6 Nimmt!

Based on the game by Wolfgang Kramer

Try to avoid taking as many penalty points as possible in simultaneous card showdowns. The threat of points gets higher and higher with each reveal.

Setup

6 Nimmt! uses cards by their running number — the small number printed in the top-right corner of every ZSA card. Each running number is unique across the whole deck. The original game needs numbers 1 through 104, so you'll pull that sequence out of the deck and set everything else aside.

Which cards that is, in order:

• All 80 numbered cards (ranks 0-9) from all 8 suits give you running numbers #0 through #79. Example: Clubs 5 is #5, Hearts 0 is #20, Switches 5 is #55, Planets 6 is #66.
• The face cards (X, J, Q, K, A) from Clubs, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Caps give you running numbers #80 through #104. Example: Clubs X is #80, Caps A is #104.

Then pull out #0 (Clubs 0) and set it aside — you don't want it. Also set aside anything above #104: the Switches face cards (#105-#109) and every Planets and Stars face card (#110-#119). They're not used.

Shuffle all 104 cards. Deal 10 cards to each player. Place 4 cards face-up in the middle of the table — each of those cards starts a row. Set the remaining deck aside; it won't be used again this round.

Gameplay

Each round lasts exactly 10 turns (one per card in your hand). On each turn:

1. All players simultaneously choose 1 card from their hand and place it face-down in front of them.
2. Everyone reveals at the same time.
3. Starting with the lowest running number and working upward, each revealed card is placed into a row according to the rules below.

Placement rules

Take the lowest revealed card first. It goes at the end of the row where the difference between it and that row's last card is smallest, measured going upward — the card must be higher than the row's current last card.

If a revealed card is lower than every row's last card, it can't continue any row. The player who played it takes all the cards from any one row (their choice) as penalty points, then places their card as the new start of that now-empty row.

After placing the lowest revealed card, move on to the next-lowest, and so on, until every revealed card this turn has been placed.

The sixth-card rule

A row can hold at most 5 cards. If your card becomes the 6th card placed in a row, you take the previous 5 cards from that row as penalty points — not all 6. Your card then stays on the table as the start of a new row of 1.

Keep your collected penalty cards in a face-down pile in front of you; you'll count them at round's end.

Worked-out reveal example

Three players reveal simultaneously.

Alice plays #68 (8◉). Bob plays #41 (1■). Cara plays #10 (0♠).

Placement runs from lowest to highest:

• #10 (Cara) is lower than every row's last card (#66, #14, #40, #85). She must take a whole row — say she picks row 3 (just #40, 1 penalty point, see scoring below). Her #10 becomes the new start of that row.
• #41 (Bob) is now the lowest remaining. Row 1's last card is #66 (higher — invalid; cards must go upward) and row 4's is #85 (also higher). That leaves rows 2 and 3: row 2's last card is #14 (difference +27), and row 3's new last card is #10 (difference +31). The smallest upward jump is row 2, so Bob's #41 puts there, behind #14.
• #68 (Alice) goes on row 1 — last card #66, difference 2 (the smallest upward jump). That's her 6th card in that row, so Alice takes #12, #24, #39, #51, and #66 as penalty points (5 cards), and her #68 becomes the new start of row 1.

End of the round

After all 10 turns, everyone has played all 10 cards. Count the penalty values of your collected cards and record your total. Shuffle and deal a new round.

Penalty values

Each card in your penalty pile is worth points based on its running number:

Apply the first matching rule from the top down — #55 is a multiple of 11 and ends in 5, so it gets its own top-priority 7-point entry.

• #55 only (penalty 7): it's a multiple of 11 and ends in 5.
• Multiples of 11 (penalty 5): #11, #22, #33, #44, #66, #77, #88, #99.
• Multiples of 10 (penalty 3): #10, #20, #30, #40, #50, #60, #70, #80, #90, #100.
• Ends in 5 (penalty 2): #5, #15, #25, #35, #45, #65, #75, #85, #95.
• Everything else (penalty 1).

Points are penalties; you're aiming for fewer points.

Scoring

At the end of each round, reveal the pile of cards you collected in the round and add up the penalty values. Record the total and start a new round with a fresh shuffle and deal.

Example

You collect 5 penalty cards: running numbers #12, #24, #39, #51, #66.

Winning

Keep playing rounds. The game ends the moment any player's running total reaches 66 or more. The player with the fewest total penalty points wins.