Trickdraw
Trickdraw Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- This instructional guide.
- 72 total cards
- HFB Booster Pack containing: Volume II House, Volume II Fish, Volume III Baloon
Getting Started (First Playthrough)
If your group prefers to learn by playing, this page should be enough to get started. The rest of the rulebook clarifies and expands upon what is outlined here. Feel free to use it more as a reference to answer further questions.
Set Up
Shuffle the deck and place it in the center of the table. Deal each player 2 cards. Crack open your pack of HFB Cards and play a round to determine who plays first in Trickdraw!
Gameplay
Each turn, draw a card from the deck. Then, you may play a card from your hand to the board in front of you, in two different ways:
- Face down as 1 point.
- Face up to activate its effect.
Flipping Cards
Some cards allow you to flip cards. Whenever one of your cards is flipped face up, activate it immediately. If your card is flipped face down, it is now worth 1 point.
Discard 1
Some cards tell you to Discard 1. To activate them, discard a card from your hand to the center of the table into a communal discard pile. They are activated when you play them from your hand, when they are flipped face up, or in some cases once per turn (the card must say so).
Winning the Game
The first player to get 10 points wins the game.
Board Set Up
- Place the Deck in the center of the table, easily accessible by all players. The Discard Pile is also in the center.
- Deal each player 2 cards (Player Hands).
- Player Board contains both face up and face down cards. Make sure each player has enough space in front of them for their cards.
Two Player Set Up
Remove the 5 copies of "Trickdraw" before shuffling the Deck. Player Two should be dealt an extra card (3 instead of 2) before the game. All other rules remain the same.
Turn Overview
Always draw a card from the Deck to start your turn.
After drawing, in any order, you may:
- Play 1 card from your hand face up or face down to the board in front of you.
- Activate any number of cards in front of you that allow you to do something once per turn.
Finally, pass your turn. Play continues clockwise.
Playing Cards
Cards can be played face up or face down to the board in front of you in a row so they are easy to read by all players. Once they've been played, don't rearrange them – part of the fun of Trickdraw comes in trying to remember where your opponents' cards have been played!
When you play a card face up, you may activate its effect. If it has a Discard 1 cost, you must discard a card from your hand to the central discard pile in order to activate it.
When you play a card face down, it is worth 1 point. You can always look at your own face down cards to remember what they are.
Flipping Cards
When you flip a card face down, it is now worth 1 point, same as if it had been played face down to begin with.
When you flip a card face up, the player controlling the card may immediately activate that card's effect, as if it had just been played from their hand.
For example, Bewitched is used on the following boards: (Their Board / Your Board). Bewitched targets 2 players. You choose you and an opponent.
- You flip 'The Treasure' face down, giving them 1 point, but at least they can't win next turn!
- You flip your face down 'Rally' to be face up. You have 2 Rallies + 1 face down card = 5 total points!
Note on Card Flipping
Since cards enter play before they activate their effect, all cards can target themselves (except The Army, which specifies this).
Discarding Cards
Some cards say Discard 1: and include an effect. Simply discard a card from your hand to the discard pile to activate the effect. When a face down Discard 1 card is flipped face up, the player controlling the card must Discard 1 to activate the effect. As with all cards that are played from hand or flipped face up, the card's controller may decline, neither activating the effect nor discarding.
Some cards have effects that can be used once per turn. If you have multiple copies of the same card, you can activate each card's effect once per turn.
'Diplomacy' reduces the cost of discarding by 1. This happens each time you would discard, as many times per turn as you are able to do so. On their own, none of these four cards are too powerful, but when used together they can become devastating, so watch out!
Winning the Game
The first player with 10 points (or more) wins the game. It does not need to be that player's turn for them to win. The most common way for this to happen is if a point-giving card such as 'Local Hero' is flipped face up by mistake.
Example: 2 Rallies (4 points) + 4 face down cards + Local Hero (3 points) = 11 points. More than enough to win!
All cards are worth 1 point face down, but these cards can give you points while face up:
- Rallies are worth 1 point for each Rally you control: 1 Rally = 1 point; 2 Rallies = 4 points; 3 Rallies = 9 points; 4 Rallies = 16 points.
- Local Heros are worth 3 points when OVER half of your cards are face down. Otherwise, nothing.
The Key, The Safe, and The Temple
Any combination of two of these cards face up in front of you immediately wins you the game!
6 Players or More
Trickdraw's 72-card deck is intended for 2-5 players, but the game was designed to be played with as many friends as you want. To that end, we recommend combining two decks together for 6-10 players.
Additionally, you can play in teams for high player counts (8-10). Team members should alternate around the table, such that each team takes 1 turn before any other team takes an extra turn. Pairs of 2, 3, or 4 all work (creating a 2v2v2v2 or 4v4 with 8 players, 3v3v3 with 9 players, or 2v2v2v2v2 with 10 players). In team games, each team should choose a team captain and play all cards to that one player's board.
Finally, the 10 point win condition was specifically designed for 2-5 players. Your group may prefer greater or fewer points, or changing it up from game to game. Go for it! Especially for 6-10 player games (without teams), 10 points can feel like too many. Experiment with different numbers to fit your group.