Rolling Tricks

Rolling Tricks

Designed by: Jeremy Zero

A team trick-taking game for 4 players. Features “rolling” for trump, and the ability to cancel another player’s card!

The Game

A team trick-taking game for 4 players.

The Deal

Teams sit in alternating seats: Team A, B, A, B. Shuffle the deck and deal 13 cards to each player.

The Roll

Reveal the final two cards in the deck to determine trump for this round:

  • The low card is the trump number.
  • The high card is the trump colour.

For example: If you flip a black 2 and a red 3, the red 2 cards are trump.

If both cards are the same number, both cards are trump. This means there will be 4 trump cards this round. If two of these are played in the same trick and they are not the same colour, the later trump card played will beat the earlier trump card.

For example: If you flip a black 2 and a white 2, both of them are trump.

The Pass

Players may simultaneously pass up to two cards to their partner.

Tips: Sometimes it’s good to get rid of a colour if you have trump. Sometimes it’s good to pass good cards to your partner to give them an advantage in a colour.

The Play

Starting with the player to the dealer’s left and proceeding clockwise, each player will play a card. The first player determines the colour for the hand, or trick. Everyone else must play the same colour if they have a card of that colour. If you do not have any cards of the colour that was led, you can play trump, or a different colour.

The winner of the trick is the player who played the highest number of the colour that was led, unless someone played trump. A trump card always wins, even if it’s a lower number than the highest card. If multiple trump cards are played, the highest trump card wins.

The winner of a trick plays the first card for the next trick.

The Cancellation

During a trick if two players play the same card (same colour and number), those cards cancel each other out and are discarded. If a third copy of that card is played it will count. For example: Player 1 plays 6 of Black, Player 2 cancels it with a 6 of Black, now Players 3 or 4 can play a 6 of Black and it will be the highest card of the led suit.

If all cards are cancelled in a trick, set the cards aside; the winner of the next trick wins this one, too.

The End

The round ends when one team has won seven tricks; they score one point. The first team to three points wins the game!

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