Game Rules & Instructions

Game Rules

First Served is a fast-paced, turn-based game full of fun that will leave you happy and hungry! Draw and discard like the classic card games we know and love. Build your menu items and get your “order up!” before anyone else… but watch out for the kitchen mix up cards.

 

Cards

Meal Cards

These cards are used to build your menu at the start of each hand. Each meal card includes the list of ingredients needed to make an order. You will use either 3, 4, or 5 meal cards, depending on the number of players you have. Using more meal cards can make the game more challenging and extend gameplay by giving people more order options and putting more ingredient cards in play.

Your Hand

Meal cards are used to create the menu and are separate from your hand. Your hand will consist of Ingredient and Kitchen Mix Up cards.

Ingredient Cards

Collect these cards to get the right combination of ingredients to make one of the available orders on the menu. Some ingredient cards are more common than others, giving each menu item a challenge to create! Look out for the substitute cards as well - these can be used as a wildcard and take the place of any ingredient.

Kitchen Mix Up Cards

In addition to collecting the right combination of ingredients, you may also encounter kitchen mix up cards, which require players to take a certain action. Now, you don’t have to play these cards. You can discard them if you choose, but where’s the fun in that?

 

These cards include the following:

  • Menu Swap - Choose one of the meal cards in play to remove from the game and replace it with one of the meal cards that was not added to the menu. If you’re playing with all 5 meal cards, this menu swap card will act as a second “86 It!” and remove a card from the menu. 
  • 86 It! - Restaurant lingo for an item that is no longer available, the player that uses this card can choose one meal card to remove from the game, which is NOT replaced. Then, there are fewer meal cards to build towards.
  • Restock - Undo a previously played "86 It!" card to put one meal card back into play. If no "86 It!" card has been played yet, this card does nothing.
  • Ingredient Swap - The player that uses this card can choose another player to blindly take a card from. They will then choose a card from their own hand to give in return.
  • Plate Drop - Nice one… someone dropped a plate during dinner rush! Play this card to force the next player to discard two cards from their hand and then draw two more. They must discard first.
  • Chef’s Special - Yikes! Who knows what you’re gonna get. If this card is played, every player must choose one card to pass to their left.
  • Health Inspection - We told them to keep the station clean! Choose a player to skip their next turn.

 

Setup

First Served is a super easy game to learn, play, and teach. Follow these simple steps and get building!

 

1. Select a starting dealer

We don’t know - longest hair, shortest middle name, nicest mustache, whatever… you figure it out!

 

2. Create your menu

Before dealing the ingredient cards, the dealer gets to build the menu from the available meal cards. 

  • 3 - 4 players, use 3 meal cards
  • 5 - 6 players, use 4 meal cards
  • 7 - 8 players, use all 5 meal cards

 

3. Shuffle & deal the cards

Combine all ingredient and kitchen mix up cards and shuffle. Then deal the cards one at a time, clockwise, starting from the left of the dealer until each player has 5 cards in their hand.

 

4. Set up the draw & discard piles

Place the remaining cards that were not dealt in a stack upside down, so you can draw from them throughout the game.

Create a discard spot where you can stack discarded cards face down throughout the game. This can be one single pile or separate - whatever is easiest for your seating situation (you’ll shuffle ‘em up before using them again anyways).

 

Gameplay

Starting from the person to the left of the dealer, players will take turns drawing and discarding cards from your hand. The goal is to match the ingredient cards in your hand to the ingredient list on one of the meal cards on the menu.

 

Players should draw one new card from the deck before discarding a card to the discard pile each turn.

 

If a player uses a kitchen mix up card, that acts as their discard. All players must maintain 5 cards in their hand at all times. 

 

When you match the ingredient cards in your hand to one of the meal cards on the menu, either by exact ingredient match or substitute cards, you must yell “Order Up!”.

 

If the match is correct, that person wins the round. 

 

Shuffle ‘em up and play again, moving to the next person to the left as the new dealer. 

 

If you go through all of the cards in the deck within a single round, simply shuffle the discard pile and continue drawing from that.