Poison (Kedric Winks)
Poison (Kedric Winks) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 54 Drinks Cards consisting of:
- Card back
- 1–10 Brandy
- 1–10 Cocktails
- 1–10 Wine
- 1–10 Sherry
- 1–10 Poison
- 4 Bottles
- 15 Agenda Cards (card back and front)
- 1 Score Pad and Pencil
How to Play a Game
The game Poison is played in a series of hands. At the end of each hand players record a score for the hand on the score pad and that score is added to their total for the game. After 9 hands the player with the highest score wins the game.
How to Play a Hand
In each hand the players are each dealt 9, 6 or 3 Drinks Cards and 2 Agenda Cards by the dealer. In the first hand deal 9, the next hand 6, in the third hand 3 and then repeat the process 3 times over.
Players may look at their hand and then must choose one Agenda card to play face up and one to played face down.
Players will now play a series of one card tricks until all of the Drinks cards have been played. This is the end of the hand. At the end of the hand players count their scores. For each trick won a player receives 1 point, unless that trick has one or more Poison cards in it (a Poisoned Trick) in which case it is worth -1 Point. The players' two Agenda cards remain with them for the whole hand and if a player achieves the task on the Agenda cards then they score the points on the Agenda cards. Record the score for the hand on the score card under that player's initials.
Once scored all of the Agenda cards go into a pile and are shuffled, and all of the drinks cards go into another pile and are shuffled.
How to Play a Trick
The lead player for each first trick of the hand is always the player with the lowest score. In the event of a tie or in the first trick of the game the player with the most sophisticated drink is the lead player. The lead player for all subsequent tricks is the winner of the last trick.
The lead player determines the suit of the trick by laying the first card of the trick in the centre of the table, this can be any suit: Brandy, Cocktail, Wine, Sherry or Poison. Running clockwise from the lead player other players each play one card on top of the trick. Players must play the same suit as the lead player if they can.
The cards in each suit run from 1-10 then Bottle Cards are the highest. Once all players have laid one card, the highest card in the same suit as the lead player's card wins the trick.
However if a Poison card was played it beats all other numbered cards (but not Bottle cards), even the suit laid by the lead player. This is a Poisoned trick, in this case the player who laid the highest value poison card wins the trick. The Bottle Cards represent sealed bottles and so cannot be poisoned. A Bottle card is the highest value in its suit and if a player wins a trick by laying a Bottle card then the trick is always worth 1 point even if another player played a Poison card. It is still considered a Poisoned trick, but the Poison has no effect. Note that Bottle cards still have to be played in suit to win the trick.
The player who has won the trick takes the cards and places them in front of themselves to help with scoring at the end of the hand. Remember to keep each trick in its own separate pile face up so that you can see which were poisoned and which were not.
Agenda Cards
The rules show two sample Agenda cards, reproduced here as printed on the cards:
- Suicide Bid (6 Points): End the Hand with the MOST Poison Cards.
- Purist (3 Points): Win a TRICK which contains only ONE TYPE OF DRINK.
Editor's note: the rules do not print the full list of the 15 Agenda cards; only these two sample cards appear in the text.
End of the Game
Once the players have played through a hand of 9 cards, then 6, 3, 9, 6, 3, 9, 6, 3, 9, 6 and 3 that's 9 hands in total the game is over. The player with the highest score at this point wins the game.
Editor's note: the printed hand-size sequence above lists eleven numbers but states that it makes nine hands. The sequence in "How to Play a Hand" (9, then 6, then 3, repeated three times over) gives nine hands and is the one followed here as printed in that section.