Trick Taking

Trick Taking

A card game made for

PIGSquad Summer Slow Jams #3

August 2016

For: 2 or more players

Duration: about 15 minutes

Materials Setup

• Print 3 copies of the first 3 pages - the shape cards
  
  • On the back of each card of one copy, draw an arrow pointing Left (underline it to note proper orientation).
  • On the back of each card of the second copy, draw an arrow pointing right (underline it to note proper orientation).
  • Leave the backs of the third set of cards blank.
• Print 1 copy of the last page - the rule cards
• You should have a total of 90 cards - 81 shape cards and 9 rule cards. Keep these sets separate.

Game Setup

• Deal each player 1 rule card. This card is kept secret from other players.
• Keeping the shape cards face up, shuffle the deck. Deal two cards in front of the deck.

About the Cards

Each shape card has 3 properties:

• Shape: circle, triangle, square
• Number: 1, 2, or 3 shapes
• Color: Clear, Striped, or Solid

How to Play

• Determine a player to go first.
• Player selects one of the three shape cards available - the two dealt cards or the top card of the deck. If one of the dealt cards is selected, place the top card of the deck in its place so there are always 3 choices available.
  • You cannot look at the back of the cards during this phase.
• Hand size limit is 7 cards.
• If the player chooses, they may lock in a triplet (a set of 3 cards) by placing them in front of them so that other players can see what the triplet is comprised of.
  • If drawing a card puts a player over their hand limit, the player must lock in a triplet to remain under the limit.
• Play passes to the left.
• Play continues until all shape cards are drawn.
  • Once all shape cards are drawn, players may lock in any additional triplets from their hands if they have enough cards to do so.

Scoring

• If you were able to achieve the conditions listed on your rule card, score those points.
• Look at the backs of each triplet you locked in. If the set has 3 matching arrows, pass that triplet to the player next to you in the indicated direction. That player scores the points for the triplet.
• Calculate your score:
• For each property on each card that matches, score 1 point.
• For each property on each card that is different, score 2 points.
• in this way, a triplet can score between 0 and 6 points.
• The player with the highest cumulative score wins.

Examples of Scoring

<coming soon>

Notes

The game was created as part of the Portland Indie Game Squad Summer Slow Jam series. The theme of this jam was "Illusion of Control", which is why I included the arrows - the idea being that you think you're in full control of the points you score, but if you get greedy you risk losing points to your opponent without realizing it.

This game is still in a prototype stage, so there may be additional tweaks. I welcome any feedback about the game and any suggestions you have about the scoring to keep things interesting. Thank you for checking it out!

Special thanks to PIGSquad - http://www.pigsquad.com

For more from Tim Volpe, visit http://www.lzorro.com