Palace
BGG rank
BGG #12,810
BGG rating
5.9

Palace

Rules assistance for Palace

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 2–6 players
  • 20 min
  • 8+
  • Complexity 1.1/5

For 2 players

Rules assistant for Palace

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Palace is a board game for 2–6 players, 20 minutes per game, and ages 8 and up. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Player Elimination, and Single Loser Game.

Similar games

About the game

"Palace" is a very popular game played with regular playing cards, and also is commonly called names like "Shithead" or "Karma". There are numerous variations with other names like "Smeghead", "Shit-boot" or "Mukava". In Sweden it is referred to as "Vändtia" and often comes with minor rules variations. The game is for two to six players in which players aim to not be the last player to get rid of their cards. Who gets rid of their cards first is usually considered unimportant. The loser must deal the next game. The game requires one regular 52-card deck (plus 2 Jokers, when six play). Aces are high, although twos and tens act as trump cards in different ways. Each player gets a set of piles of two cards, three face up and three face down. They then take turns to play cards onto a central pile, drawing from the deck to replenish their hand. If they can't make a play they have to pick up the pile and the next player begins a new one. Once a player has emptied their hand and no more cards can be drawn, they move on to play cards from their own piles.

Categories

Publishers

  • (Public Domain)

Questions and answers

Palace supports 2–6 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.