Seas of Strife
Seas of Strife Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
60 cards in eight different colors, with the following values:
- Black (colts): 0–10
- Red (boots): 11–20
- Blue (hats): 21–29
- Brown (horseshoes): 31–38
- Green (cacti): 41–47
- Yellow (stars): 51–56
- Purple (wheels): 61–65
- Grey (skulls): 71–74
This indicates how many cards there are of this color (there are 7 green cards). This shows how high the card is ranked in its color (the 42 is the second-lowest green card).
The Idea of the Game
Texas Showdown is a trick-taking game. This means that in each round, every player in turn plays one card from their hand into the center of the table and the player who played the strongest card takes the trick. However, the goal of the game is to get as few tricks as possible, since each trick is worth 1 penalty point. The player with the fewest penalty points after a number of hands wins.
Setting Up the Game
In a 3-player game, leave out the black (colts) and grey (skulls) cards; sort them out of the deck and put them back into the box. If there are four, five or six players, play with all the cards.
Shuffle the cards and deal them out equally to all players. All players take their cards into their hands.
Playing the Game
Texas Showdown is played over several hands. A hand consists of as many tricks as you have cards in your hand.
A Trick
In clockwise order, each player plays one card from their hand and puts it in the center of the table, face-up. This is called a "trick."
The player who has the 0 card always opens the first trick of the hand by placing the 0 in the center of the table.
Note: In a 3-player game, the player who has the 11 opens the first trick by playing that card (instead of the 0).
Then, in clockwise order, the other players each play one card from their hands into the trick. The card you play must be the same color as a card that is already in the trick. If you cannot play a matching card, you play any card from your hand instead.
Who takes the trick?
Once everyone has played a card, determine who takes the trick. To do so, figure out which color has the most cards in the trick. The player who played the highest-ranked card of that COLOR wins the trick.
Example:
Katrin opens the first trick with the 0 (black). Christian would normally have to play a black card, but he doesn't have one in his hand, so he plays the 42 (green). Beate must play a black card and chooses the 2 (black). Holger also has to play a black card. He plays the 6 (black). Alexa must also play a black card and chooses the 1 (black).
Black is the color with the most cards in the trick, and the highest black card played is the 6, so Holger takes this trick.
If two or more colors are tied for most cards in the trick, the player who played the highest-ranked card of any of the tied colors takes the trick.
Example:
Holger opens the trick with the 43 (green). Alexa must play a green, red, or black card. She plays the 41 (green). Beate would have to play either a green or a red card, but has neither of those colors in hand, so she plays the 8 (black). Christian must play a green card if he has one but he doesn't, so he may play any card. He plays the 11 (red). Katrin must now play either a red or a green card. She plays the 13 (red).
Red and green are tied for most cards in the trick. Since 43 is the highest number in either of these two colors, Holger takes the trick again.
When you take a trick, put all the cards in that trick in front of you in a single face-down pile. Put any other tricks you may take later in separate piles, so everyone can easily see how many tricks each player has taken.
On to the next trick, then!
Who opens the next trick?
As a general rule, the player who takes a trick always opens the next one. That player may freely choose which card to play from his/her hand.
There is one exception, however: If you take a trick with the highest-ranked card of a particular color, you may decide which player opens the next trick (you can pick yourself). You can easily recognize the highest-ranked card in each color by the fully filled-in scale and the large symbol in the center.
End of a Hand
When you have played all of the cards from your hand, the hand ends. Each player scores 1 penalty point for each trick he/she has taken. Note down everyone's scores for the hand and start the next one by reshuffling and dealing the cards.
The End of the Game
Keep playing hands until at least one player has reached or exceeded a certain number of penalty points at the end of a hand:
- 3 or 4 players: 15 points
- 5 players: 12 points
- 6 players: 10 points
The player with the fewest points wins! If there is a tie, all tied players have won.