| Designed by | Roxanne Clark |
| Players | 2 |
| Length | 15 |
| Extra Material | None |
Compete to collect a better stamp collection than your competitor.
Set up
Deck Set up
using the full extended deck-
[a] Pull out the Excuse and the “stamps” (the character cards) from the deck.
[b] Shuffle the rest of the deck and then, still as a separate pile, the “stamps”.
[c] Put the “stamps” at the bottom of the deck and then draw 8 cards from the top of the deck. Put this small deck to one side with the excuse on top of it.
[d] Deal the remaining cards into 3 piles. Shuffle each separately.
[e] Place each of the 4 piles on top of each other, with the deck topped by the excuse to the bottom.
Table Set up
[f] Deal 5 cards, face-up to form a row across the middle of the table.
[g] Deal, face-down, 5 cards to each player. These cards form the player’s ‘hand’.
[h] Each player views their own hand of cards and places any “stamp” card that they have into a row on their side of the table. (This row is referred to as their “shop” and so this step is referred to as “setting up shop”)
Game Play
1) The first player takes as many cards from the main deck as is necessary to make their hand size up to 5 cards.
2) Setup shop
3) The player may purchase as many cards as they can/want to but must purchase at least one item. Items may be purchased from any row on the table (see Purchasing). Spent cards go into a discard pile if bought from your own shop or the general market row in the centre but are paid to your opponent (even if it takes their hand size over 5 cards) if the cards are bought from their shop.
If the player cannot make even one purchase, using their current hand, they should show their hand to the other player to confirm that this is the case, discard their cards to the discard pile and draw another 5 cards from the main deck, beginning their turn again with step 2.
4) Play passes to the next player.
The Excuse -
The appearance of the excuse signals that no more “stamps” are available from the draw pile. Discard it and draw a replacement card from the draw pile immediately.
Purchasing
Any card or combination of cards may be used to purchase a card on the table provided that they each match at least one of the suits on the desired card and that their total value at least equals the value of the card to be purchased.
5
+ 5
can purchase 9 : full source reference
Crowns, Pawns and Courts all have a value of 10.
Aces cost 1 to buy but when used to buy other cards or stamps have no value in themselves but are added to a purchase in order to expand the choice of suits with which a card or stamp can be purchased.
e.g. The sun ace used here adds in sun to the list of viable suits that can be used in the purchase of the huntress enabling the Castle to be used.
3
+ 7
+ A can purchase 
Once purchased a card is added to the player’s “Album” if it is a “stamp” or the player’s hand if it is not. Any card purchased from the central ‘general market’ row is immediately replaced by a card from the draw pile.
Ending the Game
The game finishes when either all of the “stamps" have been purchased or neither player has the resources to buy those that are left.
The winner is the player with the highest total value of stamps. In the event of a draw other assets in their hand can be taken into account.
Credits
Regular players will immediately notice that this is virtually a 2-player version of P.D. Magnus's Adaman but also includes the ideas for Ace use suggested by the 3rd variant in Gene Moore's Ruta. The deck set up has a few hints of Pandemic.
Links
Mini Rules Booklet - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o9sgsw6il59g7ve/WT3WfDI4JO