Round & Revel / Cooperative card exchange

Parcel Parade

Four kinds of parcel belong at every doorstep. Send the right one along.

3–8 playersEstimated 15–25 minutes

Original printable party game. Rules and examples checked; estimated timing has not had a live group playtest.

What you need

One SUN, MOON, LEAF and KEY card for each player; 12–32 cards total
Four route cards: clockwise one, counterclockwise one, clockwise two, counterclockwise two
A score sheet and a marker for the current player

How to play

The idea

Every player wants a face-up hand containing one SUN, one MOON, one LEAF and one KEY. The whole group succeeds only when everyone has that complete set. On each turn, one player exchanges a single parcel with the neighbour named by the current route. Nothing is bought, bid on, hidden or removed.

Build the right deck

Use exactly as many copies of each symbol as there are players. For five players, use five SUN, five MOON, five LEAF and five KEY cards: 20 cards. Put spare cards away before shuffling. Deal four cards to each player and display them face up. There must be four cards per person at all times. A card’s copy number is just for sorting and does not affect the game. Words identify the symbols, so colour or picture recognition is unnecessary.

Seat the route

Sit in a clear circle or agree on a numbered seating loop around the table. Identify clockwise together before beginning. Draw an arrow on paper if useful. Count other players, never yourself: clockwise two means the second person reached going clockwise. At three players, clockwise two reaches the same person as counterclockwise one; that is intentional. Put the four route cards in this fixed order: clockwise one, counterclockwise one, clockwise two, counterclockwise two.

One route, one lap

Choose a first player and place the current-player marker in front of them. Reveal the first route. A lap lasts exactly as many turns as there are players, so everyone initiates one turn. On your turn, count to your permitted partner using the route card. You may exchange exactly one card from your hand for exactly one card from that partner’s hand, if both agree, or pass. A swap is simultaneous: neither person may keep an extra card. The two exchanged symbols must differ; identical swaps are passes.

Talk as a team

All hands are public and anyone may suggest a trade. The current player and permitted partner decide together; nobody may move someone else’s card without agreement. A partner can take part in several exchanges during a lap even though they initiate only one. You may deliberately break a completed set to carry a useful duplicate onward. The route controls only this turn’s partner, not which symbols can travel. Multi-person trades, promises to exchange later in the same turn and gifts are not legal moves.

Change the direction

After every player has initiated once, advance to the next route card. Move the first-player marker one seat clockwise from the preceding lap’s starting player. Begin the new lap there and again proceed clockwise for turn order, even when the card sends trades counterclockwise. Turn order and exchange direction are different. There are exactly four laps, for 4 times the number of players turns in total. Each person initiates four turns.

A complete delivery

Whenever everyone simultaneously holds all four different symbols, stop immediately: the whole table has completed the parade. Record the number of swaps used if you want a future personal challenge, but passes do not count as swaps. If four laps end first, count how many players have complete sets; that is the group score out of the player count. A table with 5 complete sets among 6 players is impossible with a correctly built deck, so check the card counts if your score seems one short. Do not declare a new lap unless everyone agreed on extended play before the game.

Example exchange

In a four-player game, Aster has SUN, SUN, LEAF, KEY and Birch has MOON, MOON, LEAF, KEY. If the current route connects them, Aster can give one SUN and receive one MOON. Both now have a complete set. In another case, a completed player may accept an extra LEAF now so that a later legal route can carry it to someone who needs it; that can be good teamwork even though the donor temporarily loses completion.

Check a dealing or move mistake

If the deck started with the wrong number of symbols, reshuffle a corrected deck and restart. If a player ends a turn with other than four cards, pause and reverse that turn before choosing a legal exchange. If a partner was counted incorrectly, reverse that exchange and replay the turn with the correct partner. If the previous state cannot be reconstructed, keep the current balanced hands and replay the current lap without recording a comparison score.

Access, planning and replay

Cards stay visible and discussion has no required time limit. For a brisk game, agree on about 30 seconds per turn but allow extra time to read or handle cards. A helper may make a chosen swap. For younger groups, play all four laps with clockwise-one routes before trying the full route sequence. For a tougher replay, keep the regular routes but allow only the current player and their partner to propose the present exchange; other players may still correct rules or request access help. Do not compare scores across these variants.

Trade with the player two seats clockwise. Do not count yourself.

PP-R4

Route 4

Trade with the player two seats counterclockwise. Do not count yourself.

Round & Revel. Edition 1 / October 2026. No purchases, accounts or specialist equipment beyond the listed materials are required.

Parcel Parade

What you need

How to play

The idea

Build the right deck

Seat the route

One route, one lap

Talk as a team

Change the direction

A complete delivery

Example exchange

Check a dealing or move mistake

Access, planning and replay

What to print

Printable play cards

SUN

SUN

SUN

SUN

SUN

SUN

SUN

SUN

MOON

MOON

MOON

MOON

MOON

MOON

MOON

MOON

LEAF

LEAF

LEAF

LEAF

LEAF

LEAF

LEAF

LEAF

KEY

KEY

KEY

KEY

KEY

KEY

KEY

KEY

Route 1

Route 2

Route 3

Route 4

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