Gauner (aka Pets) (German Import)

Note: This game is in German. The game itself is language independent. English rules can be found here.

In Pets, players want to collect animals – but only if they'll score points during the game's three scoring rounds.

The card deck includes 105 cards showing seven types of animals, with the animals numbered 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24; this number indicates how many of that type of card are in the deck. Each player starts with seven cards in hand, and three rows of ten face-up cards are placed on the table. On a turn, a player takes one of three actions:


Play cards from his hand onto the table. You can play only one type of animal, you cannot already own this type, and you must play more than are shown by an opponent. The opponents cards of this type must then be placed onto the deposit pile.
Pick up cards from a row. You take all the cards of a single type from either end of any row and add them to your hand, then place the card in the row adjacent to these cards (and all cards of the same type) in the scoring area.
Place one card from your hand at the end of a row.


If a row is emptied, create a new row of ten cards from the deck. As soon as six cards of the same type are in the scoring area, players score points for their holdings. If you hold some number of "24" cards, for example, you score a number of points equal to the number of 24 cards in the scoring area; if you score for two, three, or more types of cards, then your total score for the round doubles, triples, etc.

After scoring, shuffle all cards from the deposit pile, scoring cards and all cards players have played, then place them under the deck. After the third scoring, players tally their points and see who wins.

(Gauner accommodates 2-4 players instead of 2-5.)