Players: 1-7
Play Time: 30mins
Five Crowns is rummy with a five-suited deck and a twist. The set collection aspect of rummy is basically the same, with groups of three cards in either runs or denominations making a valid meld. The twist is that in each hand the number of cards required to create a meld increases, from three cards in the first hand to thirteen in the last. The game, therefore, consists of eleven hands.
In each hand, in addition to the six Jokers, other cards are designated as wild: in the first hand 3s are wild; in the second hand 4s are wild, and so on until in the last hand the Kings go wild. (You can remember which cards are wild because it matches the number of cards in hand, i.e., in the first hand you hold three cards and 3s are wild.) A hand ends when a player can meld all cards in her hand after the discard.
Players: 1+
Play Time: 30mins
Players: 2 - 6
Play Time: 20mins
In Karma, each player is dealt three face-down cards that he cannot look at and that remain on the table in front of him. He is dealt six more cards, chooses three of those for his hand, and places the remaining three face-up onto his table cards in three separate stacks. One player begins by placing a card or cards of the same value from his hand onto the table face-up to create a discard pile. The other players in turn must place onto the discard stack a card or cards of the same value that match(es) or exceed(s) the value of the top card of the stack; or else, pick up the stack. Until the draw pile is gone, players must draw at the end of their turns to maintain a hand of at least three cards.
All of a player's hand cards must be played before any of his face-up table cards, which must in turn be played before any of his face-down table cards. A few cards allow players to break the foregoing rules. The last player with cards loses the game.