Skip the Salad

Remove cards based on how many are playing, then deal the rest out evenly.

* Include the Corn suit for 7–8 player games (3–6 player games don't use it).

Each player's area has a hand, a face-down kitchen for tricks won, the current round's reference card, and any Extra Toppings in play laid face up for everyone to see.

The player who most recently ate a salad deals first. Shuffle, deal the hand out evenly, and the player to the dealer's left starts the round.

1. The player to the dealer's left leads by playing any card from their hand.
2. Play continues clockwise around the table.
3. Each player must follow the lead suit if they have a card in it.
4. If you have no cards in the lead suit, you may sluff — play any other card.
5. The highest card in the lead suit wins the trick.
6. The trick winner collects the cards face-down into their kitchen.
7. The trick winner leads the next trick.

Example: Alex leads the two of Broccoli, so Broccoli is the lead suit. Bailey follows with the seven of Broccoli. Casey has no Broccoli at all, so she sluffs the King of Onions — since it's not the lead suit, it can't win. Bailey's seven beats Alex's two, so Bailey takes the trick, banks it face-down in her kitchen, and leads the next one.

A game runs six rounds in order, each with its own penalty to dodge. The lowest total score after all six wins.

In Tossed Salad, every penalty from the first five rounds is live simultaneously — it's easiest to tally as you go rather than waiting until the round ends.

• Wild cards can be played with any suit, and you choose whether it counts high or low.
• If a Wild is led, the first card played with an actual suit becomes the lead suit.
• If every card played in a trick is a Wild, whoever played the first one wins the trick.
• Wilds never count toward suit-specific penalties.

Optional twists you can mix into any game — pick any combination before you start and lay them face up so everyone knows what's in play.

• Rotten Tomato — passes to whoever wins a trick containing a Tomato; whoever's holding it at round's end takes +25.
• Pass the Veggies — before each round, everyone passes two cards to the player on their right.
• Cornucopia — flips the whole game: the highest total score wins instead of the lowest.
• Spicy Pepper — Carrots are trump in round one; after that, whoever's in last place picks the trump suit each round.
• Blue Cheese Moon — collect every available penalty in a round (except No Last Trick) and that round's score flips negative.
• Salad Dressing — the highest card in the game; it wins any trick it's played in.
• House Salad — make up your own topping and bring it to the table.

Want more chaos? Swap any of these in for a base round, or invent your own.

• No Kings — +25 per king collected.
• No Assassins — +25 per assassin collected.
• No Royalty — +25 per Jack, Queen, or King collected.
• No Evens — +10 per even card (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) collected.
• No High Low — +25 per one or Assassin collected.

• Hand — the cards you're currently holding.
• Trick — one card played by each player during a single turn cycle.
• Round — the full sequence of tricks played until every hand is empty.
• Suit — Carrots, Broccoli, Tomatoes, and Onions (add Corn for 7–8 players).
• Lead suit — the suit of the first card played in a trick.
• Follow suit — playing a card that matches the lead suit.
• Kitchen — the cards you've won so far this round.
• Sluff — playing a card that doesn't match the lead suit because you have none to follow with.
• Penalty — points added to your score for certain cards or tricks.
• Trump — a suit that beats all other suits, regardless of the lead suit.