Stich-Meister Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Game Concept
• The Rule Cards
  • The Trump rule cards
  • The Basic rule cards
  • The Scoring rule cards
• Game Setup
• Sequence of a Round
  • 1. Selecting Rule Cards
  • 2. Determine Trump
  • 3. Trick-Taking
  • Who Wins the Trick?
  • 4. Scoring the Tricks
  • The Next Round
• End of the Game

Contents

• 60 Trick cards (4 suits — Fan, Coin, Koi and Torii — with values 1 to 15)
• 60 Rule cards (21 Trump rules, 19 Basic rules, 20 Scoring rules — numbered from 1 to 60)

Game Concept

At the start of every round, the players redefine the rules of play with their own Rule cards. Trumps are set anew, and Scoring rules decide the value of a trick. Even the Basic rules of the game are shaken up by the Rule cards.

Once the rules are fixed, the players play as many tricks as they hold cards in hand. At the end of the round, every trick that was won is scored. Whoever has gathered the most points after several rounds wins.

The Rule Cards

Each individual Rule card changes the rules in one respect. Trump is defined, and the scoring of tricks won is altered. The Basic rules of the game are affected as well.

The Trump rule cards

The Trump rule cards determine the trump suit and, with it, the trump cards (see "2. Determine Trump").

The Basic rule cards

A Basic rule card that is put into play supplements or replaces the corresponding Basic rule for the whole round. If several Basic rule cards are in play in one round, they are applied in order of their numbering.

The Scoring rule cards

Without Scoring rule cards, a trick is worth 1 point at the end of a round. Scoring rules that are played change the value of a trick, or bring extra plus or minus points for individual cards.

Game Setup

One player is named dealer for the first round. This office passes clockwise in the following rounds. The Rule cards and the Trick cards are shuffled separately from one another. Each player receives three Rule cards face down as a hand, and the rest is placed as a face-down draw pile within reach at the side.

The dealer deals out all the Trick cards evenly to the players.

Playing with 3 players: Before the game, the cards with the values 1, 10 and 13 (Samurai) are sorted out; they are not used when playing with three.

Sequence of a Round

As many rounds are played as there are players taking part. Each round runs in four steps:

1. Selecting Rule cards
2. Determine trump
3. Trick-taking
4. Scoring the tricks

1. Selecting Rule Cards

After the players have looked at their Trick cards, each of them must choose one of their Rule cards and place it face down in the middle of the table. The chosen Rule cards are shuffled, turned face up and read aloud. Rule cards that were not chosen stay with their players for the next round.

Playing with 3 players: In addition, the top Rule card of the draw pile is mixed in with the chosen cards and read aloud as well.

Playing with 5 players: The player to the left of the dealer does not choose a Rule card.

Tip: It is recommended to sort the revealed cards in the middle of the table by number.

The chosen Rule cards apply for the entire round, including scoring.

2. Determine Trump

The trump cards are set by the Trump rules. These can be card suits and card values. If no Trump rule cards were played, there is no trump suit in the current round.

Note: All trump cards together form the trump suit.

Examples:

• All cards with a 6 together form the trump suit.
• All Torii cards together form the trump suit, in which case the order runs from 15 (high) to 1 (low).

"Trick": Each player, in turn, plays one card into the middle of the table. These cards together are the "trick."

"Trump suit": All trump cards together form the trump suit. It beats every other card suit.

If several Trump rules are in play in one round, the ranking of the trump cards is determined as follows:

1. Trump cards that more of the Trump rules in play refer to are higher.
2. If a Trump rule card carries a lower number at its bottom edge, the trump cards that rule refers to are higher.

Example: Here is the ranking: Trump rule 3 refers to Koi-4; Trump rule 17 refers to all cards numbered 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 and 1.

The Koi-4 card is the highest in play, because two Trump rules refer to it. Next, tied with one another, come the other cards with a 4, because the rule that refers to them has a lower number. Finally come the remaining Koi cards from 15 down to 1.

3. Trick-Taking

If no Basic rule cards were played at the start of the round, the following rules apply to trick-taking. With Basic rule cards in play, the rules of the game change accordingly.

The player to the left of the dealer leads to the first trick. Going clockwise, each player plays one card face up into the middle of the table, and must follow the suit led, i.e. a player must play a card that has the suit of the first card played. If the suit led is the trump suit, it may be followed with any trump card.

If a player cannot follow suit, they must play any other card. This may also be a trump card.

Note: Cards of the trump suit can never be used to follow a different card suit.

Example: All cards with a 4 are trump this round. Anna plays Fan-6 as the first card of the trick. Bernd is next and holds Fan-4. He cannot follow suit with this card, because it is a trump card.

Who Wins the Trick?

A trick with trump cards in it is won by the highest trump card; a trick without trump cards is won by the highest card in the suit led.

Note: If two or more cards are equally high according to the rules, the one played later counts as higher.

Examples:

1. Trump rule No. 15 applies (all Coin cards). The following cards were played: Anna, Bernd, Claudia, Dirk. No trump card was played. So Dirk wins the trick with the highest card in the suit led, Fan-11.

2. Trump rules No. 5 (all cards with a 6) and No. 20 (all Torii cards) apply. The following cards were played: Dirk, Anna, Bernd, Claudia. The cards with a 6 are higher than the Torii cards, because the corresponding Trump rule card has a lower number. Claudia wins the trick with Koi-6; Anna's Fan-6 card is equally high, but Claudia played her card last.

The player who played the highest card into the trick places the trick face down in front of themselves. Tricks that are won must be kept separate from one another, so that it is recognizable how many tricks a player already has.

The winner of the last trick leads the first card for the next trick.

4. Scoring the Tricks

Once all tricks have been played and distributed, scoring takes place. Without further Scoring rules, every trick counts for 1 point. If Scoring rules were played for this round, they are resolved in order of their numbering (lowest first). The points for each player are recorded.

The Next Round

The Rule cards used this round leave the game. Each player fills their hand of Rule cards back up to three. The dealer's office passes clockwise to the next player, and the new round begins with dealing out the Trick cards.

End of the Game

As many rounds are played as there are players taking part. The player with the most points wins.

Tip: More examples of how the various Rule cards interact can be found on our homepage www.amigo-spiele.de under the product Stich-Meister.