Pick-a-Seal

About this board game

Pick-a-Seal is a 15-minute card game listed for 1-5 players, featuring a fast race to collect cards by matching changing combinations of seal attributes.

To begin, arrange 30 cards in a grid and give each player one face-down card. On “Go!”, everyone reveals their card and starts grabbing from the grid. A card may be taken when it is identical to the top card of your hand stack or differs from it in exactly one way.

Every card has five two-state attributes: large or small, with or without a raised arm, an orange autumn or blue winter background, with or without goggles, and with or without canned fish. Because each captured card becomes the new top card, the target combination keeps changing as the round progresses.

• Play with a 30-card grid, or use 49 cards with 6-8 players when combining the two games.
• Check every stack after someone calls “Stop!”
• Collect the most cards across the game to win.

Stopping at the right moment is crucial. If the player who ends the round has made no mistakes, they gain an extra card. However, stopping while another legal card was available means losing all cards collected that round. Any player who made a grabbing error also keeps none of that round’s cards.

After each round, deal a new face-down card to everyone and refill the gaps in the grid. When the 96-card deck runs out, finish the current round and compare totals. Pick-a-Seal includes three sets of 32 different cards and uses the same core gameplay as Pick-a-Polar Bear, without that game’s two variants.