Dubbe Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • The characters
• Game Idea
• Setup
• Course of Play
  • Determining trump
  • Rules for playing tricks
  • Winning a trick
  • Assigning a card colour to the characters
  • Assigning dice points and characters at the end of a trick
  • Jo Lossen = special function "not following suit"
  • Scoring
• Further Rounds
• End of the Game
• Rules for 2 Players
• Variant "Black Die"

Components

• 75 playing cards with the values 1 - 15 in the colours blue, brown, yellow, green and red
• 5 player cards and 5 wooden discs in the colours pink, grey, orange, black, white
• 6 dice in the colours blue, brown, yellow, green, red and black
• 2 score boards (+/-)
• To be carefully punched out before the first game: 1 start space; 5 point chips (+10/-10) in the colours pink, grey, orange, black, white; 5 characters

The characters

• Aagewwer: The "Aagewwer" (= show-off) likes to outdo the others when telling his stories and thinks he knows everything better. Therefore he is not particularly popular at the regulars' table and stands in the game for: trump suit, minus points.
• Weschwieschmän: When telling his stories, the "Weschwieschmän" wants to make sure the others understand him, and always ends his talk with the addition "Weschwieschmän?" = "Do you know/understand what I mean?" He is very popular at the regulars' table and stands in the game for: plus points.
• Jammerlabbe: The "Jammerlabbe" always sees only the bad in the world and complains and laments all the time. You can never please him. Because of his negative attitude he is not very popular and stands in the game for: minus points.
• Jo Lossen: "Jo Lossen" is an oddball at the regulars' table. He has no idea about anything but still tries to join in everywhere. As the Palatines are good-natured, they gallantly overlook his contributions and dismiss the whole thing with the phrase "Jo Lossen" = "Oh, leave him alone!" Because he falls out of line in every respect, he stands in the game for: special function "not following suit".
• Gliggsridder: The "Gliggsridder" is, as the name says, a real lucky child. He is in the right place at the right time and everything comes to him without much effort. He is liked and welcome everywhere and stands in the game for: plus points.

Game Idea

By winning tricks, the players take on, over the course of the game, the roles of the different characters named above. Since the characters are connected with plus or minus points, trump, or the special function, and since the value of the characters rises more and more, both positively and negatively, the players face the question of when they want to take a trick. So the exciting question remains until the end: who collects the most Dubbe (= points) and is the biggest Jammerlabbe or Gliggsridder at the table!

(Players of either sex are of course meant wherever "players" are mentioned.)

Setup

Depending on the number of players, the following cards from the 75 playing cards are needed:

• 2 players: cards in each colour with the values 1 - 9 (45 cards)*
• 3 players: cards in each colour with the values 1 - 9 (45 cards)
• 4 players: cards in each colour with the values 1 - 12 (60 cards)
• 5 players: cards in each colour with the values 1 - 15 (75 cards)

*see the rules for 2 players below

The cards not needed are put back in the box. The cards are shuffled and dealt evenly among the players.

The 5 characters (Aagewwer, Weschwieschmän, Jammerlabbe, Jo Lossen and Gliggsridder) are laid out next to each other, within easy reach of all players, in the order of their printed die values. Likewise, both score boards (mineral water bottle and wine bottle), the start space, the point chips (+10/-10) and five dice in the card colours red, yellow, green, blue and brown are placed openly to the side. The black die is only needed for the variant.

Each player chooses a coloured wooden disc and a player card of matching colour, and puts the wooden disc, to record his scored plus and minus points, on the start space, which is placed between the two score boards.

Course of Play

Dubbe is a trick-taking game played over several rounds. In each round 15 tricks are played, and card colours are assigned to the 5 different characters. By winning tricks, the players come into possession of the characters.

Determining trump

Before the first trick is played, the player to the left of the dealer determines the trump colour, after looking at his cards. The player to the left of the trump-determiner leads to the first trick.

Rules for playing tricks

In clockwise order each player must play exactly one card. This completes a trick.

Following suit: The cards played must match the colour of the card played first. If a player has no matching card, he can either trump or discard a card (exception: the character "Jo Lossen").

Trumping: Since the trump colour ranks above all other colours, this trick goes to the owner of the highest trump card. Trumping is not compulsory, however; a card can also be discarded.

Discarding a card: If a player has no card of the colour played first and cannot or does not want to trump, he plays any other card (= "discarding a card").

Winning a trick

The player who has played the highest card value in the colour played first wins the trick, unless one or more trump cards were played in the trick. Then the player with the highest trump card value wins the trick. Discarded cards are not taken into account when determining the winner of a trick.

The winner of a trick puts all the cards played face down on a discard pile and leads the first card for the next trick. This is repeated until all cards have been played.

Assigning a card colour to the characters

In all rounds, the order in which card colours are assigned to the characters always stays the same, namely in the numerical order of the die values (1-5) printed on the characters. By assigning the card colours, depending on the character, the trump, the plus points and the minus points are automatically determined.

Aagewwer = determine trump. The player to the left of the dealer always determines the trump colour of the current round, after looking at his cards but before the first card has been played at all. Directly after the trump colour is announced:

1. With the colour die of the announced card colour, the trump colour is marked on the die space provided on the character "Aagewwer", initially with the die value 1.
2. The character "Aagewwer" is placed in front of the player who announced the trump. This player thus already has one minus point (die value) secure before the game has even begun.

After the trump colour is determined, the player to the left of the trump-determiner plays the first card for the first trick.

The leader of the first trick has exactly two options:

1. He leads the already determined trump colour: The trick is played to its end. If the current owner of the character "Aagewwer" wins the trick, the die value is raised from 1 to 2 and the lead for the next trick is played. If, however, another player wins the trick, the character changes owner. Before the change, the former owner of the character marks his already scored points, in this case 1 minus point, on the score board and raises the die value by one point from 1 to 2. The new owner of the character Aagewwer now already has 2 minus points secure.
2. He leads a colour not yet determined: By leading a card colour not yet assigned, this colour is immediately determined and immediately assigned to a character. In this case, by leading a new card colour the plus points are determined ("Weschwieschmän").

Weschwieschmän = determine plus points. After the trump colour has been determined, the plus points are determined by leading a card colour not yet determined. Once the winner of the trick is known:

1. With the colour die of the newly led card colour, the colour of the plus points is marked on the die space provided on the character "Weschwieschmän", initially with the die value 1.
2. The character "Weschwieschmän" is placed in front of the winner of the trick. This player thus already has one plus point secure.

As soon as a colour not yet assigned is led, the following characters are determined, as described above, in the fixed order:

• Jammerlabbe = minus points
• Jo Lossen = special function "not following suit"
• Gliggsridder = plus points

Assigning dice points and characters at the end of a trick

• If a new character comes into play by leading a card colour not yet determined, the colour die of the led card colour is placed with the value 1 on the die space provided on the character and the character is placed in front of the winner of the trick.
• A player can thus own several characters at the same time.
• If a card colour is led that is already assigned to a character, at the end of the trick the die value of this character is raised by one point.
• If the winner of the last trick already owns this character, nothing happens except raising the die value.
• If, however, the character changes owner because another player has won the trick, then the former owner of the character marks the plus or minus points scored so far (die value of the colour die) on the score board and afterwards raises the die value by one point. Then the character is placed in front of the new owner.
• If the score board is not sufficient for marking the plus and minus points, the point chip (+10/-10) of matching colour is additionally laid on the player's wooden disc to mark the current score.

Example: In the course of the game a player has already reached 10 plus points. At the end of the current round he receives another 7 plus points. He thus has 17 plus points in total. He places his wooden disc on the plus-point score board on the value 7 and lays the chip with the value +10 in his player colour on the wooden disc.

Jo Lossen = special function "not following suit"

The rules on following suit and on assigning die points do not apply to the character "Jo Lossen"!

As an oddball, special rules also apply to the character "Jo Lossen".

• The current owner of the character "Jo Lossen" is exempt from having to follow suit. He does not have to follow the colour led. He can put a card of his choice into the trick, i.e. he can also trump if he still has a card of the colour led in his hand.

  EXCEPTION: However, for "Jo Lossen" following suit does apply in the card colour determined for his character.

  Example: If the card colour blue was determined for "Jo Lossen", then following suit applies to him only in the card colour blue. For all other card colours led he can play whatever he wants.

• When the character "Jo Lossen" is newly brought into play, the corresponding colour die is immediately placed on the character with the die value 3 and remains unchanged until the end of the round. In contrast to the other characters, no points can be scored with this character in the course of a round. At the end of the round, however, the character is worth 3 plus points once, which are given to the current owner of the character.

Scoring

After all tricks have been played and possible changes of owner have been carried out, the characters are scored one last time. The current die value (plus or minus points) on the characters is marked by their owner on the score board.

Further Rounds

The colour dice are removed from the characters and put ready for a new round. Likewise the characters are laid out to the side in the given order. The new dealer is the player to the left of the dealer of the last round. After the cards are dealt, the player to the left of the dealer determines the new trump colour and a new round begins.

End of the Game

Depending on the desired game length, the game ends after a previously determined number of rounds:

• 2 players - 4/6/8 rounds
• 3 players - 6/9 rounds
• 4 players - 4/8 rounds
• 5 players - 5/10 rounds

The player with the most points (Dubbe) has won.

Rules for 2 Players

For the game with 2 persons the usual rules apply, with the following exceptions:

• Of the playing cards, 45 cards are needed: in each colour the values 1 - 9.
• The dealer deals the cards evenly as if 3 persons were playing. The cards of the fictitious third player remain face down to the side until the end of the round.
• The player opposite the dealer determines the trump colour after looking at his cards.
• After the trump colour is determined, the dealer leads to the first trick.

Variant "Black Die"

This variant is recommended when experienced trick-taking players want to raise the demands on their concentration (Palatinate: Dubbefaktor) once more. The variant makes use of the fact that trick-taking players are used to taking the won cards for themselves after winning a trick. In this variant this is punished with minus points.

The following extended rules apply:

• The black die is put ready at the start of the game together with the other colour dice.
• As soon as the character "Jammerlabbe" is brought into play, the current owner of the character has an additional task from then on. He must collect all tricks played and put them face down on a discard pile. With so much work he at least has a reason to complain!
• If in the further course of the game another player wants to collect the trick without permission (touching the cards played is enough!), the black die is placed with the die value 1 in front of this player.
• Each further unauthorised collecting of tricks results in the die value being raised by 1 point and, where applicable, the die changing owner.
• For the black die, minus points are given only once, at the end of the round, in the amount of the current die value, to the player who has the black die in front of him.
• At the end of a round the black die is put ready together with the other colour dice for the next round.