69

01 Apr 2025

Reading time ~12 minutes

69 logo

A Nice Card Game. About Numbers.

Play cards from your hand onto the table to form and capture matched sets. Try to capture as many as possible before someone plays their last card and ends the round. Score points for every card you capture, and lose points for every card you have left. Keep playing rounds to add to your score, and be the first to 69 points total to win!

This game contains:

69 cards
This rule sheet

Pretty simple, right?

Cards

There are (of course) 69 cards in a deck of 69. Most of them are number cards. These come in six suits: six suits

Each suit has ten cards, numbered 0 through 9. six cards

6 and 9 cards can be flipped and used as either a 6 or a 9. They’re flexible that way. 6/9 flip

There are also three special cards (with three cards of each): Wild, Lock and Scramble! three wild cards

Wild cards can count as any suit and value.
Lock cards are like Wild, but also prevent anyone from stealing a set.
Scramble! cards are like Wild, but let the player who plays them rearrange all of the cards on the table.

Sets

During a round of 69, players make and capture sets of cards. Cards in a set need to follow these rules:

They need to all be of different suits.
They need to either be the same number, or sequential numbers in order.
They can’t have more than one copy of any special card.

0 cards can count as one higher than 9 or one lower than 1, but not both. The numbers don’t “wrap around.” 0 wrapping

When a set has at least three cards in it, it’s complete, meaning a player can try to capture it.

How to Play

69 is a game for 2-6 players, ages 16 and up. Each game is played over a series of rounds, and a full game takes around 30 minutes, once everyone knows how to play.

Setup

To start, the players pick one of them to be the dealer. The dealer shuffles the deck and deals ten cards to each player, then flips one card from the top of the deck face up onto the table. That card starts the first incomplete set of the round. The player sitting to the dealer’s left takes the first turn.

On Your Turn

On each player’s turn, they can either:

Play one or more cards from their hand. Play onto a card or incomplete set on the table to form a legal set (check the rules for sets to the right).
Pass, and flip a card from the top of the deck face up onto the table to start a new set. The player can do this if they can’t, or don’t want to, play cards from their hand.

Capturing & Stealing

Any time a player brings a set to three or more cards, they complete it and can capture it…unless someone else manages to steal it! Here’s how that can happen.

The player who completed the set has the first claim on capturing it, and notes how many cards they added to it this turn by pointing at it with that many fingers.
Starting with the player to their left, each player has the chance to add cards from their hand to that set only (anything they play needs to be legal to add to the set). If a player adds at least as many cards as the player currently claiming it, they claim it instead.
Whether or not a player adds cards to the set, the chance to steal now passes to the player to their left, and so on.
If there is a Lock card played into the set at any point, it can’t be stolen from the player currently claiming it.
Once the chance to steal passes completely around to the player currently claiming the set, that player captures it.

When a player captures a set, they put the cards face up on the table in front of them, flip one card from the top of the deck to start a new incomplete set, and the player to their left takes the next turn.

Ending the Round

Once a player plays the last card in their hand, and after the players resolve any capturing/stealing from that play, the round ends. Each player scores points for cards they captured and loses points for every card in their hand. No player can score less than zero points per round.

Scoring

At the end of each round, players score points for cards they captured and lose points for cards they have left in their hands.

Gain 1 point for every card captured.
Gain 2 points for every set of 6 and 9 captured.
Gain 3 points for every set of three special cards captured.
Gain 6 points for every complete set of six suits captured.
Gain 10 points for every complete set of 0-9 captured.
Lose 1 point for every card left in hand.

Next Round

Once everyone writes down the number of points they won, start another round. The player to the left of whoever played their last card is the new dealer. Any player with 69 or more points wins.

Wild Cards

unicorn icon

Wild cards are simple: they can count as any number and suit a player wants. They do still need to count as an existing number and suit, though, so one of them can’t be played into a set that already has six cards in it.

If a Wild card is played onto the table on its own to start a new set, it can be used as any value any future player wants it to be.

Lock Cards

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A Lock card works the same as a Wild card, but as soon as a completed set has a Lock in it, the set can’t be stolen from the player claiming it.

If a Lock is played on its own, the effect kicks in as soon as the set it’s in is completed.

Scramble! Cards

keys icon

A Scramble! card works the same as a Wild card, but the player who plays it can also rearrange all of the cards on the table, even completing multiple sets!

If a Scramble! Card is flipped onto the table on its own, the player who flipped it up immediately gets the opportunity to use it, even combining it with other cards to complete sets if possible.

Special Cases

The basic rules on the previous page cover most of what’s needed to play 69, but sometimes things get a little weird. This should cover most of those cases.

Playing Cards

A player can only play cards into one set on the table. They can play multiple cards into that set, but only one at a time.

Flipping Cards

Flipping a card onto the table from the top of the deck happens when a player can’t (or doesn’t want to) play a card on their turn, and every time someone captures a set.

When someone flips a card, it always starts a new set. Even if that card could fit into another set, it always goes out on its own.

Sets

A set can have one or two cards while it’s on the table, but any set that gets to three or more cards is complete, and will be captured by the player who completed it, or by someone who steals it from them.

Players can “change” the value of cards in a set when they play into it. Common examples of this are:

One player adds a 6 to another 6. A later player turns one 6 to make a 9 and plays 7 and 8 between them.
One player completes a set by playing a Wild into a set of 2 and 3, counting it as a 4. The next player steals it by playing a 4 and counting the Wild as a 5 (or a 1).

As long as the result is a set that’s legal, whoever is currently playing cards into it can do what they want with it.

Capturing & Stealing

After a player completes a set and tries to capture it, each player in turn has a chance to play cards into the set. Players can always play into the set when they have the chance, even if they can’t play enough to steal it.

Players might do this in order to get rid of cards from their hand, but in most cases, it isn’t a good idea.

Ending the Game & Scoring

If the deck runs out of cards before any player has played all their cards, the round keeps going. Any time a player would flip a card from the deck, they pull a random card from the hand of the player to their right and flip that onto the table instead.

Multiple players can win the game. If more than one player ends a round with 69 or more points, they all win. If you really need to pick a single winner, go with the one with the most points. But really, this is supposed to be a game you don’t have to win alone.

Scrambling

Scramble! cards are a bit chaotic. As soon as a Scramble! card is put on the table, the player who did it can pick up any of the cards on the table and rearrange them however they want, potentially completing one or more sets.

The player who put a Scramble! onto the table is free to do anything with any cards on the table that they could normally do when playing cards, as long as every card on the table when they’re done is in a legal position. They can:

Disassemble existing sets into single cards.
Combine cards into bigger sets.
Turn 6 and 9 cards around to change the value they count as.
Count 0 cards as one lower than 1 or one higher than 9.
Use special cards on the table as any value they like.

If there are enough cards on the table, the player who used Scramble! can even complete more than one set at one time. If this happens, each player in turn gets their chance to steal like usual, with a few exceptions:

Each player with an opportunity to steal can play cards into any or all of the completed sets at once (they still can’t play into non-completed sets).
The player who played Scramble! counts as having played only one card to complete all of the sets they completed in this turn, no matter how many cards they actually played.
Different players can end up stealing different completed sets in the steal process. Stealing chances end for each set when the play comes back around to whoever is currently claiming it. Take care to be clear who is claiming what during the process.
Once all the completed sets are captured by someone, the last player in the sequence to capture one flips one card onto the table to start one new set, and the player to their left takes the next turn.

Scramble! takes effect even if it comes up when a player flips it onto the table because they pass on their turn or after they capture a set. This is unlike the other two special cards.

Tips & Tricks

Since every card in a set needs to have a different suit, and since there are six suits, no set can ever have more than six cards. Even special cards need to be counted as if they have a real suit and value.
Since a set can’t have more than six cards in it, any time someone plays a sixth card into to, whoever is currently claiming it can simply take it, since there are no other legal cards that could go into it.
If a player plays three cards into a set at any point, it’s mathematically impossible for anyone to steal it from them. Someone else might still play into it to get rid of cards from their hand, but there will already be too many cards in it for anyone else to play three more cards.* Early in the game, it can be a good idea to pass until you can play three or more cards at once (or a Lock). Because everyone else is holding a lot of cards, there’s a much higher chance that one of them will have enough to steal a set, and playing three cards will block them out.
…for that reason, Lock cards tend to be more useful early in the game.
Every time someone passes and flips a card instead, it increases the number of potential sets on the table by one. The only way the number of potential sets can ever go down is by someone using a Scramble! card and taking multiple sets with it.
…for that reason, Scramble! cards tend to get more useful later in the game.

Credits

Designed by: Rich Ranallo

Card design, layout and package design by: Rich Ranallo

Additional consulting from: Sky Leaton, Dan O’Hanlon, Kara Rosser

Game icons were colorized and modified by Rich Ranallo, based on assets from The Noun Project.

Original Noun Project artwork and artists and are:

The Inner Circle

Thank you to every backer who helped make this game a reality on Kickstarter, but special thanks to these 69 backers who earned their way into our highest honor:

Brett Myers, Crystal Puckett, Kara Rosser, Rebecca Ruechel, Leonard Pierce, Jason Ward, Martin Anton Gleason, Jesse D. Irwin, Brandy T, Hugh Jazz, Joe Pate, Dan O’Hanlon, Jeff Kahrs, Maya Kuper, Nancy Johnson, Edward Corcoran, Jessica Johnson, Percy Hatcherson, Ryvre von Doom, Ben Kilpatrick, Jeanelle Sims, Geoff Raye, Rich Steeves, Klaus & Luci, Ron Klawinski, Jack “The Ghoul” Gulick, Marc Kevin Hall, K Broecker, Sarah Oliveira, Cledwyn, NYCguy, Morgan-Bun, Jeremy Bredeson and Leon Moses, Don Canton, Crystal Mazur, Anne Margrete Myraunet, Jason Wloch, Lemon Skyy, Miranda Strenke-Brand, Pete Petrusha, Malik Sylvester, Megan Bangerter, Bondaronie, tgm, Eiellith, Chad Moores, Diehl Moran, Dalek Empress V, Jon Butters, Maximilian Robert Lockwood, Katrine Feld, Jess Gado, Wes Fite, Kat Pleviak, Pakus Perales, Emily Adam Wirth, Ethan Dube, Abby Braunsdorf, Jennifer Chi, Caitlin Fite, James Behret, Bruce Meyer, Victor Harter, Tesla and Bucky, Tristan Putman, Kevin & Lisa, Meghan Dailey, REB & Deb, Bill Miller

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