The Puzzle: The life task of arranging disparate sensory contents into a meaningful whole is mimicked in the Puppeteer's Cosmic Puzzle. Each card is more meaningful as part of a suit, each suit as part of a deck, each deck as part of the system. The system is designed for intergenerational play. Cards can be introduced to pre-schoolers through Cosmic Bingo. Meaning will be discovered over time !!!
Cosmic Arrays (like Rummy)
Advanced scoring: Game continues until a player accumulates 100 points. Zodiac cards are worth 6 points, other point values are as indicated on the text card for each suit. An agreed upon number of bonus points may be awarded to the player who ends the hand by going out of cards.
The game lasts 1 or more hands until a player accumulates 36 points. Cards in the 3 smallest suits (Green 5 pointed star = Compass, Blue square = Elements, Purple circle = Evolution) are worth 2 points, others are worth 1 point. Shuffle the cards. Deal 6 cards to each player. Put the undealt cards face down on the table and turn one up, to start the discard pile. Players take turns drawing, playing and discarding. Play consists of initiating sets of 3 or more cards of the same suit, which are displayed face up by each player, or adding 1 or more cards to displayed sets. Each hand continues until one player plays or discards the last card they are holding. Drawing can be a single card from the face down pile or any number of cards from the discard pile, as long as the bottom card drawn is played. At the end of a hand positive points are earned for played cards, and negative points are earned for cards a player is left holding. The deal goes to the player next to the player who ended the hand, in the direction of play.
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Cosmic Bingo
Pass out bingo game-cards #'s 1-4, 1 or more per player. Shuffle the deck of 36 (no wild cards) and place face down in a stack. Turn over 1 card at a time, give it to the player that has it on their bingo game-card, and name it. Place tokens on bingo game-cards until a whole suit is collected by the winner, who declares "ARRAY!". Then read the poem for that suit.
Variations: Play with 36, 48, 64, or 100 cards.The 1st player to get 3 or 4 in a row, or some other agreed upon pattern, wins. Winner keeps coins or edible tokens used to mark spaces. Games
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Puppet Poker is played for points up to a set goal. Shuffle and deal. Place the remainder of the deck face down. Alter hands systematically in attempt to increase value. Points are totaled for clusters of cards: 2 or more in any suit or suits, or all cards from different suits (a "Puppeteer's Hand"). Options: 1)Declare bonus points for possession of certain cards, such as those identifying the current day (by associated planet), lunar phase, astrological month, or the player by generation and gender. 2) Play hand by hand, with or without betting. 3) Use your imagination.
Level I: Shuffle the deck of 36 and deal 5 to each player. Discard and draw from the remainder 1 time. Cards in clusters are worth 1 point each. Point goal equals the number of cards in the deck. Variations: 1) All players discard face up simultaneously, then draw 1 card at a time from either the discards or the remainder. Start the draw with the person who discarded the most cards and proceed to the person who discarded the least. 2) Only the winner of each hand can count their points toward the goal. A tie goes to the player with highest card(s) of relative value. If still tied, no points are awarded to any player. 3) deal 5-6 cards playing with 36, 42, or 64; deal 6-8 cards playing with 48 or 54. (scroll down)
Level II: As level I, including variations, but assign relative point values and play to 100 points. Variations: 1) Deal as many cards as suits are in play. Discard and draw more than once. 2) Precede discarding with a battle: players simultaneously turn one card from their hand face up. The high card takes the others. This constitutes the draw for the winner of the battle, who then discards to bring their hand back to the number dealt. After a tie the cards are taken back. 3) Before discarding and replenishing, take turns selecting a card blindly from a neighbor, once around the cirle.
Level III: Agree on deck, hand size, point goal, and other parameters. Shuffle and deal. Each player in turn proposes a process that will alter all hands (except "locked" ones). All players must agree to the process. During their turn - before or after, but not during, the process - a player may "lock" their hand by declaration, which exempts them from subsequent processes. After one turn per player hands are scored. Variations: 1) Some or all cards are dealt face up - dealers choice. 2) Follow dealing with a show of an agreed upon number of cards. All players let others see one, some, or all of their cards - players choice. 3) Use your imagination. Games