Play

The recipe card

How to play

Three things before your first game. 2–10 players online, two per box in print — the rest waits below.

  1. 1

    The objective

    Build boxes of matching donuts. Seal one off completely and it delivers — whoever earned it scores. Most points when the decks run out wins.

  2. 2

    Your turn

    Play one card from your tray of 4, any of four ways round, touching what is already down. Anything you sealed delivers at once. Draw back up. Or spend the turn to box it instead: take a run you already hold half of and deliver it where it stands.

  3. 3

    What it is worth

    A point a donut. A box of 3 scores 3, a box of twenty scores twenty — the names are just names.

    1–2Nibbletoo small
    3–5Half-Dozenscores
    6–9Full Boxscores
    10–15Baker's Dozenscores
    16+Catering Orderscores

That is enough — let me play

A turn, start to finish

  1. Deal

    Everyone takes a 30-card deck in their own colour and draws a tray of 4. Turn one card face up between you to start the counter.

  2. Play one card

    On your turn, place a single card from your tray flat against what is already down — edge to edge, no gaps, no overlaps, no corner-only contact.

  3. Choose a rotation

    A card can go down any of four ways round, and the four are rarely equivalent. Touching donuts have to agree: one pair anywhere on the card in One Good Match, and in Perfect Match every donut you place must agree with one of the donuts it touches.

  4. Seal a box to deliver it

    A box is a run of one flavour joined edge to edge, and it scores a point a donut. The moment no empty space touches it, it seals and delivers — and any box holding a Cinnamon Roll scores double. A run under 3 donuts is not a box and scores nothing.

  5. Or box it early

    Instead of playing a card you may deliver one open run you already hold half of, at whatever size it is now. Wait and it grows and pays more; wait too long and somebody takes it.

  6. Draw, and play to the Final Lap

    Draw back up to a full tray. When the first draw pile empties, everyone else gets one more turn. Open boxes score in full to whoever holds the most donuts in them, and the highest total wins.

The rest of the menu

The five donuts
Chocolate CrullerStrawberry SprinklesDonut HolesBlueberry GlazeCinnamon Roll

Four quadrants to a card, one donut each. You play from your own 30-card deck in your own colour, so the counter always shows who played what.

Placing a card

Cards touch edge to edge — no gaps, no overlaps, no corners. Two settings decide what is legal, and they are set independently. How much of the seam has to agree:

  • One Good Match — at least one edge must match
  • Perfect Match — every donut must match one it touches

And whether cards have to sit square on the grid:

  • Squared Away — every card lines up square with its neighbours
  • Splitzkies — cards can hang half off; boxes need 3+ quadrants
Rotation

Four ways round, and the four are rarely equivalent. Online you are only offered the rotations that are legal where you are pointing, so you cannot misplace a card — but choosing between them is the game.

Boxes, delivery and the frozen rule

A box is any run of the same donut joined edge to edge, across as many cards as it likes. The moment no empty space touches it, it seals: it delivers, it scores, and it turns the winner’s colour.

Delivered boxes freeze. You cannot grow them or match against them again, so sealing early walls off ground as well as banking points.

The Cinnamon Roll is wild

A Cinnamon Roll goes against any donut, and becomes that donut permanently the instant it lands beside one. If nothing settles it, you choose. Any box containing one scores double.

Variants

Three separate switches, not a list to pick one from. Any combination of the three is a legal game.

  • One Good Match — one touching pair has to agree. Looser, faster, the classic.
  • Perfect Match — every donut you put down has to agree with one of the donuts it touches. Tight and tactical. A donut in a corner meets two neighbours and only owes agreement to one of them, which is what keeps corners answerable instead of dead.
  • Splitzkies — cards need not line up; one can sit a quadrant offset and hang off its neighbour. Plays over either matching rule.
  • Coffee’s For Closers — whoever seals the box scores it, no matter who built it.
Edge cases
  • Stuck? If nothing in your tray can be legally placed, swap a card — it goes to the bottom of your pile and you draw again.
  • Too small to count. A sealed run of under 3 donuts is not a box. It greys out and scores nothing, so there is no profit in nibbling off pockets.
  • The Final Lap. When the first draw pile empties, everyone else gets one more turn.
  • Open boxes at the end score in full — a run you never got to seal is still worth a point a donut to whoever owns it.
  • Ties go to whoever delivered the most boxes.

Play a game

Next: the four variants, how to actually win, or the one-page printable rules.