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Overview and rules
Multiplin is a free print-and-play card game for 2 to 4 players designed to have fun while practising the multiplication table from a different point of view. The components are as follows:
- A deck of 40 factor cards
- A deck of 55 product cards
Every card in the products deck is the result of multiplying two cards in the factors deck, i.e.:
The purpose of the game is to empty one’s hand, by combining the factor cards in your hand with the ones on the table to solve the product cards.
How to begin a game
- Choose the initial dealer randomly
- The dealer shuffles both decks separately
- The dealer deals every player a hand of 5 factor cards
- The dealer lays 8 more factor cards on the table, forming a 2 x 4 grid
- The dealer puts the rest of the factors deck on the table next to the products deck, both facedown
- Start a new round
How to play a round
- The player sitting on the dealer’s left becomes the new dealer
- The dealer reveals the top card of the products deck
- Players can immediately try to solve it, by putting one of the factor cards in their hand on top of one of the factor cards on the table
- Players may not use two cards from their hand or two cards from the board, it must be one of each
- Both cards must yield the value of the revealed product card when multiplied (if they don’t, those cards are put back to where they came from)
- Players do not have turns, and the first player to solve the revealed product card wins the round
If no player can solve the revealed product card
- The dealer puts the revealed product card in the bottom of the products deck
- Start a new round
When a round is won
- If any number of players have no cards in hand, they win the game and the game is over
- There is no need to break ties — if two or more players solved the product card at the same time, all of them can get rid of their factor card
- The dealer puts the revealed product card in the bottom of the products deck
- The dealer puts the used factor cards in the bottom of the factors deck
- The dealer refills the 2 x 4 grid of factor cards with new cards from the factors deck
- Start a new round
Print and play
Feel free to print, play, and modify Multiplin. I hope you will enjoy it.
- Find the PDF here
- Here’s a CSV if you want to design your own version (I’d appreciate it if you shared it back!)
- The cards are just a bunch of numbers, so it’s perfectly okay to just write the numbers with a marker on index cards
For the best results, make factor and product cards in different-coloured card stock, or sleeve both decks using opaque card sleeves in different colours. It helps avoid shuffling the different decks together.
FAQ and contact
Feel free to use any of the following ways to contact me:
If you found an issue or have a question, please take a look at the FAQ and feel free to add an issue on GitHub