Five Crowns is rummy, with a twist. The set collection aspect of rummy is basically the same; with groups of 3 cards in either runs or denominations making a valid meld. The difference is that in each hand the number of cards increases, from 3 cards in the first hand to 13 in the last. The game, therefore, consists of 11 hands. In each of these hands, in addition to the 6 Jokers, there are other wild cards. These are determined by which hand it is. In the first hand 3s are wild in the second hand it's the 4s, and so on until in the last hand the Kings go wild. This is made easy to remember because the wild card is the same as the total number of cards you hold. (ie. in the first hand 3 cards, 3s are wild). A hand finishes when someone can meld all cards in their hand (after the discard) and, as the designers say, "the game isn't over 'til the Kings go wild!"
