Caravan

Goal

Build three caravans, each facing one of your opponent’s. A caravan sells when it’s worth 21 to 26. A sold caravan beats the one opposite it, unless that one sold too and is worth more.

When all three pairs are decided, the player holding two or three of them wins. Two sold caravans of the same value decide nothing, so play goes on.

Cards

Each player has their own deck: a standard deck with both Jokers, 54 cards. An Ace counts 1 and the 2 to 10 count their number. The Jack, Queen, King and Joker are face cards: they go on a card that’s already in a caravan.

Starting hand

8 cards.

Setup

1. Shuffle your deck and draw 8.
2. Start your caravans. Take turns putting one Ace to 10 on an empty caravan of your own, without drawing, until all three of yours are started. No face cards yet.
3. No number card to start with? Discard a card and draw instead.

Play

On your turn, do one of these:

1. Add an Ace to 10 to one of your own caravans, then draw.
2. Play a face card on any number card on the table, yours or your opponent’s, then draw.
3. Discard a card, then draw.
4. Disband one of your caravans. Its cards leave the game, and you don’t draw.

The second card on a caravan sets its direction: up if it’s higher than the first, down if it’s lower. Every card after that must keep going that way or match the suit of the top card, and a card of that suit may turn the caravan around. A card may never have the same value as the top card.

Cards that are removed or discarded leave the game. When your deck is empty you stop drawing, and if your turn starts with no cards in your hand, you lose.

Card abilities

Each face card and Joker carries its mark in a corner on the table.

• ✕ Jack: removes the card it’s played on, and everything on that card. The Jack goes too.
• ↕ Queen: goes on a caravan’s top card. That card takes the Queen’s suit, and the caravan changes direction.
• ×2 King: doubles the value of the card it’s on. A second King doubles it again.
• ✱ Joker on an Ace: removes every other Ace to 10 of that suit from the table, on both sides. A card a Queen changed counts as its new suit.
• ✱ Joker on a 2 to 10: removes every other card of that value from the table, on both sides.

Variants

• Polite table: a Jack is the only card you may play on your opponent’s caravans.
• Tournament table: a Jack, Queen or King must match the suit of the card it goes on. A Joker has no suit and may go anywhere.

How this version differs

• A Queen goes on a top card only. The Fallout wiki lets a Queen go on any card and turns the caravan around only when it’s on the top card.
• A Joker on an Ace follows the Queens. It removes a card a Queen changed to the Ace’s suit, and spares one a Queen changed away from it. The Fallout wiki spares every card a Queen changed.
• You may discard while starting your caravans only when you hold no Ace to 10. Fallout allows no discard then.
• You lose when your turn starts with an empty hand. Fallout ends the game when you can’t discard, and the tabletop sheet when you run out of cards to play.
• A tournament table holds every Jack, Queen and King to the suit. The tabletop sheet names only the Jack.
• Each player plays one standard deck. Fallout builds a deck of 30 or more cards from any number of decks, and the tabletop sheet allows up to two. One deck hardly ever runs out before the game ends.

Open the rules page