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The CombinACTION! card back, its name repeated in green, orange, purple and black over red, yellow and blue stripes, with a 25-point card fanned behind it

Flight FBG-002 · Card game

CombinACTION!

Colors make suits. Suits make points. Points make wins!

No turns and no waiting: everyone grabs and plays at once. Mix colors into suits the way paints mix, stack suits into point cards, and once the piles are gone, empty your hand and yell "CombinACTION!" to end the game on the spot.

  • Brennan Pope

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How it plays

Grab, mix, yell.

  1. 01

    Deal

    Deal all 102 cards into face-down piles of six and share them out evenly, at the bottom of each player's area. Any left over go in the center.

  2. 02

    Grab

    There are no turns. When your hand is empty, take one of your piles, then the center's: its six cards are your hand. You can take a single card from the center at any time.

  3. 03

    Mix

    Play colors to your area, tuck them under the suit they make, and tuck suit stacks under the point card they build. Suits and point cards you don't want go face up to the center, for anyone to grab.

  4. 04

    Yell

    Once every pile is gone, anyone with an empty hand can yell "CombinACTION!" and the game ends at once. Add up your point cards: the highest total wins.

Four players mid-game: each with their dealt piles at the edge of the table and their played stacks in front of them, colors tucked under suits and suits under point cards, and the leftover pile in the center with discarded suits and point cards sorted around it
Mid-game with four players: each player's piles at the bottom of their area, and the leftover pile in the center with the discards sorted around it.

The recipes

Mix it like paint.

Every card shows its recipe in its corners, so you can read the whole table at a glance in the middle of a race.

The three color cards, yellow, red and blue, and the four suit cards: a green club, an orange heart, a purple diamond and a black spade, each with its colors as dots in the corner
Yellow + blue make a club, red + yellow a heart, blue + red a diamond, and all three a spade.
The eleven point cards: three 9s, three 12s, a 15, three 18s and a 25, each with the suits it needs in the corner
Two suits make a 9, or a 12 with a spade; three make a 15, or an 18 with a spade; all four make the 25.

Why it works

Three minutes of pure scramble.

  • Nobody waits

    There are no turns. Everyone plays at once, as fast as they can, so a whole game takes about three minutes.

  • The center is up for grabs

    Discards sit face up and sorted in the middle, so the heart you let go can finish someone else's 18, and theirs can finish yours.

  • Every card is a commitment

    Played cards stay put and stacks can't be split. Hold a card for the perfect point card, and you can't take a fresh pile until your hand is empty.

  • A deck that adds up

    21 of each color make exactly 7 of each suit, and 7 of each suit build every point card once. Nothing is left over: all 157 points are there to be made.

What's in the box

One deck, nothing else.

  • 102 cards: 63 color cards (21 each of yellow, red and blue), 28 suit cards (7 of each suit) and 11 point cards
  • 6 rules cards, printed on both sides, with a picture of the table mid-game
  • A hook box, one deck wide like the original, made to open and close often

Ways to play

Same deck, new scramble.

  • The main game

    Everyone's piles dealt out in front of them, and every discard to the center, for anyone to grab.

    2 to 6

  • Clean Sweep

    Discard to a face-up pile of your own. Once your hand is empty, sweep up another player's whole discard pile instead of a pile, but never your own.

    Variant · on the rules cards

  • Beat the Clock

    Play alone against a 3-minute timer: 7 piles at first, and two more for every game you win, up to the whole deck. More boxes, more piles, more minutes. Online, race everyone on today's deal, with a leaderboard.

    1 player · on the rules cards

  • Bigger tables

    Shuffle in a second box of cards, and more players can join the race.

    7 and up

The story

Fast then. Fast now.

CombinACTION! was first designed about twenty years ago. Its original box promised "a fast paced game for 2-4 players"; this edition plays up to six, and more with a second box. The art is redrawn from that first copy, keeping its layout: the recipes in the corners, each suit in the color its recipe mixes to, and the numbers in a typeface designed with the Braille Institute for readers with low vision.

Where it stands

Up next.

The print edition is set up on The Game Crafter, and its first printed copy is next. We expect it to sell for about $10 to $15, in line with small card games like it; the final price is set at launch. Want to see it on Kickstarter first? Give it your vote.

Play it firstFree in your browser, so you know what you're voting for.