An English counting game · 2 players
Count carefully, trade a card and peg your way toward 121.
This version plays the historic two-player game. The first player to reach 121 points wins.
Use a standard 52-card deck. Deal three cards to each player, one at a time, then turn up the next card as the deck card. Its suit matters for Jack and Deuce bonuses and for colours. If it is a Jack or Deuce, the dealer scores four points immediately. The other player begins the count, and the deal alternates.
Before play, both players may offer one card face down. If both agree, they exchange those cards. If either refuses, no cards change hands and the willing player scores one point. A Jack or Deuce offered in a completed exchange scores two points, or four if its suit matches the deck card. This bonus is counted only once.
Starting with the player who did not deal, take turns laying one card face up and announce the running total. Aces count as 1 or 11, number cards at face value, and Jack, Queen and King as 10. The total cannot exceed 31. If you cannot play, say “Go”; your opponent can continue. A count of 31 scores one point per card in that counting series. Otherwise the player of its last card scores one point. Start a new series if cards remain.
Reaching 15, 25 or 31 scores one point per card played in the current series. The latest two equal ranks score 2; three equal ranks score 9; four score 18. A run of three or more consecutive ranks also scores one point per card. For a run, cards may arrive in any order, but it must contain no repeated or unrelated rank. Aces are low in runs.
After all six cards are played, each player's original three-card hand is counted together with the common deck card. Every distinct subset that totals 15, 25 or 31 scores one point per constituent card. Pairs score 2, three of a rank 9, four 18. Each Jack or Deuce in your own hand scores 2, or 4 if it matches the deck-card suit. A card already rewarded when offered is not rewarded twice. Runs do not count in the hand.
Three cards of one colour score 2, or 3 if all three have the same suit. With the deck card, four of one colour score 4; if three share a suit, score 5; if all four share a suit, score 6 for “Costly Colours”. Count only the highest applicable colour bonus. You cannot score colours during the count to 31.
Costly Colours was recorded in seventeenth-century England and later remembered in Shropshire, where an 1805 handbook described it as a familiar village game. By the 1870s, collectors reported it was becoming rare. Its multiple scoring combinations and pegging board invite comparison with Cribbage, yet its “mog” exchange and colour bonuses make it distinct.
A passage set in 1815 Shropshire in Mary Webb's novel Precious Bane describes neighbours playing Costly Colours at a gathering. The game also appears under the shorter name Costly.
Four can play in fixed partnerships, passing a mog card to a partner. The dealer has an additional option when a mog is refused: exchange with a card below the deck card. The playable table here uses two players, where the exchange is simpler and every score belongs to one person.
Historic accounts leave a few counting details open to local interpretation. This table treats each qualifying subset of the hand once, lets an Ace take either 1 or 11 for a total, and counts its low rank only in sequences.