big Bad Wolf prepare a wonderful luau party, just like in the book. Gather supplies to prep, gourmet items and meat to cook, materials to build the fire pit, piggies to turn into barbecue, and party animals to join the feast. Use the Wolf (wild) cards to trick your way into completing melds—like the wolf’s clever schemes!

Play rounds to score points by laying down melds, and be the player with the most points at the end!

Ages: All ages. Younger players can play with grown-up help.

Players: 2 to 4 players. Play individually or in teams of two.

Playing Time: 10-15 minutes per round. Play multiple rounds for a full game.

Card Guide

Supplies: Tools for the barbecue

Fire Foil Utensils

Gourmet: Prepare the meal

Seasoning Barbecue Sauce Meat

Materials: Build the fire pit

Straw Wood Bricks

Piggies: The main course at the Luau

Oinky Pinky Stinky

Party Animals: Guests invited to the Luau

Lion, Alligator, Bear, and Coyote

Wolf: Wild cards – can stand in for any other card

Wolf and Disguised Wolf

Glossary

Dealer: the player who mixes up the cards (shuffles) and gives them out (deals) at the start of each round.

Discard: putting one card from your hand face up on the discard pile to end your turn.

Discard Pile: the stack of face-up cards in the middle that everyone can see. You can choose to take all of it on your turn!

Draw: taking new cards to add to your hand, either one from the draw pile or all from the discard pile.

Draw Pile: the big stack of face-down cards in the middle where you can draw one card from.

Hand: cards you hold in secret that no one else can see.

Luau: a super special bonus! If you lay down all five types of melds in one round, you get extra points.

Meld: a group of cards that you lay down in front of you to help empty your hand and score points. Melds can be runs or sets.

Round: one part of the game that ends when a player has no cards left in their hand.

Score: the points you earn each round.

Shuffle: mixing up all the cards really well so they’re in a random order and the game is fair for everyone.

Wild Card: the Wolf card that can pretend to be any other card to help complete a meld, like the Wolf’s tricky disguise!

Objective

Score the most points by laying down melds to prepare the luau. Play multiple rounds, adding up your points each time. The first player to reach 50 points wins the game!

Setup

The oldest player is the first dealer. Shuffle all cards well. Use 1 or 2 decks for 2 players. Always use 2 decks for 3-4 players.
The player to the right of the dealer cuts the deck. Lift approximately half the cards from the top of the deck and place them under the remaining cards.
The dealer deals 5 cards to each player, starting with the player to their left and going clockwise around the table. Give one card at a time to each player until everyone has five cards. Keep your cards secret!
Put the rest of the cards face down in the middle as the draw pile.
Play goes clockwise. The player to the left of the dealer goes first.
Keep a scoresheet handy to track points each round.

Repeat this setup for each new round. The dealer role moves clockwise to the next player after each round.

How to Play a Round

On your turn, do these steps in order:

Draw a card. Choose one way to get new cards:

- Take one card from the top of the draw pile (don’t show it to other players).
- OR -
- Take all the cards from the discard pile and add them to your hand. You can see the top card, but no peeking inside the pile before taking it – it’s a surprise, like the Wolf’s sneaky plans!

Lay Down Melds. Look at your hand. If you have complete melds, lay them down face up in front of you. Each meld must be exactly three cards, except for Party Animals, which can be 3 or more. You can use at most one Wolf (wild) per meld in place of any missing card. Once laid down, melds stay there – you can’t remove or rearrange cards. You may add additional Party Animals to your existing Party Animals meld on future turns.

- Supplies:
  Fire + Foil +Utensil
- Gourmet:
  Seasoning + Barbecue Sauce +Meat
- Materials:
  Straw + Wood +Bricks
- Piggies:
  Oinky + Pinky +Stinky
- Party Animals:
  3 or moreParty Animals

You can lay as many melds as you want on your turn if you have them. You can even make multiple melds of the same type (like two Gourmet sets) if you have extra cards.

Discard. Put one card from your hand face up on the discard pile. You must do this unless your hand is already empty after laying melds.

Note: If the draw pile runs out of cards, the round is over. All players discard their hands and score the round.

Scoring a Round

Each player gets +1 point for every card in their own laid-down melds.
Players with cards left in their hand give those cards to the player who ended the round. That player gets +1 point for each card received.
Luau: If you laid down all five meld types (Supplies, Gourmet, Materials, Piggies, and Party Animals) in the round, you achieve a “Luau” and add +5 points if any Wolf cards (wild cards) were used in those melds, or +10 points if no Wolves were used.

Add these points to your total score.

Teams

Two against two! The players on the same team sit across from each other and share the same melds and points (choose which player to lay the melds in front of). When the round is over, each team gives the cards remaining in their hands over to the other team.

Melds

See examples of valid melds and invalid melds below.

Piggy Pile-Up

When playing with two decks, you may allow sets of up to 8 identical piggies. This variation is especially fun in 2 vs 2 team play, as teammates can keep adding to the same set throughout the round.

Sets must only include the same piggy and do not count for purposes of earning extra “Luau” points.

Winning the Game

Play rounds until one player’s total score reaches 50 points – that player wins! If more than one player reaches 50 or more points at the same time, the player with the most points wins the game. If multiple players have the same high score, play additional rounds until only one player has the highest score.

Sample Scoresheet

Use the scoresheet below as an example of how to track each player’s points.