Trick & Snipers
Trick & Snipers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Set Contents
- 48 cards in 4 different colors (suits)
Goal of the Game
Whoever scores 2 victory points first wins the game.
Setup
Shuffle the cards and deal them out in equal amounts according to the number of players. With 3 players, first remove all the 5s and 8s from the deck. Set aside the rest of the undealt cards, unseen, back in the box.
| Number of players | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cards removed | 5, 8 | – | – |
| Cards dealt to each player | 12 cards | 11 cards | 9 cards |
| Cards left over | 4 cards | 4 cards | 3 cards |
After picking up their cards, every player simultaneously chooses 4 cards from their hand and passes them face down, in secret, to the player on their left.
Decide who starts the game by some means.
How to Play
Starting with the starting player, each player plays one card in turn, proceeding clockwise.
You must follow suit if you can. If you have no card of the called suit, you may play any card.
Whoever plays the highest-value card of the called suit takes the trick. That player is the winner of the trick.
However, a victory point is only awarded for a trick that includes the taken 7, or for a sniped 13.
Sniped 13
If a player can bring the value of the current winning card of the trick up to exactly 13 by playing a card of a different suit, that player scores a victory point as a sniper. If more than one player does this in the same trick, the point goes to whoever played their card completing 13 later (last).
Taken 7
If a player takes a trick containing a 7, that player also scores 1 victory point – unless a sniped 13 steals the victory point away from them, since a sniped 13 beats a 7. In that case, no point is awarded for the taken 7. In other words, if someone snipes a 7, they still only score 1 victory point.
The winner of the trick places the cards they have taken in front of themselves:
- face up, in a pile, if they scored a victory point with it;
- face down, in a pile, if they did not.
In the next round, the winner of the trick becomes the one who leads (calls the suit) for the next trick.
End of the Game
Keep playing until someone scores 2 victory points. If your hands run out before anyone has scored 2 points, the player with 1 victory point who has won the most tricks wins the game.