The Ring 2004

The Ring is a card game loosely based on the US election process. It is played using a standard deck of cards, a small board, and some markers.

The game is driven by four columns of cards on the table, which each start with a single card. On a turn a player can draw a card from the deck, add a card to a column, or discard a card allowing them to take one or more columns: columns with a total exactly matching the discarded card and/or any combination of columns matching this may be taken.

For each column taken the player places a marker in the top box of an area on the events board (or five markers if they manage to take all four columns at once). There is a marker moving from area to area with each placement, so a player placing multiple markers places them in different areas.

Once all the spaces on the board are full the game ends. Players each one point per marker, except that markers on blue spaces are worth two. A player having the majority of the spaces in an area doubles their points for it. Players lose points for cards in hand. If there is a tie for overall points the lowest player is dropped and the board is re-assessed.