Flaps (card game)

Flaps is a shedding-type card game based on Crazy Eights, invented in England by Paul Feagan, who devised its rules in 1981 before the game was formally released in 1994. Play is for two or more players, and the aim is straightforward: the first player to discard every card from their hand wins the game. As in Crazy Eights and other shedding games, players must match either the suit or the rank of the most recently played card to legally play a card of their own, keeping the flow of the game centered on adapting to the cards already on the table. Flaps is built around a custom 148-card deck, considerably larger than a standard playing deck, which supports seven progressive difficulty levels that gradually introduce special card abilities and new rules as players become more familiar with the game. These special cards include wildcards, draw cards, and reverse cards familiar from other shedding games, alongside the game's own signature Flaps cards, four-rank cards that carry their own distinct rule effects. The game's reach extended beyond England when a bilingual English-Czech edition was produced in 2009, indicating a later effort to bring Flaps to a Central European audience.