Pickles to Penguins Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of Pickles to Penguins is to be the first player to play all of the cards.

Set Up

Shuffle all of the cards together.
Deal 25 cards to each player.
Take two of the remaining cards and place them in the middle of the table. Set the rest of the cards aside to form a draw pile.
Each player takes the top four cards from their pile and places them in front of themselves. This becomes the player’s deck. You can look at both sides of the cards in your deck. The rest of the cards are the player’s personal draw pile.
The dealer starts the game by saying “Go”.

How to Play Pickles to Penguins

All of the players play at the same time. There are no turns as each player should try to play cards as quickly as they can.

There are two cards in the center of the table. You will look at the four cards in your own deck to try and find a connection between them and one of the cards in the middle of the table. You can look at both sides of your cards to try and find a match.

Finding a Connection

When you have found a connection between one of your cards and one of the two middle cards, you will play the card on top of the card that it is connected to. You then need to tell all of the players what connects the two cards. Your explanation has to be a complete sentence, and it needs to include the name of both cards. You can only play one card at a time.

Wild cards automatically match any other card so you don’t have to come up with a connection. This applies when they are played on top of a card, and when a card is played on top of them.

Playing a Wild card — One of the players have decided to play a Wild card. They can play it at any time since it automatically matches any other card in the game.

After you place a card, you will replace it by drawing the next card from your own personal draw pile.

Resetting the Center Piles

Should none of the players be able to find a connection with their cards, the dealer takes two cards from the main draw pile and places one on top of each center pile. Play then resumes.

Challenging a Connection

Should you play a card without saying the connection or a player disagrees with your connection, they can challenge it. When a play is challenged, the game temporarily stops.

All of the players discuss the connection. They will decide whether the connection should count. If they decide the connection should not count, the player who played the card takes it back. They also have to draw five cards from the center draw pile.

There are a couple of rules that you need to follow when making a connection:

You cannot repeat the same connection for two cards in a row. For example you can’t say two cards are connected because both are animals, and then another player plays another animal card saying that both cards are animals. If the second player says a specific type of animal (like both are cats) though, the connection is allowed.
You cannot make a connection that both cards start with the same letter.
Two cards consisting of the same number of syllables, does not count as a connection.
You cannot make a connection based on the two cards having the same colored background.

If you want to challenge the play of a card, you must do so before another player plays a card on top of the card you want to challenge. Should you not challenge in time, the player gets to play the card with no challenge.

Winning Pickles to Penguins

The first player to get rid of all of the cards from their hand wins the game.

Variant Games

Missing Link

You will play the Missing Link variant similar to the main game. When you are trying to find a connection with one of your cards though, you are trying to find a connection between your card and both cards in the middle of the table.

Each player receives five cards. They need to try and find a connection between one of these five cards and both of the middle cards.

When you find a connection, you set aside the card you used along with the two middle cards into your score pile. This ends the current round.

Missing link connection — Police car and ship were the top cards on the two center piles. One of the players played train. They found the connection that police cars, ships, and trains are all modes of transportation.

To start the next round the players discard their cards and receive five new cards. Place two new cards in the middle of the table.

The first player to get 30 cards (win ten rounds), wins the game.

Fast Five

In this Pickles to Penguins variant each player receives five cards. You can only use the side of the card that is visible when the card is dealt to you. You cannot turn over the card.

Place one card in the middle of the table. Each player tries to connect one of their five face up cards to the card in the middle of the table. Players will make connections in the same way as the main game.

If none of the players are able to make a connection, a new card is taken from the draw pile and placed on top of the stack.

The first player to get rid of all five of their cards wins the game.

Shout

The dealer flips over two cards in the middle of the table. If there are two players, both players flip over one card. All of the players try to find a connection between them. The first player to find a connection, takes both cards and adds them to their score pile.

The first player to collect 20 cards wins the game.

Chain Reaction

Each player receives five cards. All of the players are trying to find a connection between their own cards. First you find one pair of cards to connect. You will then connect one of your other cards to one of the two cards in the first connection. You then need to find a connection between the third card and one of your other remaining cards. This continues until you have created a chain that connects all of your cards together.

The first player to connect all five of their cards wins the round. You will play seven rounds. The player that wins the most rounds, wins the game.

Creating a chain reaction — One of the players received these five cards. They found a way to connect all of the cards together. First a safe and a piggy bank can store money. Next a piggy bank and a gnome are decorative items that you can display in your house. Moving on, a gnome and a birdhouse can be placed in your garden. Finally a birdhouse and a treehouse can be placed in a tree. The player successfully connected all of the their cards, so they have won the round.

Minute Time Trial

Each player has 60 seconds to try and find as many connections as possible. You will be given the deck of cards and will draw one card at a time trying to find a connection to the previous card.

If you can’t find a connection, you can discard the next card and draw another card. After your time runs out, the next player gets an opportunity to try and make as many connections as they can.

Whichever player can make the most connections in 60 seconds wins the game.

Pickles to Penguins FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

264 Cards
Instructions

Year: 2009 | Publisher: Outset Media

Genres: Card, Family, Speed

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2+ | Length of Game: 10-15 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.