Four Fields

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. The season square
4. Setup
5. Playing a turn
6. Clearing a field
7. End of a round and scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Four Fields is a fishing game: you play cards from your hand to collect cards from the table, as in Casino and Scopa. The difference is that the table is split into four fields, and each field has a season. The season decides what you may do there: in Winter nothing can be harvested, in Spring nothing can be stockpiled, in Autumn nothing can be sown. Whenever someone plays a Jack, Queen, King or Ace, the seasons turn. At the end of each round you score for the most cards, the most hearts (Summer), the Aces and the coins you took for clearing a field – and you lose points for the most spades (Winter). The first player to reach 17 points wins.

• Players: 2–4, each playing for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, one coin (or chip) per player, a small square of paper (a sticky note or a beer mat will do) and paper and pencil for the scores.

Four Fields is our own adaptation for an ordinary deck, inspired by Illimat (Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis, Twogether Studios, 2017). It follows the original's beginner rules; the original's fifth suit (Stars) and its eight special Luminary cards are left out, and the choice of starting seasons is ours. It has not been playtested in this form yet.

The cards

Each suit stands for a season:

The cards count their number: 2 to 10 as shown, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13. An Ace counts 1 or 14 – whoever plays it, harvests it or builds with it chooses. Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces are the season cards: playing one of them turns the seasons (see below).

The season square

On one side of the paper square, write the four suit symbols along its four edges, going clockwise: ♥ ♦ ♠ ♣ (Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring). The square lies in the middle of the table, and each edge faces one of the four fields: the suit on that edge is the field's season. Summer and Winter are always opposite each other, and so are Spring and Autumn.

Turning the seasons: whenever you play a Jack, Queen, King or Ace from your hand into a field – whatever you do with it – turn the square so that the edge with that card's suit faces that field. All four seasons move together. The season that counts for your play is the one before the turn. A season card that is dealt into a field from the draw pile turns nothing.

Example: It is Summer in the top field. Anna sows the Q♠ into the top field. She turns the square so that its ♠ edge faces the top field: the top field is now Winter, the bottom field Summer, and the side fields have swapped Spring and Autumn.

Setup

1. Choose a dealer. Put the season square in the middle with its ♥ edge facing the dealer, and put one coin per player on it.
2. The dealer shuffles and deals 3 cards face up into each of the four fields: one field in front of the dealer, the others to the left, opposite and right of the square.
3. Then the dealer deals 4 cards face down to each player – but only 3 cards to the player on the dealer's left, who plays first.
4. The rest of the deck goes face down beside the fields as the draw pile.

Playing a turn

The player on the dealer's left starts; play goes clockwise. On your turn, play exactly one card from your hand into one field and do one of three things with it – as long as the field's season allows it:

Sow

Lay your card face up in the field. That's all. A field can hold any number of cards. Not allowed in Autumn.

Harvest

Play a card and take from the same field every card and every group of cards you like whose value matches your card: single cards of the same value, and groups of cards that add up to it. Each card can only be used once. Put the cards you took and the card you played face down in front of you: this is your harvest pile. Not allowed in Winter.

Example: The field holds 5♣, 3♥, 2♦ and 9♠. Ben plays the 5♦ and harvests the 5♣ and, as a group, 3♥ + 2♦. The 9♠ stays. Ben puts four cards on his harvest pile.

An Ace can harvest as 1 or as 14. A stockpile (see below) can only be harvested whole, with a card of exactly its value.

Stockpile

A stockpile ties cards together so that they can only be harvested as one unit – usually because you want to harvest it on your next turn. Not allowed in Spring. To stockpile, you need two cards in your hand: one you play, and one you keep that has the value of the stockpile. You must not play that second card this turn.

• Adding up: play a card onto one or more cards of the field so that together they make the value of the card you keep. Put them in one pile. Its value is the total. Example: you hold 3♣ and 8♦; the field has a 5♥. Play the 3♣ onto the 5♥: a stockpile of 8.
• Matching: play a card that, alone or with field cards, makes the value of the card you keep, and put it together with other cards or groups of that same value from the field. Lay one card of that value crosswise on top to show the value. Example: you hold 3♣ and 5♦; the field has 2♥ and 5♠. Play the 3♣ with the 2♥ (together 5) onto the 5♠: a stockpile of two 5s, value 5.

A stockpile can never be split up. On a later turn any player may harvest it with a card of exactly its value – or build on it: an adding-up stockpile can be raised to a new value that the builder holds (by playing a card onto it, possibly with more field cards), a matching stockpile can only take more cards or groups of its own value. The highest possible value is 14. If an Ace is used in a stockpile, the builder says whether it counts 1 or 14.

Drawing up

After your play, draw from the draw pile until you have 4 cards again. When the draw pile runs out, keep playing the cards in your hands.

Every turn is possible

You can always sow into one of the three fields that aren't Autumn, so there is always a legal play.

Clearing a field

If you take the last card of a field, first draw up, then:

1. If there is still a coin on the season square, take one. Each coin is worth 1 point at the end of the round.
2. If there was a coin on the square at the start of your turn and the draw pile still holds at least 3 cards, reseed the field: deal 3 new cards face up into it. Otherwise the field stays empty until someone sows into it.

End of a round and scoring

The round ends when the draw pile is empty and everybody has played all their cards. Cards still lying in the fields are put aside; nobody gets them. Then everybody counts their harvest pile:

• Ties: if players tie for the most cards or the most hearts, the tied player with more coins gets the points. If they tie for the most spades, the tied player with fewer coins loses the 2 points. If the coins are tied too, nobody gets (or loses) those points.
• Frost can't take your total below 0.

Example (3 players): Anna has 18 cards with 5 hearts and 7 spades, 2 Aces and 1 coin. Ben has 14 cards with 6 hearts and 4 spades, 1 Ace and 2 coins. Carla has 12 cards with 2 hearts and 2 spades, 1 Ace and no coin. Anna scores 2 + 1 + 4 (most cards) − 2 (most spades) = 5 points, Ben 1 + 2 + 2 (most hearts) = 5, Carla 1.

The player on the dealer's left deals the next round. Put the coins back on the square and turn it so that its ♥ edge faces the new dealer.

Winning the game

The game ends after the round in which somebody reaches 17 points or more. The highest total wins. If players are tied, the one with more coins in the last round wins, then the one with more Aces in the last round; if still tied, they share the victory.

Tips for beginners

• Aces are points. They are the only cards worth a point each – take them whenever you can, or stockpile them into a value nobody else can harvest.
• Watch the spades. If you are already sure to have the most spades, take as many cards as you can: you may still win the bumper crop.
• Turn Winter onto danger. If an opponent has built a stockpile you can't take, play a spade season card into that field: in Winter nobody can harvest it.
• A stockpile tells a story. Whoever builds an 8 holds an 8. Remember it.
• Clear fields early, while there are coins on the square – later, clearing gives you nothing and the field lies empty.

Variants

• Full harvest (from the original's variants): instead of one card, you may harvest with four cards from your hand whose total matches one single card in the field; then harvest as if you had played one card of that value.
• A joker as the sun: instead of the paper square, lay a joker in the middle with its top pointing at the Summer field. Going clockwise from Summer, the other fields are Autumn, Winter (opposite) and Spring. To turn the seasons, point the joker at the field that must now be Summer.