Sleeping Queens facts for kids

Sleeping Queens is a super fun card game made for kids! It was invented by a girl named Miranda Evarts when she was just six years old. The game was first made by Gamewright in 2005. In this game, players use cards to wake up sleeping queens. You can also try to steal queens from other players or put their queens back to sleep!

How the Game Was Created

A Dream Comes True

The idea for Sleeping Queens came from a dream Miranda Evarts had in 2003. She was only six years old at the time! Her dream was about a queen who couldn't sleep.

Family Helps Out

Miranda's family, including Madeline, Denise, and Max Evarts, helped her turn her dream into a real game. They worked together to develop the rules and ideas. Then, they contacted Gamewright, a company that publishes games.

Getting Published

Gamewright loved the idea! They bought the rights to the game and published it in 2005. The cool drawings in the game were done by Jimmy Pickering. He based them on Miranda's original drawings.

How to Play Sleeping Queens

Game Setup

Sleeping Queens uses two different decks of cards. There's a blue deck with Queen cards. Each Queen card has a point value from 5 to 20. There's also a red deck with action and number cards.

First, you spread out the twelve Queen cards face-down. These are the "sleeping" queens. Each player gets five cards from the red deck. The rest of the red deck goes in the middle of the playing area.

Your Turn

When it's your turn, you have a few choices. You can either:

• Discard some cards to get new ones.
• Play an action card.

Waking Up Queens

You can "awaken" a sleeping Queen card by playing a King card. When you do, you flip the Queen card face-up. You then place it in front of you. This Queen is now part of your collection!

Special Queens

Some queens have special powers:

• The Rose Queen: If you wake up the Rose Queen, you get to wake up a second Queen card right away!
• The Cat Queen and Dog Queen: You can't have both the Cat Queen and the Dog Queen in front of you at the same time. If you get one and then try to get the other, you have to choose!

Action Cards

Action cards let you do special things:

• The Knight Card: You can play a Knight card to try and steal an awakened Queen from another player.
• The Dragon Card: If someone tries to steal your Queen with a Knight card, you can play a Dragon card to stop them!
• The Sleeping Potion Card: This card lets you put an awakened Queen from another player back to sleep. The Queen goes back face-down in the middle.
• The Wand Card: If someone tries to put your Queen to sleep with a Sleeping Potion, you can play a Wand card to stop them!
• The Jester Card: When you play a Jester card, you flip over the top card of the red deck.
  • If it's an action card, you get to put it in your hand and take another turn!
  • If it's a number card, you count players clockwise starting from yourself. The player who lands on the number shown on the card gets to awaken a Queen!

Discarding Cards

To get new cards, you can discard cards in a few ways:

• Discard one card of any type.
• Discard two number cards that are exactly the same (like two 5s).
• Discard three or more number cards that add up to an equation (like 2 + 3 = 5).

After you play or discard cards, you always draw new cards. You must always have five cards in your hand.

Winning the Game

Players keep taking turns until someone wins! Here's how to win:

• For 2-3 players: The first player to get five Queen cards or Queen cards worth 50 or more points wins!
• For 4-5 players: The first player to get four Queen cards or Queen cards worth 40 or more points wins!