RULES
For 2 to 8 players or more by playing in teams
Discover the rules 👇
WHAT IS CRACK LIST ?
CRACK LIST is a brand-new take on Categories in an exciting card game format where everyone takes turns to play, like with Rummy, Whist or Bridge !
Object of the game : get rid of all your cards faster than the other players.
How ? Crack the category lists by finding answers for the chosen category that start with the letters in your hand.
Think it sounds easy ? Think again ! Each time a new CRACK LIST card is played, a brand-new category gets chosen.
And whenever an ACTION card is played, the whole game can get turned on its head. The twists and turns just keep on coming until one of the players wins the round by cracking the category and playing their final card.
PLAYING THE GAME
The game contains 2 decks of 78 cards :
The BLUE deck: this is the GAME DECK, which includes Letter cards and Action cards.
The RED deck: these cards are the CATEGORY LISTS, with 3 different categories to choose from on each card.
GETTING STARTED
The dealer deals 8 cards face down to each player from the BLUE deck, and then places the remaining cards face down in the middle of the table to form the DRAW PILE.
The players all look at their cards.
The youngest player picks up the top card from the RED deck and chooses their favorite category from the three categories listed.
Play then moves around the table in a clockwise direction, with each player having 20 seconds to play one of the cards in their hand. They must find an answer for the category in play that starts with a letter in their hand.
For example, if the category is “Words that rhyme with haze” :
The first player plays their “A” card and says “Amaze”
The next player plays their “P” card and says “Phrase”
The following player plays their “D” card and says “Days” and so on.
If a player gives a wrong answer or an answer that has already been given or if they run out of time, they must draw a card from the DRAW PILE.
WHAT ARE THE ACTION CARDS FOR ?
On their turn, rather than playing a Letter card and giving an answer, players can choose to play an Action card instead :
CRACK LIST CARD
When a player plays a CRACK LIST card, they get to pick up a new card from the CATEGORY LISTS deck and choose a new category.
Note (1) : Play then passes immediately to the next player in the direction of play, who is the first to give an answer for the new category.
Note (2) : You cannot end with a CRACK LIST card as your last card.
ACTION CARDS (CONT.)
STOP CARD
Whenever a player plays a STOP card, the next player has to skip their turn.
REVERSE CARD
Whenever a player plays a REVERSE card, the direction of play is reversed (if play was moving in a clockwise direction, it switches to counter-clockwise, and vice versa).
SWAP CARD
Whenever a player plays a SWAP CARD, they get to swap their entire hand or just one card of their choice with the player of their choice.
Warning : If a player ends with the SWAP card, the other player wins. We don’t recommend this. ;)
WHAT ARE THE PENALTY CARDS FOR ?
Some letters are trickier to play than others: these are the Letter cards marked +1, +2 and +3.
By playing one of these cards, a player can penalize one or more other players by forcing them to draw 1, 2 or 3 cards from the DRAW PILE.
+1 LETTER CARDS :
When a player gives an answer that starts with an F, G, L or N, they draw 1 penalty card from the DRAW PILE and hand it to the player of their choice.
+2 LETTER CARDS :
When a player gives an answer that starts with a J, K, V or W, they draw 2 penalty cards from the DRAW PILE and hand them to either 1 or 2 players of their choice (giving both cards to 1 player or 1 card to each of the 2 players)
+3 LETTER CARDS :
When a player gives an answer that starts with a Q, X, Y or Z, they draw 3 penalty cards from the DRAW PILE and hand them to the player(s) of their choice, distributing the 3 cards to 1, 2 or 3 players.
CONTINUING THE GAME
EVERYONE’S STUCK ?
CRACK OUT A NEW CATEGORY LIST CARD
If no players can think of an answer and have all had to draw a card, you can abandon the category. The same player who chose it picks a new one, and the game resumes.
TIME CHALLENGE
If the other players think that a player is taking too long to give an answer, they can start a countdown, yelling 5, 4, 3, 2, 1: get cracking!, forcing the player to pick up a card from the DRAW PILE if they fail to give an answer.
HOW DOES THE ROUND END ?
The first person to play their last card has officially cracked the category and won the round.
That person then picks up a new Category List card and chooses the first category for the next round.
WINNING THE GAME
The game is played in 3 rounds.
At the end of the 3rd round, the player who has won the most rounds wins the game.
ANSWERS THAT START WITH “THE” OR “A”
Answers that are proper nouns starting with a definite or indefinite article (“the” or “a”) can have 2 correct answers.
For example, in the Movies category, the answer “The Godfather” is valid with both the T card and the G card.
CHALLENGES
CHALLENGING A VERIFIABLE ANSWER
One or more other players can challenge another player’s answer if it is verifiable. A web search should then be used to determine whether or not the answer is acceptable.
CHALLENGING AN UNVERIFIABLE ANSWER
When a player’s answer cannot be verified or is deemed subjective, the other players raise their hands to vote on whether or not it should be accepted. The majority rules !
