It's Contagious!

It's Contagious! is a pocket card game for fast, fun and strategic game-play. Your goal is to discard all your cards first and have the lowest viral load. A climbing game (like Rummy and inspired by Escalation), cards are placed in a center pile increasing in count until a player can no longer best the previous amount (or use a Power Card). Gameplay gets a boost of fun and strategy from a variety of Power Cards and additional rules keeps the game much more exciting. GAMEPLAY Players shuffle the deck. Each player is dealt 6 cards. The remaining cards are placed, face down, to create the center pile. The last person sick starts (or last round/game's loser) by playing a card face up to start that round's "Viral Load." Players always draw back up to 6 cards in their hand and play passes clockwise. The next player then has to beat the current Viral Load's value (or match it using Matched Play). If they can't beat it with a higher card, or are able to utilize a Power Card, then they must take that Viral Load and add it to their own Viral Load. The next round starts with the player who played the last card (except when Contagion™ is played). Play continues in this manner until all cards in the center pile are exhausted and the game ends when the first person plays their last card. All players then count the total number of cards in their Viral Loads and in their hand (if any are remaining). -description from designer