Motivation

• Quick play - each game should be finishable in 20 minutes
• Simple rules - rules should be simple, but should still invite strategy. Rules should not be brain dead or heavily reliant on luck like War or Go Fish
• Metaphor - by relating game play to a metaphor, the rules should be easier to remember

Rules of Play

Shuffle a 52-card deck, deal each player 5 cards. Place the remaining card deck (called the "mine") face down on the table. The object is to get all the diamonds or to have the most diamonds in your hand when the game is over.

Play starts with the person to the left of the dealer. On each turn, a player must decide to either draw a card from the "mine" or to steal diamonds from other players.

Stealing Diamonds: To steal diamonds from another player, a player must lay down certain combinations of cards from their hand. The cards should be laid down face-up and remain in front of the player for the rest of the game. When stealing, the player must announce who they are stealing from and how many diamonds they are stealing. If a victim doesn't have the amount of diamonds announced, they shall just hand over however many are in their hand. The possible card combinations are:

• Doubles - two matching cards from Ace to 10. The number of diamonds stolen is the number value of the card, with Ace being 1.
• Face card + Number card - A face card (J,Q,K) along with a number card from Ace to 10. The number of diamonds stolen is the number value of the number card.
• Triples - three matching cards from Ace to 10. The number of diamonds stolen is the number value of the card times 2. So if triple-4s were played, 8 diamonds would be stolen.
• Double face cards + number card - The player gets to steal the amount of diamonds indicated by the number card from two other players. The face cards must match.
• Triple face cards + number card - The player gets to steal the amount of diamonds indicated by the number card from three other players. The face cards must match.
• Double face cards + Double number cards - The player gets to steal the amount of diamonds indicated by the number card, times 2, from two other players. The face cards must match.

Diamonds can not be used to steal. If a player accidentally uses a diamond to steal (they have placed the cards face up, and announced both the amount and the victim(s)), it is called a "Stockpiling". Any other player noticing the stockpiling can announce "De Boers!" and collect the played diamonds and every diamond in the stockpiler's hand.

An alternative method of play can have stockpiled diamonds being counted towards the player's score at the end of the game.

Ending the game

If ever a player acquires all 13 diamonds, the game ends immediately. Otherwise, once the last card has been removed from the "mine", every player gets one more turn including the player who just drew the card. After that last round of play, the player with the most diamonds wins.

Example of play

South player plays double face cards and a 4, and demands 4 diamonds from the North and East players.

North player only has one diamond, so can only give South player 1, but East player has to give South player 4 diamonds.

West player's turn. He takes a card from the mine.

North player's turn. He knows South player has at least 5 diamonds, so he plays doubles on South player.