Review: Romi Rami (Hachette)

Confession time: I’m not a big fan of rummy games. I never quite got the hang of counting cards, making sets, and discerning what my opponent decided to collect. I usually figured it out when they put down all their cards and suddenly won the game. Oops.

At Gen Con this summer, I watched a couple tables of people have an amazing time playing Hachette’s Romi Rami. I didn’t know anything about the game, except the players were laughing a lot and inevitably someone would say “one more game — I feel good about this one” right after the current round ended. I was intrigued.

Join me at the table as we bust out Romi Rami and discover the top five things you need to know about this clever twist on rummy.

A Pair of Decks

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Romi Rami comes with two decks of cards. Each card in the main deck of 92 cards is marked with a number (1-5) and a suit (heart, diamond gemstone, purple cherry, and clover). The numbers and symbols are big on the card, making them easy for every player to read, even those with vision challenges.

The other deck contains 36 contract cards. Like the number card deck, the symbols on these cards are clear and easy to read, even though there’s a lot more going on here. More about this deck in a moment.

It Starts with Rummy

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At its heart, Romi Rami follows the basics of all rummy games. Each player collects cards with the goal of making sets and runs to score victory points.

Unlike other rummy games, the sets and runs aren’t predefined. You can’t simply gather a run of four cards and proudly toss it onto the table to collect your points. Instead, you need to fulfill one or more of that round’s four available contracts. But every other player is trying to fill the same contracts at the same time, so the game becomes a race with constantly shifting goals.

Collecting Cards and Filling Contracts

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On your turn, you can add one to three matching number cards to your hand from the face-up display. You can either take matching numbers (all twos, for example) or matching suits (like all clovers).

Now it’s time to check the contracts. Each turn, there are four available face-up contracts on the table. Each contract shows the combination of sets (matching cards) and runs (numbers in a sequence) you must play to claim the contract. You have to fill all of the requirements to claim the contract.

The contract card also shows a bonus suit. If you use any cards of that suit to claim the contract, those cards go into a special scoring pile and give you points points at the game.

When you claim a contract, you add the card to your tableau with the scoring icons visible at the top. Put the matching bonus suit cards into a face-down pile next to the tableau. Any other cards you used to fulfill the contract get discarded.

And Tokens, Too

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The game box also include some punch-out cardboard tokens: a first player marker, four joker stars, and four trophy crowns. They’re printed on sturdy cardboard, so they’ll last through a lot of games.

Each player starts the game with a joker star. The player can discard the star when claiming a contract to take the place of a card they don’t have. If you keep your joker star until the end of the game, it’s worth a victory point.

The first player token marks who went first in the game. Once someone triggers the end of the game, play continues until it gets back to the person with this token. That ensure everyone gets the same number of turns. (By the way, even though the first player token has a crown on it, it doesn’t give you a victory point. Sorry.)

Scoring Bonus Points

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Those trophy crown tokens come into play at the end of the game.

During setup, one player shakes the four trophy crowns in their hands and tosses them onto the table. This randomizes the bonuses for that game.

The four bonuses reward players for completing the most contracts with either a certain set size (two, three, four, or five card sets) or a particular suit.

Players count the icons in the top section of their completed contract cards to determine who gets to claim the various bonus crowns.

Verdict

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Romi Rami delivers a lot of fun and laughter every time it hits the table. It’s easy to learn, fast to play, and has a great balance of strategy and luck.

It also has a huge “one more game” quotient — that’s the number of times someone says “let’s play one more” when the game ends. It’s so bad at our house that we have to agree on the number of rounds we’ll play before we begin

The game supports two to four players, but my sources at Hachette Games tell me they play it with up to eight by combining two copies of the game. With the holidays coming up, we’re planning to give that version a try. Highly recommended!