Le Plateau
Le Plateau Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The BrownCastle Games edition of Le Plateau includes:
- A board made of 37 spaces arranged in a 4x4x4 hexagonal grid
- A bidding table and bidding peg
- 37 double-sided counters
- 42 tokens: 18 trick tokens, 16 card tokens, and 8 more card tokens
The BrownCastle Games edition does not include a 78-card French Tarot deck. A compatible deck (Sai Beppu's Living On Allotments deck) is sold separately by BrownCastle Games; it carries both English (K, Q, C, J) and French (R, D, C, V) face-card labels, and card tokens are available in either label set. You'll also need something to keep score with, such as paper and pencil.
A French Tarot deck has 5 suits: one trump suit and 4 non-trump suits (spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds), plus one special card, the excuse. These rules illustrate the cards using the common Tarot Nouveau pattern.
Card Ranks
Trump suit: the excuse is the highest-ranked trump card (its index is a star). The remaining trump cards are numbered from 21 (second-highest) down to 1 (lowest). So trump cards rank, from highest to lowest: Excuse, 21, 20, 19, ..., 3, 2, 1.
Non-trump suits: each of the 4 non-trump suits has 14 cards. The 4 highest cards of each suit are the face cards:
- R: roi (king)
- D: dame (queen)
- C: cavalier (knight)
- V: valet (jack)
Non-trump cards rank, from highest to lowest: R, D, C, V, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
The Board and Tokens
The board has 37 spaces. Before each hand, one token is placed in every space; the token type determines what a team must do to claim that space with a counter. There are 3 kinds of spaces:
- Trick spaces: a team places a counter on a trick space when they win the corresponding numbered trick (for example, winning the first trick claims trick space 1).
- Card spaces: a team places a counter on a card space when they win a trick that contains the corresponding non-trump card (for example, the king, queen, knight, or jack of hearts).
- Trump spaces: a team places a counter on a trump space when they win a trick containing the corresponding trump card. The trump token marked with a star represents the excuse.
Counters
Each counter has two distinct sides (for example, two different colours or patterns). One side is assigned to the declarer's team and the other to the opposing team. For example, if counters are dark brown on one side and beige on the other, the declarer's team always plays the dark brown side and the opposing team always plays the beige side.
Setup
- Depending on the number of players, place one token in each board space following the appropriate setup diagram, and put the filled board in the centre of the table.
- Place the counters, bidding table, and bidding peg next to the board.
- Remove cards from the deck according to the number of players:
| Players | Cards to remove | Resulting deck size |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades: 1-9; Trumps: 9-14 | 36 |
| 3 | Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades: 1-9 | 42 |
| 4 | Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs: 1-6; Spades: 1-5 | 55 |
| 5 | Hearts, Diamonds: 1, 2, 3; Clubs, Spades: 1, 2 | 68 |
| 6 | None | 78 |
- Seat the players around the board and choose a dealer for the first hand.
- Decide how many hands you want to play. Pick a number divisible by the number of players, so every player deals an equal number of times — or simply play until you're ready to stop.
Phases of a Hand
Each hand consists of the following phases:
- Deal
- Bidding
- Picking a partner
- Card exchange
- Increasing the objective characteristic
- Card play
- End of hand
1. Deal
Move any counters off the board back to the supply. The dealer shuffles the deck; how it's dealt depends on the number of players.
Two-player game: The dealer deals a stack of 2 cards face down next to the board, then deals 2 more cards on top of that stack but rotated 90 degrees — these 4 cards form the talon. The dealer then creates 2 face-down stacks of 16 cards each and gives one stack to each player. Each player, using their own stack, deals themselves a personal layout:
a. A horizontal row of 5 non-overlapping cards, where the 1st, 3rd, and 5th cards are face down and the 2nd and 4th are face up. b. On top of that row, a row of 4 face-up cards, each one resting on top of 2 adjacent cards of the row beneath it. c. The remaining 7 cards become the player's hand.
A player's playable hand consists of the cards in their hand plus any face-up card in their layout that currently has no card on top of it.
Three- to five-player game: The dealer deals a hand of 13 cards to each player. The 3 remaining cards form the talon, set face down to the side.
Six-player game: The dealer deals a hand of 12 cards to each player. The 6 remaining cards form the talon, set face down to the side.
2. Bidding
Starting with forehand (the player to the dealer's left) and continuing clockwise, each player either makes a bid worth more than every previous bid, or passes. Once a player passes, they can't bid again that hand; bidding ends when all players but one have passed. If every player passes, the next player in turn becomes dealer and a new hand is dealt.
A bid consists of 2 characteristics in a 2- or 3-player game (card exchange and objective), or 3 characteristics in a 4-, 5-, or 6-player game (card exchange, objective, and teams):
- Card exchange — either Exchange or No Exchange (see "4. Card Exchange").
- Objective — the formation the declarer's team must build with their counters to win (see "Formations" below). Connecting additional board sides beyond the bid formation still counts as a win. A corner space belongs to both of the board sides it touches.
- Teams (4+ players only) — Duo or Solo in a 4- or 5-player game; Trio, Duo, or Solo in a 6-player game (see "3. Picking a Partner").
To make a bid, announce its characteristics and place the bidding peg on the corresponding cell of the bidding table; the number in that cell is the bid's point value.
Formations
- Bridge — a path of the declarer's team's counters connects 2 opposite sides of the board.
- Y — a path of the declarer's team's counters connects 3 non-adjacent sides of the board.
- Fork — the declarer's team creates both a Y and a Bridge.
- Five sides — the declarer's team's counters connect at least 5 sides of the board.
- Six sides — the declarer's team's counters connect all 6 sides of the board.
Bidding table values
The physical bidding table has 3 value columns. Which team option each column represents depends on the total number of players:
| Total players | Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Trio | Duo | Solo |
| 4-5 | Duo | Solo | (not used) |
| 2-3 | Solo | (not used) | (not used) |
Each cell of the value table below holds 2 numbers for the matching column: the first is the bid's value with Exchange, the second is its value with No Exchange:
| Objective | Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bridge | 1 / 2 | 6 / 7 | 11 / 12 |
| Y | 3 / 4 | 8 / 9 | 13 / 14 |
| Fork | 5 / 6 | 10 / 11 | 15 / 16 |
| Five sides | 7 / 8 | 12 / 13 | 17 / 18 |
| Six sides | 9 / 10 | 14 / 15 | 19 / 20 |
Example: In a 4-player game, forehand opens with Exchange Y Duo (Duo is column 1 for 4 players; Y/column 1/Exchange = 3), a bid worth 3 points, and places the bidding peg on that cell. The next player overbids with Exchange Bridge Solo (Solo is column 2 for 4 players; Bridge/column 2/Exchange = 6), worth 6 points, and moves the peg there.
3. Picking a Partner
In a 2- or 3-player game the declarer never picks a partner. In games of 4 or more players, the winning bid's teams characteristic determines how the declarer's team is formed:
- Solo — the declarer plays alone.
- Duo — the declarer forms a team with 1 other player.
- Trio (6-player game only) — the declarer forms a team with 2 other players.
Everyone not on the declarer's team plays together as the single opposing team.
If the winning bid was Duo or Trio, the declarer picks a partner at random: they announce the highest non-trump card they don't hold in their own hand. Whoever holds that card announces the fact and joins the declarer's team. If nobody holds it (because it's sitting in the talon), the declarer keeps announcing the next-highest card they don't hold until someone claims one. If the bid was Trio, the declarer repeats the whole process to find a second partner who hasn't already been chosen.
4. Card Exchange
If the winning bid included the Exchange characteristic, the declarer exchanges cards with the talon; the exact procedure depends on player count.
Two-player game: The declarer adds the talon's top 2 cards to their hand, then discards 2 cards face down, rotated 90 degrees, on top of the talon.
Three- to five-player game: The declarer adds the whole talon to their hand, then discards 3 cards face down to form a new talon.
Six-player game: The declarer adds only the top 3 cards of the talon to their hand, then, from their hand, gives one card face down to each of 2 other players (these gifted cards may be cards the declarer already held or cards just taken from the talon). The remaining 3 cards of the talon are then dealt face down, one each, to the 3 players who haven't received a card yet, so everyone ends up with a 13-card hand.
If the winning bid did not include the Exchange characteristic (No Exchange), special handling applies only in the 6-player game: the dealer deals one card face down from the talon to each player, so everyone has a 13-card hand. (In 2- to 5-player games, No Exchange simply means the talon is left untouched at this point.)
5. Increasing the Objective Characteristic
The declarer's partner gets one chance to raise the winning bid's objective characteristic (which raises the bid's value); afterward, the declarer also gets one chance to raise it. In a Solo bid, the declarer still gets this one chance even though there's no partner.
Six-player game: in a Trio bid, the partner sitting closest to the declarer's left gets the first chance to raise the objective, then the other partner, and finally the declarer.
Counter-sabotage rule (5-player game): if — and only if — the declarer's partner raised the objective characteristic, the declarer may instead abdicate the declarer role to that partner rather than raising the objective further. The new declarer and the former declarer still play the hand as one team, but at scoring time the new declarer wins or loses points as the declarer would, while the former declarer wins or loses points as the partner would. In particular, if the team loses the hand, the new declarer loses double what the former declarer loses.
6. Card Play
Card play alternates between playing cards to a trick and placing counters on the board according to which team won that trick.
Trick Play
Trick play works much like other Tarot games: a trick consists of one card played by each player. Forehand leads the first trick. The lead player plays any card from their hand face up in front of themselves; starting with the player to their left and going clockwise, everyone else plays one card in turn. When you play, you must follow suit (match the suit of the led card) if you can. If you can't follow suit, you must play a trump card if you hold one; only if you hold neither the led suit nor any trump may you play a card of any other suit. Unlike standard French Tarot, you are never forced to overtrump, and the excuse counts as the highest trump card (see also the Excuse variant below).
Once every player has played a card, determine the winner: whoever played the highest trump card wins the trick; if no trump was played, whoever played the highest card of the led suit wins.
Two-player game: your playable hand is your hand of cards plus any uncovered face-up card in your personal layout (see "1. Deal"). When it's your turn to play to a trick, you may play any card from your hand or any currently-uncovered face-up layout card. After the trick is resolved, if doing so uncovers a face-down card with nothing left on top of it, flip that card face up.
Placing Counters on the Board
The winner of a trick places one of their team's counters on the trick space matching that trick's number (winning the 1st trick claims trick space 1, the 13th trick claims trick space 13, and so on). If any card in the won trick matches a card space on the board, the trick's winner also places one of their team's counters on each such card space. Likewise, winning a trick that contains a trump card claims that trump's board space.
(What happens if the talon still holds cards once the declarer's team has neither won nor lost is covered under "7. End of Hand" below.)
Preparing for the Next Trick
Once a trick is resolved, all players turn their played cards face down; you may keep your played cards in a personal pile or add them to a shared discard pile. The trick's winner leads the next trick.
7. End of Hand
The hand ends as soon as the declarer's team has clearly won or clearly lost — this can happen before all 13 (or 12) tricks are played, so players may still be holding cards when it does. Everyone's score for the hand depends on the value (v) of the declarer's winning bid. Note that the bid's value doesn't increase just because the team ends up connecting a formation worth more than the bid's objective called for.
Declarer's team wins: the team wins once they complete the formation named in their bid (or a better one). Each player on the declarer's team then scores points as follows, based on the total number of players and the team size:
| Total players | Trio | Duo | Solo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 1 x v | 2 x v | 5 x v |
| 5 | (not used) | Declarer: 2 x v, Partner: 1 x v | 4 x v |
| 4 | (not used) | 1 x v | 3 x v |
| 3 | (not used) | (not used) | 2 x v |
| 2 | (not used) | (not used) | 1 x v |
Each player on the opposing team loses v points.
Declarer's team loses: the team loses once it becomes impossible for them to still win — most often because the opposing team has already completed a Bridge or a Y of their own. Each player on the declarer's team loses points per the table above, and each player on the opposing team gains v points.
If nobody has won or lost by the last trick, the remaining unclaimed board spaces are filled from the talon so the outcome can still be determined:
- Two-player game: the declarer turns the talon's top 2 cards face up, and the declarer's opponent claims the board spaces matching those cards. If the declarer's team still hasn't won or lost, the talon's last 2 cards are then flipped; the winner of the very last trick picks one of those 2 cards and claims its space, and the other player claims the space for the remaining card.
- Three- to five-player game: the declarer turns the whole talon face up, and the opposing team claims the board spaces matching those cards.
Preparing for the Next Hand
At the end of every hand, the sum of all players' scores should equal zero. The player to the current dealer's left deals the next hand.
Game End
Before play begins, agree on how many hands to play, choosing a number divisible by the number of players so everyone deals equally often. Once that many hands have been played, the game ends and the highest total score wins (agree on your own tiebreaker). Alternatively, simply stop whenever you like — a positive score means you finished a winner.
Variants
Full Deck Le Plateau
You can play the 4- and 5-player game with the complete 78-card deck instead of the trimmed deck from Setup, which helps spread out wear on your cards. For the 3-player game, you can similarly use a fuller 54-card deck (only removing cards 1-6 in spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds) instead of the default 42-card deck. Dealing changes to match the larger decks:
| Players | Cards dealt to each player | Size of talon |
|---|---|---|
| 3 (54-card deck) | 17 | 3 |
| 4 (78-card deck) | 18 | 6 |
| 5 (78-card deck) | 15 | 3 |
Alternative Board Setups
Instead of the standard diagrams, you can randomly place the tokens in the board spaces during setup (or before every deal), or devise your own layouts — for example, grouping same-suit card tokens together, or clustering the trick tokens near the centre of the board.
Positive-Only Scoring
With this variant, nobody loses points — the winning side (whichever team that is) always scores, and the losing side scores nothing. If the declarer's team wins, each of its members scores according to the table below; if the declarer's team loses instead, each member of the opposing team scores the same amounts:
| Declarer's team size | 2- or 3-player game | 4- or 5-player game | 6-player game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trio (3) | (not used) | (not used) | 2 x v |
| Duo (2) | (not used) | 1 x v | 3 x v |
| Solo (1) | 1 x v | 2 x v | 6 x v |
Under this variant, the 5-player counter-sabotage rule is no longer needed, since declarer and partner already score the same amount. If you still want to use the counter-sabotage rule alongside positive-only scoring, use these adjusted values instead for a 5-player Duo or Solo bid:
| Declarer's team size | Declarer's team wins: points per player on declarer's team | Declarer's team loses: points per player on opposing team |
|---|---|---|
| Duo (2) | Declarer: 2 x v, Partner: 1 x v | 1 x v |
| Solo (1) | 3 x v | 3 x v |
The Excuse
If you're playing with the full 78-card deck, you can instead treat the excuse the way it works in standard French Tarot rather than as the top trump. Under this variant, the excuse belongs to no suit: you may play it to any trick regardless of what was led or what you hold, which lets you play it in place of following suit or playing a trump card when you otherwise couldn't follow suit. You can never win a trick by playing the excuse, though a teammate can still win that trick. If you lead a trick with the excuse, the next player may play any suit they choose, and that card's suit becomes the suit everyone else must follow. Regardless of who wins the trick, if you played the excuse to it, you place your team's counter on the star-marked trump space rather than on a space tied to the trick's actual winner.