Stax is a casual game for 2-4 players using a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The goal is to score as many points as possible by playing well-matched cards into stacks.

SETUP
To begin each game, follow these steps in order:

1. Shuffle the deck and place it face down on the table. Cards will be drawn from the top of deck.
2. Take the top 5 cards of the deck and place them separately face up in the center of table to form the start of 5 stacks.
3. Each player draws 5 cards to form their hand. You can look at cards in your own hand but keep them concealed from the other players.
4. Randomly determine a player to take the first turn.

GAMEPLAY
Players take turns clockwise around the table. On each of your turns, play 1 card from your hand face up on top of any stack.

Each time you play a card, gain points for how the card played matches the top card of the stack on which you played it. Ace is treated as 1, Jack as 11, Queen as 12, and King as 13.

If the card played is the same number, gain three points, Otherwise, gain 1 point for each of the following conditions met:

1. The card played is the same color
2. The card played is the same suit
3. The card played is a lower number
4. The card played is exactly 1 number lower

After playing a card, if the stack you played on has 5 cards in it, complete each of these steps in order:

1. Move the stack to a discard pile.
2. Gain 3 points if the card you played matched either the number or the suit of the card on which you played it. Otherwise gain 1 point.
3. Take the top card from the deck and place it in the center of the table to start a new stack unless the deck is empty.

After playing a card, you may play another card from your hand onto any stack if the card you play is either:

1. The same number as the last card you played
2. The same suit and one number lower than the last card you played

If you cannot or choose not to play another card, you can end your turn and draw cards from the deck until you have 5 cards in hand, after which the next player begins their turn.

WINNING
The game ends if you play the last card in your hand and there are no cards in the deck to draw. If you end the game, gain five points. The player with the highest score wins.