How to Play Carbles — the Complete Rules

These are the rules of Carbles exactly as the app plays them. If you know Pegs and Jokers, Wahoo, Tock, or Aggravation, you already know most of this game — skim the card table and the finish-lane section and you're ready. This page is printer-friendly.

The goal

Race all four of your marbles out of your lot, once around the board, and into your finish lane. The first player (or team) to fill their finish lane wins.

Setup

Each player takes the four marbles of one color; they start in that player's lot (the holding area beside the track). The game is played with a shuffled deck of standard playing cards including Jokers — the deck is reshuffled when it runs out. Everyone is dealt a hand of cards; hands are dealt again each time all players have used up their cards (a deal).

Two or three players share the classic 4-color board: with 2 players each person runs two colors as a team, and with 3 players the first player runs two. From 4 up to 12 players, the board grows — square, hexagon, octagon and beyond — with a start spot, home stretch, and goal for every seat.

Getting out

Marbles begin in your lot and enter the track on your start spot. Play an Ace, King, or Joker to move a marble out.

A marble sitting on its own start spot is a wall: no marble may land on it or pass over it — in either direction. Your own marble parked there also blocks you from moving out another marble.

Moving and capturing

Cards move one marble forward (clockwise) by their value. You jump over marbles freely along the way — only the space you land on matters, with the start-spot wall above as the one exception.

Landing on another marble sends it home to its lot — opponents and teammates alike. You can never land on your own marble.

If any card in your hand can make a legal move, you must move. If no card can move, you discard one card instead — and if your hand is completely stuck (no marbles on the track and no way to get out), you fold the whole hand and sit out until the next deal.

The cards

The finish lane

Your finish lane (the goal) is entered through the space two before your start spot, and only by exact count — walk to the entry and step in with the moves you have left.

You can't jump over your own marbles inside the lane, so fill it back to front. The 4 can never back into the lane; a marble that overshoots or retreats must come around the board again the long way.

Partners and teams

With partners (4 or more players, even count), teammates sit opposite each other. Both partners must bring all their marbles home; once your own marbles are finished, your cards move your partner's marbles. A Joker can move your partner out of their lot, and each deal begins with the two of you passing one card to each other.

2 and 3 player games use the 4-seat board: each person runs two colors that play as a team (with 3 players, the first player runs two).

Big games and wild cards

Games with 8 or more players mark some card ranks as wild (★): a wild card can be played as any rank you choose.

Optional house rules

The app supports the table variants below — turn them on or off when creating a game.

Center marble

One slot sits in the middle of the board, entered by exact count through an inside corner. Escape it with any move-out card (Ace, King, Joker) to any inside corner. A marble parked in the center is safe from everything but a direct hit.

Around again

When every possible move would push a marble past its own finish entry — forcing another lap — you may burn a card instead of moving.

Hop in home

Allows jumping over your own marbles inside the finish lane; you still have to land on an open slot.

Open hands

All hands are played face-up — a teaching table's best friend.

Winning

The first player to park all four marbles in their finish lane wins. In partner games, the team wins when both partners' lanes are full — finish your own marbles first, then bring your teammate home.

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