Cosmopolis - World City Games
Geography Games to Teach Global City names
in a fun, educational way

World City Games, cities, geography

Object: To score points by collecting and trading for sets of cards. A set is 3 or more cards of the same color, similar to traditional rummy.

Number of Players: 3, 4 or 5

Card Deck: Play with all 42 Regional city cards but none of the white centered Linking city cards. Deal according to the number of players: 3 players - 8 cards each; 4 players - 7 cards each; 5 players - 6 cards each. The number of cards in a player's hand together with those played down (as explained below) always remains the same. But with cities on both sides of the cards, 5 cards represent 10 cities.

Rules: After dealing, the remaining cards become the draw pile. A game is as many rounds (deals) as there are players so that each player deals once. (This is optional if more rounds are agreed upon beforehand.)

The Play: Player to left of dealer goes first and either takes a card from the draw pile and discards one (establishing the discard pile) or plays down a set of three cards. Next players each do the same. But total of cards in hand and played down remains constant. A player choosing to play down a set rather than draw must play at least 3 cards. 1 or 2 cards may be added to a set later. A player who draws must discard but can discard the immediately drawn card. A card previously played down can be discarded, but if that reduces a 3 card set to 2, then the resulting pair must go back to the hand.

Drawing: Cards are only drawn from the Draw pile, not from the Discard pile. When the Draw pile is exhausted the Discard pile is turned over and becomes the Draw pile.

Trading: Players may trade cards any time when it is NOT their turn to draw or play. Trades are one-for-one so the number of each player's cards is constant.

Ending the Round: After all players have had at least 6 plays or draws, any player can announce the end of that round. The player doing that must do so before taking their turn and cannot play again. Other players take two more turns. The hand is now over, scores are counted (see below) and player to left of previous dealers shuffles and deals the next hand.

Ending the Game: Players must agree on the number of times each one will deal before the game begins. First time players should start by dealing only once per game. But more experienced players might want longer games, especially if some players typically end rounds in the shortest possible time.

Scoring: Only sets of 3, 4 or 5 cards of the same color played down earn points. Holding a "widow" in hand (two cards the same color) brings a penalty of 2.

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