How to Play Racing Demon
Description
Everyone has their own deck and their own layout — but the foundations in the centre are shared, and play is simultaneous. Fast hands win. Slow hands lose badly.
Also known as: Racing Demon; Pounce; Peanuts; Squeal; Scrooge
Objective
Be first to empty your own personal pile by racing to build sequences, alone or into shared piles everyone can use.
Setup
Each player uses their own full deck.
Deal yourself thirteen cards as your personal pile — twelve face down, one face up on top — plus four more cards face up beside it as your work piles.
Rules
There's no turn order — everyone plays at once, as fast as they can.
Build shared central piles starting from an Ace, going up in the same suit — anyone can add to anyone's pile.
Build your own work piles downward, alternating colors.
Whenever the top card of your personal pile is playable, play it — that's always your priority, since clearing that pile is how you win.
Work through your personal stock in groups of three, turning up a new group whenever you have played everything usable from the current one.
Winning
The instant someone empties their personal pile, the round ends immediately for everyone.
Score a point for every card you got onto a shared central pile, and lose two points for every card still stuck in your personal pile.
Play to an agreed target score (often 100) across multiple rounds.