Carbondale

There are two ways to find happiness in this small town: money (♢) or love (♡). You will need to build a good network at the local clubs to win hearts, and you will have to have the highest-quality spades to mine for diamonds. Arrange your affairs carefully, or your competitor may step in and co-opt your network.

Carbondale is a game for two to four players played with standard decks of cards. It is not a "casual" card game like many standard-deck games, but is far less complex than many custom-card games on the market today. Play time for players familiar with the rules is twenty to thirty minutes for two players, plus about fifteen minutes per additional player.

Objective

Each player will be building their own personal Carbondale, a grid of cards. The objective is to build a network with at least 7 ♡s and at least 3 ♢ cards, or at least 7 ♢s and at least 3 ♡s. The game ends as soon as a player reaches one of these goals.

Setup

You will need two standard decks of cards for two players, three decks for three players, or four decks for four players.

Tip (click me)

The decks preferably have the same backs, though this is not required unless you have a card-counting pro in your group. We used a ball-point pen to draw an unobtrusive line between the rank and suit of every card in one deck, above the rank and suit in another, and below the rank and suit in another. The marks are ignored for play, but make it easy to separate the decks after the game, and to play other multi-deck games. How about trying five-suit bridge?

Please note: Throughout the game, Ace=1.

Each player gets two starting cards to lay on the table, one next to the other. At random, give each player either an A♠ and 2♣, or an A♣ and 2♠. This is the beginning of your network. Put a Lincoln penny (or any other token) on these two cards to mark them as starting cards.

Set aside the face cards. They will not be used.
Divide the remaining cards into three segments:
1. Remaining cards of value Ace=1 through 4.
2. Cards numbered 5-7.
3. Cards numbered 8-10.
Shuffle only the first deck to form the draw pile, and set aside the other piles.
Deal players a hand of four cards each. Don't reveal your hand to your opponents.

The table

After setup:

There will be one draw deck on the table and two set aside.
All players will have four cards in hand.
Players will have an Ace and two next to each other—the beginning of their own personal Carbondales. The figure shows a town after a few rounds of play. It follows Carbondale's zoning regulations, described below. Briefly, each card is built from another card, forming a grid where each black card takes up one space, but red cards may overlap.

Figure 1: A player's network, with several places to add new cards. Some
examples will be given below.

As the game progresses, two piles will develop:

When players spend cards to add to their personal Carbondale, they will place them in a communal face-up stock. Keep the face-up stock fanned out, so players will be able to select cards from it.
When players challenge each other to claim cards from their opponent's Carbondale, those cards will be discarded face-down into a shared discard pile.

Play

Players take turns, going clockwise around the table. In your turn, you may try to claim a card from an opponent, then you may add a card to your network. Or, you can discard any number of cards. At the end of your turn you will draw to replenish your hand.

Taking a card from an opponent's network

You may attempt to take a vulnerable card from an opponent's network and put that card in your hand. The general idea is that a card is vulnerable until it is integrated into the network by being built upon. But to define this precisely, a card is vulnerable to being claimed unless:

It is the initial Ace or 2 from the start of the game (marked by the tokens).
It is a black card adjacent to two other black cards (including the one it was built from), or a red card is built from it.
It is a red card in the same space on the grid as another overlapping (or overlapped) red card.

Click here to see the example tableau again.

Figure 1: A player's network, with several places to add new cards. Some
examples will be given below.

In the example tableau, the 3♢, 5♠, 6♢, and 4♡ are vulnerable.

Here is the process of attempting to claim a card in an opponent's network:

Show a card (the challenge card) from your hand whose value is at least two steps higher than the card you wish to take, that has the same color. For example, to claim a 3♣, you need a black card whose value is 5 or above. Players typically play the card somewhat enthusiastically, while exclaiming "I challenge you!"
Now your opponent may show a defending card. It must be of the same color, and equal or higher value to your challenge card.
If your opponent played a defending card:
- The card you hoped to claim stays in their network.
- The challenge card and the defending card are discarded face down.
- Your opponent draws exactly one card to replace the one discarded, using the usual card drawing rules (below).
- You take one extra draw penalty when drawing at the end of your turn.
If your opponent does not play a defending card:
- Discard the challenge card face down.
- Put the card from your opponent's network into your hand.

Adding a card to your network

In this phase, select any card from your hand, possibly including one you just claimed from your opponent, and place it in your network following Carbondale's zoning regulations, then pay for the build.

As a buisnessperson in a small town, you will join clubs of increasingly high rank and use those to win hearts, and buy a chain of spades for the purpose of mining for diamonds. Hearts and diamonds themselves do not produce anything, but are how you will find pockets of happiness in Carbondale and win the game.

Zoning regulations

Each player's personal Carbondale must follow the zoning regulations:

ZR1: Each card shall be built from another source card in the grid.
ZR2: Each source card can build only one new card in each direction (N, S, E, W).
ZR3: Black cards shall each take up one spot in a 5x5 grid, without overlap. Red cards may be built beyond these borders.
ZR4: Red cards may overlap, taking up the same spot in the grid.

Tip (click me)

Laying a red card slightly over its source card will help to record which card was built from where. When building East or West, lay the newly-built red card sideways.

Click here to see the example tableau again.

In the example tableau, the player's town started with the 2♠ and A♣. The town is already five black cards wide, but three tall, leaving some room to expand North or South. The player could, for example, build a 4♣ South of the 4♠. ZR3 allows red cards to be built outside the main 5x5 grid, like the 3♢ and 4♡. The player built a 2♡ North from the 2♠, and a 2♢ West from the 3♣, which we can tell because the 2♢ builds out sideways from the 3♣. The 2♡ and the 2♢ occupy the same single spot in the grid; similarly for the 5♡ and 3♡. Eventually, new black cards could be built to the West and North of the 2♡ and the 2♢, and building from those new cards would allow the 2♡/2♢ spot to hold two more cards.

The cost of networking

Some builds have a cost. For those builds:

Give back to the community: contribute one card from your hand to the communal face-up stock.
When drawing cards (below), draw one fewer card. This usually means drawing only until your hand has three cards.

Here are your build options:

On a black card you can build a card of the same suit:
- For free if its rank is lower, equal to, or one rank higher than the built-from card's rank.
- For the cost above if it is two ranks higher.
On a black card you can build a card of the other black suit of lower, equal, or one higher rank for the cost above.
On a club card you can build a heart, and on a spade you can build a diamond of lower or equal rank, for the cost above.
Only these builds are possible. For example, no card can be built on a red card.

Click here to see the example tableau again.

A few examples using the example tableau:

Building a 6♠ from the 5♠ would be free: just lay down the new card.
Building a 5♢ from the 5♠ would require a contribution to the communal stock of one card. Draw to three cards.
Building a 3♠ to the West of the 5♣ would require a one-card contribution to the communal stock, then draw to three cards.
Some things you can't do: build from any of the red cards, build a 7♣ from the 5♠.

Here is a summary of the possible builds, where the card built from has rank N:

Build for free,
draw to 4 cards

Contribute one card,
draw to 3 cards

suits	rank
♣ → ♣ ♠ → ♠	≤N+1

suits	rank
♣ → ♣ ♠ → ♠	N+2
♣ → ♡ ♠ → ♢	≤N
♣ → ♠ ♠ → ♣	≤N+1

Tip (click me)

All cards played during challenges are discarded face-down, while all costs to build are contributed to the communal face-up stock.

Or Discard

If you did not build a new card in your network, you may discard any number of cards from your hand to the face-down discard pile.

Drawing new cards

At the end of your turn, draw until you have a card count as given in the build table, either 3 or 4 cards. If you did not build, draw to 4 cards.

Remember, if you tried to claim an opponent's card this turn and failed, draw to one fewer card.

You may draw cards from the draw deck or the communal face-up and fanned-out stock pile in any order, until you reach the right card count.

At the moment a player wants to draw from the draw pile but the pile is empty (and no sooner), form a new draw pile. At setup, you formed two piles of extra cards, each an opportunity to build your network further. Form the next draw pile by shuffling together the next of these spare piles (if any), the face-up stock, and face-down discard pile.

Reference: turn summary and build costs

Claim an opponent's vulnerable card (optional):
- Reveal a card of the same color but at least two steps higher rank than the card you wish to claim.
- Your opponent may defend by revealing a card of equal or higher rank to your challenge card, but the same color.
- Any revealed cards are discarded face-down. If your opponent discards, they draw a new replacement card.
- If your opponent did not defend, take the card into your hand.
Add a card to your network (optional):
- Make one of the allowable builds from the build table, repeated below.
- After adding the card, contribute the build cost (if any) to the face-up stock pile.
Only if you did not build, you may discard from your hand.
Draw to replenish your hand, from the draw deck or the communal stock.
- Draw to the number of cards as per the table, minus one if you made a failed claim.
- When you want to draw from an empty draw pile, build a new one by shuffling the stock, discards, and the next segment of the deck (if any).

Build for free,
draw to 4 cards

Contribute one card,
draw to 3 cards

suits	rank
♣ → ♣ ♠ → ♠	≤N+1

suits	rank
♣ → ♣ ♠ → ♠	N+2
♣ → ♡ ♠ → ♢	≤N
♣ → ♠ ♠ → ♣	≤N+1