Trick Raiders
Trick Raiders Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
Game cards: 52 cards [4 suits x 13 cards, 1-8, 9 (2), and 10 (3)]
Trump display card: 1 card
Summary: 1 card
Rulebook
Setup
8 "life chips" (6 for 3-player games) and 2 "bonus declaration tokens" (1 for 3-player games) are required separately. Obtain a way to keep score (poker chips, paper, etc.)
Deal 2 life chips to players. The Bonus Declaration Tokens are placed in the center. The game is played in 1-3 rounds. There are 2 phases: I. Declaration Phase and II. Trick Phase.
I. Declaration Phase
This is when playing with 4 players; the differences when playing with 3 players are described later.
Shuffle the 52 cards and deal 3 cards to each player. The three cards are placed face up in front of the players. These are called the "lead cards". Then deal 10 cards face down to each player. These are used as cards in hand (sometimes called "followers" in this game).
Each player looks at everyone's lead cards and their own cards and predicts in their mind how many times they are likely to be the leader (the player who starts the trick). "Tricks" and "lead" are described below. After the guesses are made, everyone calls out "Se-no!" and everyone performs one of the following A ~ C simultaneously.
A. Add to the lead cards
When a player thinks that they will be the leader four or more times, they reveal any number of cards from their hand and adds them to their lead cards. The number of lead cards declares the number of times the player will be the leader.
For example, if two cards are added as shown in the figure below, the player declares that they will be the leader a total of five times. Lead cards order does not matter, but they should be rearranged to make it easier for other players to see them.
B. Collect lead cards
If you think that the number of times you will be the leader is 2 or less, collect any number of cards from the lead cards and add them to your hand. For example, if you collect 2 cards, you declare that you will be the leader only once.
C. Do Nothing
If nothing is done, they declare they will be the leader 3 times. You cannot "collect" the lead cards and "add" to it at the same time. You can only do one of them at a time.
Aggressive and Passive Bonus
If there is a player who has 6 or more cards in their lead cards and has the most among all players (no ties), they receive a bonus declaration token (aggressive bonus declaration).
If there is only 1 player with no lead cards (that is, they took all the cards in the lead cards into their hand) also receives a bonus declaration token (passive bonus declaration).
Both Aggressive and Passive bonuses are displayed by taking tokens, but since the number of lead cards is different, there shouldn't be any confusion. Since both bids make it easy to be eliminated, you are rewarded handsomely for surviving. Each reward is described below.
II. Trick Phase
Let's start trick-taking! Trick-taking refers to a structure in which tricks (mini-game in which each person plays one card) are repeated over and over again.
The first card played in a trick is called the "lead" and the player is called the "leader". The I. declaration phase is to predict how many times the player will be the leader.
The first leader is the player with the most lead cards. If the number of cards is the same, the player with the smallest card in the lead cards is the leader, If that's the same, then the 2nd smallest card, and so on.
The leader always chooses one card from the lead cards and plays it. After that, the turns proceed clockwise. Everyone else must play a hand card that follows "Must Follow".
Must Follow
Players other than the leader must play a card from their hand that is the same suit as the lead (such as spades or diamonds) — this rule is called must follow. If they have no cards of the same suit in their hand, they can play any card from their hand.
Victory Judgment
Once all cards have been played, the player with the highest card of the lead suit wins the trick. A card with a different suit than the lead cannot win, no matter how big the card. However, spade cards are the "trump suit". Even if the trump card is a different suit than the lead, it wins no matter how small the number. Between trump cards, the higher number wins.
The winning player becomes the leader for the next trick. (Don't forget to play the card from the lead cards).
Other special rules concerning "Cancellation" and "Special Cards" are detailed at the end.
About Drop Out
Players who are in either of the following situations when their turn comes around "drop out" because they did not keep the declared number of wins.
A. You become the leader, but you have no lead cards
The player drops out because they cannot lead. The player to the left takes the lead instead by playing a card from their hand. Caution! This card is from your hand, NOT a lead card. This is a special case.
B. You are not the leader and have no more follow cards
You drop out because you can't play anything. Move on to the next player.
Even if you have 0 cards in your hand, you do not immediately drop out. It is only if you have 0 follow cards in hand and you must play a follow card that you must drop out.
The eliminated player immediately returns 1 life chip to the center, exits the round, and does not play any more cards. Continue the round with the remaining players.
An example of "Drop Out": 1) Leader drops out due to the lack of lead cards. 2) The player to the left of that player also drops out due to the lack of any follow cards. 3) This player leads this trick. Because 2 players "dropped out", after this trick, the round ends.
When there are 2 or more "dropouts", finish the trick and end the round. Even though each player has 13 total cards, playing 13 tricks is rare.
At the end of the round, surviving players have no benefit other than not having lost any lives. However, players who have made a "bonus declaration" and have successfully avoided dropping out will have "bonus declaration achieved" and will be rewarded.
Aggressive Bonus: All players other than yourself (dropped out or not) lose 1 life chip. Please return it to the center.
Passive Bonus: Increase your life chips by 1 (can be 3 or more). There is no extra penalty for failing to achieve this declaration (you would have lost a life chip if you did not achieve it).
Collect all the cards and return the bonus declaration token to the center. Shuffle the cards again, return to the I. Declaration Phase, and play another round.
End of Game
If someone has no life chips at the end of the round, the game is over. The player with the most life chips wins! In the event of a tie (which often happens), they share the victory. And above all, rejoice that you survived!
Special Rules for Trick Taking
Cancellation
When multiple cards of the same suit and the same value appear in a single trick, the cards cancel each other out and lose the right to win. For example, in the right figure, the trump card is originally strong, but the 9 of spades canceled each other, so the 7 of hearts wins.
4 Special Cards
The 4 special cards of 3 types each have the effect written at the bottom of the card when the trick is resolved.
8, 9 of Clubs: When you play this card and win the trick, the trump suit is forced to change. Since there are two cards, the first time it wins in a round, it goes from spades to hearts, and the second win it goes from hearts to diamonds. Display the "current trump card" as shown using the trump display card and the 8 or 9 of clubs. The trump suit returns to spade every new round.
5 of Diamonds: When you play this card and win the trick, take 1 life chip from another player with the most life chips. If multiple players have the same number, you can steal from the person you like. Even if you have the most, you steal from the other player who has the 2nd most. Because it may be played in the final trick of the round, please execute this card's effect after players have dropped out.
9 of Hearts: When you win a trick where this card is played, select one card from your lead cards, put it in your hand, and then play another card from your lead cards. In other words, the amount of lead cards becomes one less than declared. If you have only one lead card left, you will drop out because you will have no more lead cards after you place that lead card in your hand. If this card comes up in the last trick of the round, it has no effect as there is no next trick. Please note that this effect occurs even if someone other than the owner wins.
Detailed Rules and Advice
- Lead cards and hand cards are completely separate. Cards in the lead cards are not played to satisfy "must follow."
- Unlike a typical trick taker, you don't need to keep track of the tricks you won (your declaration is managed by the remaining lead cards). Just put all the played cards in a discard pile.
- Since multiple players can drop out at once during a single trick, there are times where a total of 4 players or more drop out. It's very rare, but it's possible for everyone to drop out at once (everyone has 1 life and loses it).
- There are 2 copies of 9 of hearts, one special and one normal. If both cards are played in the same trick, they will cancel out. However, the effect still happens at the end of the trick.
- If the winner of a trick cannot be determined because of cancellations, the leader wins.
- If no one drops out after completing all tricks, as a special rule, all players other than the winner of the final trick are "eliminated" and will lose 1 life chip.
- Even if your declaration doesn't really make sense with your hand, other players can drop out before you drop out. It is often better to focus on "getting the other 2 out of the game as quickly as possible" rather than meeting your declared bid.
- If you want to enjoy the game longer, you should set the initial life to "3" (I don't recommend it because it will be really long in a 3-player game).
Changes in 3-Player Games
- Remove 1 copy in each color of 1, 2, and 10 from the deck.
- From the remaining 40 cards, deal 4 lead cards and 9 hand cards (the 1 surplus card is not used in this round).
- The condition for aggressive bonus is "8 or more, most, only".
- There is no passive bonus. No reward for 0 lead cards.
- If there is even 1 dropout, finish the trick and end the round.