Pasona

Pasona is a Kenyan-made memory and luck card game for 1–15 players that supports four distinct modes of play, scaling from simple icon matching for young children to rapid-fire number-series racing for competitive groups. All modes share the same setup: 48 cards are spread face-down on any flat surface, and players take turns flipping cards one at a time without moving them. What constitutes a valid match — and what happens next — depends on which mode is in play. In Icon Match, each card has a unique paired symbol; finding its counterpart earns both cards and another turn. In Number Match, players search for pairs that sum to 10, with a reversible 6/9 card serving as either value. Number Series challenges players to flip a consecutive run from 1 through 9, keeping valid portions of a sequence and forfeiting invalid flips — a push-your-luck mechanism that rewards memory and restraint in equal measure. Trade Numbers, the most advanced mode, adds a real-time race: players may trade cards freely at any point, and the game ends the instant someone completes the full 1–9 series. Special action cards — Wild (matches any number and is kept), Skip Turn (discarded after use), and Extra Turn (discarded after use) — appear throughout the deck and add unpredictability across all modes. The deck can be halved to 24 cards for faster games or younger players. Pasona is playable on any surface and fits in a bag, making it well suited for travel, classrooms, and multigenerational gatherings alike. —description from the publisher