RULES

Hatch your plan, heckle your opponents, and cluck and crow your way to victory!

BIG CHICKEN is a dynamic and fiercely competitive card game designed to play the same for 3 to 6 players (with a 2-player variant), that requires an adaptive strategy as the game unfolds. While luck determines the cards you receive, victory hinges on cunning and planning. Get ready for intense gameplay, spirited banter, and a lot of fun! Will you end up the Rotten Egg or the Golden Egg?

PLAYERS / AGE / TIME

BIG CHICKEN is recommended for ages 10 and up, if the children have a good attention span and can handle a medium complexity ruleset. Some advanced and attentive 8-year-olds do very well with the game and enjoy it quite a bit. Some 11-year-olds with short attention spans are not able to focus enough to learn the rules of the game well. YMMV.

A first time teaching/learning game is going to take 1-1.25 hours, depending on the number of people playing and how familiar they are with some traditional card playing mechanics and rules, like the order of hands in poker. An experienced group of players can finish a game in 30-40 mins.

BIG CHICKEN: JUST HATCHED

BIG CHICKEN: Just Hatched is a simplified-ruleset version of BIG CHICKEN, aimed at beginners and kids (ages 7 & up).

Just Hatched is a good introduction to traditional card games, as well as strategy, set collecting, hand management, and more.

(Just Hatched can be played with any existing BIG CHICKEN deck.)

INFLUENCES

BIG CHICKEN’s origins lie in the traditional Chinese game Sho Tai Ti (Big Two), with influences from the German game Mau-Mau (Crazy Eights), the Japanese game Daifugō (Tycoon), the English Whist family of games (Hearts, Bridge, etc), Poker, and a few others.

BALANCED FOR 3 to 6 PLAYERS

BIG CHICKEN has been designed to play well with 3 to 6 players (playing individually, not as teams or partners). We’ve worked hard to preserve the most important aspects of gameplay no matter the number of players – with as little mechanical difference as possible – so the same strategies and planning can be applied to any variation.

2-PLAYER VARIANT

To play the 2-Player variant, first learn the base game (for 3-6 players) as the rules are the same, with some exceptions / additions.

Then head over to the 2-Player Rules page to learn the minor differences.

GAME CONTENTS

The game contains a 105-card deck, made up of

• 88 PLAYING CARDS
  • 80 Egg cards (also just called Eggs):
    • Divided into 4 suits, with 2 copies of each card per suit, numbered 1-10
  • 8 Fowl cards, including:
    • 5 Chicken cards (also just called Chickens)
    • 3 Duck cards (also just called Ducks)
• 9 TABLE CARDS
  • 6 Reference cards (one for each potential player)
  • 1 Important rules card (a summary of the most important rules)
  • 1 Crowed / Golden Egg card
  • 1 Direction of Play card (double-sided card with Cluckwise / Counter-Cluckwise on either side)
• 8 HELPER CARDS
  • 1 Intro / Deck Setup card
  • 5 Rules cards
  • 1 Card Score / Sample Score Sheet card
  • 1 Registration / Support card

(NOTE: images on this page and in downloads have a watermark on them. We apologize if this causes any inconvenience, but there have been games that have had their artwork stolen and illegal copies made and sold. We are just trying to prevent this.)

PRINTED RULES

In the latest printing of the game, the Rules are printed on 5 cards, along with an Intro card, and a Scoring card, as part of the Helper cards. Since these were not including in the first printing (or in the case of anyone losing these cards), we’ve included them here as a printable PDF (click to download).

When printing, make sure you keep the Scaling to 100%. This document is formatted to print within the printable area on most printers without having to reduce the size.

Do not choose “Scale to Fit”
(unless your print falls off the printable area.)

BASIC CONCEPTS / VOCABULARY

• The “Game” is made up of “Rounds.”
• The “Rounds” are made up of “Runs.”
• Within “Runs,” players play cards or sets of cards called “Lays” (as in “laying eggs”).

Editor’s Note: In these rules the archaic spelling of “layed” instead of “laid” is used to harken back to the traditional roots of the game and to better invoke the theme.

OBJECT

• The OBJECT OF THE GAME is to have the LOWEST score when the Game ends.
• The OBJECT OF A ROUND is for players to get rid of all the cards in their hand before any of the other players do.
• The OBJECT OF A RUN is to play the highest Lay (card or set of cards).
• A Run ends when no other player can or will beat the card(s) in the last Lay.
• A Round ends when one player has gotten rid of all of the cards in their hand.
• Players score points at the end of a Round based on the number of cards they have left in their hand, plus any penalties incurred (see the rules on CROWING, LAST EGG).
• The Game ends when one or more players reach or exceed 100 points, or 10 Rounds has been played (see the rules on SCORING).

DECK SETUP

In order to balance the game as evenly as possible for all player counts, 3 or 4 different suits are used and some lower-numbered cards are left out, depending on the number of players (see DECK SETUP table).

For all player counts, ALL Chicken cards are ALWAYS used. All Duck cards are used — except for in the 3-player game version, where only one is used.

When including suits in the deck, any of the different color suits may be used, as long as the exact number of suits is included as specified on the table for that particular number of players.

Only use the numbered Egg cards in each suit that is specified in the table, leaving out the numbered Egg cards not listed.

When removing the lowest Egg cards, consider the suit order when doing so, and remove the lowest numbered cards from the lowest-valued suits.

DECK SETUP

PECKING ORDER

The “Pecking Order” describes the hierarchy of the suits (colors) and cards.

The colors of the game are the colors of the rainbow. They were chosen because they’re bright and cheerful, but also because most everyone already knows the order of the colors of the rainbow, and thus can easily understand the hierarchy of suits. They also represent acceptance and inclusivity, and a desire by the game designer to make games that bring people together.

The suits (colors) are ordered from lowest to highest, like a rainbow:
BLUE then GREEN then YELLOW then ORANGE.

However, NUMBERS take precedence OVER SUITS in determining card order: a higher-numbered card will always be higher than a lower-numbered card of a higher suit. (See example below.)

TYPES OF LAYS

SINGLE: Single card.
_

TWO-OF-A-KIND: Set of two cards with the same number (Pair).

THREE-OF-A-KIND: Set of three cards with the same number.

POKER LAY: These are 5-card Lays, just like Poker hands. There are 4 different kinds – Straight, Flush, Full House, and Straight Flush.

COOP: Four or Five cards with the same number (Four-of-a-Kind or Five-of-a-Kind).
_

NOTE: With the exception of a Coop and Big Red, no type of Lay is “higher” or more powerful than any other type of Lay (for example, a Three-of-a-Kind doesn’t beat a Two-of-a-Kind), as different types of Lays cannot be played on top of one another (see the rules on COOPS, BIG RED, and the MOST IMPORTANT RULE).

ORDER OF POKER LAYS

The four 5-card, Poker-based hands, ordered from lowest to highest:

STRAIGHT then FLUSH then FULL HOUSE then STRAIGHT FLUSH.

STRAIGHT
(any 5 cards in sequential order)

FLUSH
(any 5 cards of the same suit)

FULL HOUSE
(1 two-of-a-kind and 1 three-of-a-kind)

STRAIGHT FLUSH
(5 cards in sequential order and all of the same suit)

When two Lays of the same type are played (both Flushes or both Straights, etc.), the ranking of the cards used in the Lay (by number and suit) determines which Lay will beat which (see the rules on the PECKING ORDER).

When comparing 2 Full Houses, the Three-of-a-Kinds determine which is higher. Only when the Three-of-a-Kinds match do the Two-of-a-Kinds come into play for determining the higher value.

Nothing can beat a Straight Flush, except for a higher Straight Flush, or a Coop.

GAME START

Prepare the deck for the specific player count, shuffle it, and deal all the cards until there are none left (see the DECK SETUP table for total number of cards that each player should have).

DIRECTION OF PLAY: Place the Direction of Play card to one side of the center of the play area. It helps players to keep track of the direction of play, and is flipped over when the play is reversed. The Direction of Play card starts on the “Cluckwise” side, and the direction of play starts clockwise until the card is flipped.

In ONLY the first Round, the first player is the player holding Big Red, and they must show all other players that they have Big Red. However, they cannot lead with Big Red (see the rules on BREAKING THE EGGS). The first player for all other Rounds is determined differently (see the rules on the BEGINNING OF THE NEXT ROUND).

While it is advantageous to be holding Big Red at the start of the game and also be able to lead the first Run, all other players now know that the player has Big Red, so the advantage is somewhat diminished, and the game starts with some balance.

HOW TO PLAY

The first player to play a Lay (this is called leading) in a given Run determines the kinds of Lays that will be used for that Run. They will play a Single card, Two-of-a-Kind, Three-of-a-Kind, Poker Lay, or Coop.

All subsequent Lays must be higher than the Lay played by the previous player – they cannot be of a lower value or the same card or the sames set.

Once no player can or will (see the rules on CLUCKING) beat the Lay, the winner of the Run is the person who played the last Lay.

After the Run, any player clears the cards from the center of the table and piles them FACE DOWN to the side. (It doesn’t matter where they’re piled – but it’s recommended to keep just one pile, out of the Lay area at the center of the table.)

It is polite etiquette that the player who won the Run doesn’t have to sweep the cards, so that they can concentrate on determining their lead Lay for the next Run (and thus keep the gameplay moving).

The player who won the last Run leads the next Run with ANY type of Lay.

The Round continues until one player runs out of cards. This is called “Going Out.”

CLUCKING (PASS)

You may choose to not play a card or set at any time, even if you have playable cards in your hand. You can play later in the same Run even if you have previously passed.

If you choose to pass you must say “Cluck.”

The only time you MUST play a card – if you have one that can be played – is when you are just before a player with one card left (see the rule about the PENALTY FOR ASSISTANCE).

CROWING

At the beginning of a Round (not including the first Round of the game), after the cards are dealt (players may look at their cards) and after the Bad and Good Egg have exchanged cards, but before the Good Egg plays their first Lay, Crowing is boasting that you’re going to win that Round, and you get to take the lead (instead of the Good Egg).the Good Egg asks if any other player wants to “Crow.”

Crowing is boasting that you’re going to win that Round, and you get to take the lead (instead of the Good Egg).

The first player to Crow takes the “Crowed” card and leads that Round, and no other subsequent Crowing counts.

If the Crowing player win that Round, then all of their opponents get 15 points, on top of their scores for their remaining cards.

EATING CROW

If the Crowing player loses the Round, then only the Crowing player gets 20 points, on top of their score for the round.

BREAKING THE EGGS

A player cannot lead (start a Run’s play) with a Fowl card or a set that contains a Fowl card, until a Fowl card has been played in that Round (called Breaking the Eggs). (This is like “breaking trump” in other games.)

CHICKENS

Think of Chickens as the “face cards” of this deck. They are the highest cards in the deck, higher than any Egg (number) card. Chickens follow the same pecking order of suit value, from the Blue Chicken as the lowest to Big Red as the highest Chicken.

Because of their value, they are better than Eggs - and they know it. They also see themselves as better than the Ducks and can’t stand those loners.

• Chickens are NOT wild (thus they cannot represent a number card).
• Chickens CANNOT be used in Straights or Flushes (because they can’t represent a number card).
• Chickens are NOT equivalent to number cards (they don’t equal numbers, such as 13-17).
• Chickens CANNOT be used with Ducks in the same Lay.
• Chickens can be used as a Single card Lay (higher than any number card).
• 2 Chickens can be used as a Two-of-a-Kind in a 2-card Lay, or as part of a Full House.
• 3 Chickens can be used as a Three-of-a-Kind in a 3-card Lay, or as part of a Full House.

BIG RED

• Big Red is a rooster with attitude, and it’s well-deserved: he’s not just another Chicken, he’s the highest, most powerful Chicken, and the most powerful card in the deck. He’s the BFC, the Ruler of the Roost, the King of the Coop!
• KING OF THE COOP: He is the only single card that can beat a Coop, and he CANNOT be beaten by a Coop. But he only beats a Coop when played as a single card. He doesn’t beat it if he’s part of another set.
• STILL A CHICKEN: He’s still a Chicken, and can be used just like all other Chickens (with another Chicken in a Two-of-a-Kind or with two other Chickens in aThree-of-a-Kind, and with three or four other Chickens in Coops). He’s also subject to the same restrictions as all Chickens (not wild, cannot be used in Straights or Flushes).

DUCKS

Ducks are solitary creatures that occasionally wander into the yard and try to fit in. But the chickens hate the ducks, so the chickens don’t allow the ducks to hang out with them, and keep them out of the chicken coop. However, not being hatched yet, the eggs have no say, so the ducks sit with them instead.

• Ducks are wild cards and can represent ANY other numbered (Egg) card, no matter what suit (even if both copies of that card have already been played).
• Ducks CANNOT be used in Coops.
• Ducks CANNOT be used to represent a Chicken (the chickens wouldn’t put up with that).
• The player playing the Duck determines its suit and value, and MUST state it when playing it.
• Only 1 Duck can be used in a Lay at a time.

FLIP

When you play a Duck, you MUST reverse the direction of play. Turn over the Cluckwise / Counter-Cluckwise card to keep track of the direction of play.

When you lay a Duck, you need to make sure that the direction of play is reversed. If you forget and play moves on beyond the next player, it’s too late and the game continues without the Flip.

COOPS

In real life, chicken coops are sturdy little houses where chickens live and eggs are laid.

Accordingly, in BIG CHICKEN a Coop is a powerful Lay that can rarely be beat.

• Coops are a 4-card or 5-card Lay, all of the same number (of-a-kind) or all chickens.
• A Four-of-a-Kind is called a Little Coop, and a Five-of-a-Kind is called a Big Coop.
• Coops CANNOT contain Ducks.
• Coops may be made up of ALL Chickens.
• Coops can be played on top of (and beat) any type of Lay (Single card, Two-of-a-Kind, Three-of-a-Kind, Poker Lays, lower Coops, see the MOST IMPORTANT RULE).
• Coops can ONLY be beaten by a higher Coop or Big Red (when Big Red is played as a single card, not as a set).

FLIP OR SKIP

When you play a Coop, you may choose to reverse the direction of play OR skip the next player. You HAVE to do one or the other, but you can’t do both.

When you lay a Coop, you need to make sure that the direction of play is reversed or that a player is skipped. If you forget and play moves on beyond the next player, it’s too late and the game continues without the Flip or Skip.

LAST EGG

When you have one card left, you must say “Last Egg.” If you forget, another player can “Catch” you by saying “Last Egg” first. (The other player cannot catch you until you have taken your hand off the cards or set that you are laying.) Multiple players can be Caught in a Round.

If a player is Caught, then all current discard piles must be shuffled together, and the Caught player will be dealt 2 cards off the top of the pile.

EGGING

If you are able to “Go Out” with more then one card on your last Lay, all other players get 5 extra points.

PENALTY FOR ASSISTANCE

At the end of a ROUND, all players’ remaining cards are laid down face up for all to see.

If the winner of the Round won by playing a single card as their last Lay, and the player directly before them could have prevented this from happening by playing a higher single card or Coop, then that player is deemed to have “Assisted” the winner. The assisting player is then penalized, on top of their own points and penalties, with the addition of the total Card Score points that all other losers have incurred (including their multipliers, but not their penalties).

END OF A ROUND / SCORING

The Round continues until one player runs out of cards. This is called “Going Out.”

At the end of a Round, players get a “Card Score” based on the number of cards they have left — one point per card.

Player count multipliers (see the CARD SCORE table) are applied to the Card Score (based on the number of players in the game), and then any penalty points are added.

NOTE: penalty points are NEVER multiplied, and are always added after the Card Score is multiplied.

CARD SCORE

An example of scorecard usage is below. Since a 4-player game is being played, the reference sections for 3, 5, and 6-player games have been crossed out. Note that each row contains the running total, not the score from the round, so that it’s clear when a player has scored 100 points or more.

A printable version of the score card can be downloaded in a 4-up or 1-up sheet here.

BAD EGG / GOOD EGG

The player scoring the most points in a Round is called the “Bad Egg,” and the player scoring the least points is called the “Good Egg.”

If there is a tie for Bad Egg, it goes to the highest total score, except in the first Round, then the tying player with the highest card still in their hand is Bad Egg.

BEGINNING THE NEXT ROUND

The Bad Egg must shuffle and deal the cards for the next Round. At the beginning of the next Round, the Good Egg MUST give their best card (except Big Red) to the Bad Egg – face up so that all other players can see it. The Bad Egg MUST take the card, whether they want it or not. The Bad Egg then gives to the Good Egg any other card from their hand that they want – face up so that all other players can see it – but they can’t give back the card they were just given.

The play at the start of the new Round continues in the same direction it was going at the end of the previous Round.

After the first Round, the first player in subsequent Rounds is the first player who Crows. If no one Crows, then the first player is the Good Egg from the last Round.

END OF THE GAME

When one or more players reach or exceed the 100 points, or 10 Rounds are completed, the Game is over.

ROTTEN EGG

The player with the most points is the “Rotten Egg” (biggest loser), and deserves everyone’s derision.

In case of a tie for Rotten Egg, all tying players share the title, because they’re LOSERS.

GOLDEN EGG

The player with the least points is the “Golden Egg” (winner).  While other players may not want to praise them, some good-natured bragging from the Golden Egg will be tolerated — but only until the next Game starts, and then they need to shut their beaks.

There are no runners-up, because second place is still a LOSER!

In case of a tie for Golden Egg, the full deck used for this specific game will be shuffled, and all tying players shall pull one card from the top of the deck, starting with the last Good Egg and going clockwise, and the highest card wins. The order of value, lowest to highest: numbered Egg cards by suit, then Chickens by suit, but Duck cards automatically lose.

If a tie still exists, they keep pulling cards from the rest of the same deck until the tie is resolved. If a player wins from a tie-breaker, they should feel shame for having to squeak out a victory and not defeating their opponents handily.

OPTIONAL / HOUSE RULES

AN EGG LAYED

“A card layed is a card played.” Unless a card has been illegally played, it cannot be picked up / replaced once it has been layed — that is, when the player takes their fingers off of the card(s).

For the first or second round of a teaching game you can ignore this rule.  But try to implement it as early as possible!

DECLARE THE LAY

OPTIONAL, BUT ENCOURAGED: Every time a card or set is Played, the player doing so MUST state what the lay consists of, describing it in detail.

This allows the game to have a faster pace (especially with more experienced players), and not just rely on the visual confirmation of the card(s) layed. It also can help visually impaired people, and eliminate some confusion or mistakes when playing in low light. It’s also the traditional way Big Two and most of its variations are played. Feel free to be creative and come up with your own house nicknames and phrases!

SLOW PLAY / TAUNTING

OPTIONAL: If a player is taking too long to play, other players are encouraged to taunt them by making chicken noises and imply their cowardice. “Bawk, bawk, bawwwwk…” Flapping their arms like a chicken is optional, but highly encouraged.

(This is recommended for experienced players. Until everyone gets the game, give those learning a break and let them take their time to strategize.)

ADVANCED / TOURNAMENT RULE

OPTIONAL, FOR ADVANCED / EXPERIENCED PLAYERS OR TOURNAMENT PLAY: If a player leads with a Fowl card and another player believes the Eggs haven’t been Broken, that player may challenge the lead player’s ability to do so.

Discard piles are checked, and if the Eggs haven’t been Broken, the player who led with the Fowl card automatically gets 5 points added to their score, and the Fowl card must be picked up and replaced with an appropriate card.

After the discard pile has been checked, if it turns out the Eggs have been Broken, then the player challenging gets 5 points added to their score.

CHANGELOG

UPDATE 20241119: Just Hatched rules updated and re-posted.
UPDATE 20241109: Updated the core ruleset so that it is closer to the language used in the cards, added a link to the rules card PDF.
UPDATE 20241027: Re-published the 2-Player variant rules, now on their own page.
UPDATE 20241002: After experiencing some issues, we took down the rules for BIG CHICKEN: Just Hatched while we playtest it some more. We should have a new version back online shortly. We also have completed playtesting on the new version of the 2-Player variant, we're just working on rewriting the rules for the website, and will have those up as soon as possible.
UPDATE 20240908: After finding several flaws, the first version of the 2-Player variant rules have been removed temporarily, while a new version is being playtested.
UPDATE 20240708: 2-Player variant (beta) rules added.
UPDATE 20240604: Deck graphics updated, rules updated to better match the how-to-play video.
UPDATE 20240312: We've changed "Flight" back to "Run."  It just seemed to flow better.
UPDATE 20240225: All mentions of "wild" have been removed from the rules in regards to Ducks. It was deemed confusing because ducks are not wild. They can just be substitutes for number cards, that is all. The word wild has been removed from the Duck card, and icons have been added to the card to better reinforce the fact that Ducks cannot be used with Chickens or in Coops. Also, the Direction of Play card has had Clockwise and Counter-Clockwise renamed to Cluckwise and Counter-Cluckwise, but their utility has remained the same.
UPDATE 20240221: Added instructions and graphics illustrating the proper use of the score card. (Thank you, Marian E.)
UPDATE 20240220: Changed the name of the section "Order of the Suits/Cards" to "Pecking Order." Clarifications made to the wording for Clucking, Crowing, Penalty for Assistance, and End of Round. (Thank you, David B.)
UPDATE 20240217: Added card graphics and illustrations, including sample Lays for the examples.
UPDATE 20240211: Downloadable, printable score card sheet posted online.
UPDATE 20240129: Current version of the rules published online (previously existed offline only). Henceforth, this webpage shall be the definitive ruleset for the game. (Thank you, Mary Beth.)