In a Pickle (card game)

In a Pickle is a card and word game published by Gamewright in 2004, designed by Colleen McCarthy-Evans and Joyce Johnson with illustrations by David Semple, for two to six players aged ten and up, with a typical game lasting about an hour. The deck consists of 320 cards printed with common nouns, and players build growing stacks by playing a card that is either physically larger than the item on top of the stack, so it can hold that item, or small enough to fit inside it, allowing for imaginative rather than strictly literal justifications, such as placing the word universe beneath dictionary because the word appears as an entry in one. When a stack reaches four cards it becomes a pickle round, in which players race to be the one who plays a card that finishes that stack, claiming it toward victory. The number of completed stacks needed to win varies with the number of players, from three stacks in a five or six player game up to five stacks in a two player game. An optional advanced rule requires a played card to relate sensibly to every card already in the stack rather than only the card on top, making the creative reasoning harder and the game more strategic for experienced players.