Headcount

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup for each round
4. Bidding
5. Counting
6. After a round
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

In Headcount everyone holds one card to their forehead, face outwards: you see everybody's card except your own. One more card lies face down in the middle, unseen by all. In turn, players bid on the total of all the cards – including their own and the hidden one – and each bid must be higher than the last. Instead of raising, you can call "Count!": all cards are revealed, and if the total is less than the last bid, the bidder loses; otherwise the caller loses. Whoever loses a round loses one of their three lives. The last player with lives left wins.

• Players: 3–6; best with 4–6.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck with one joker.

Headcount is our own adaptation for ordinary cards, inspired by Coyote (Spartaco Albertarelli, 2003). It has not been playtested in this form yet.

What is different from the original: only the material. The 17 playing cards have exactly the values of the current edition of the original; the "peek" cards become ordinary cards used as lives, and instead of a card stand you hold your card to your forehead.

Not the same as Indian Poker: there, you also can't see your own card, but everyone bets chips that their card is the highest. In Headcount there are no chips and no best card – every card, yours too, adds to one shared total, and you bid on that total as in a liar's-dice game.

The cards

Take these 17 cards out of the deck. Each has a value:

Life cards: each player also takes 3 cards from the unused clubs and diamonds. Lay two of them face up in front of you and one face down. Face-up life cards are open: you can use them to peek (see below). The other cards go back in the box.

Setup for each round

1. Shuffle the 17 cards and put them face down in the middle as the draw pile.
2. Everyone takes the top card without looking at it and holds it against their forehead, face outwards, so that everybody else can see it. (If that gets tiring, lean the card against a cup in front of you, facing the others.) Never look at your own card.
3. Put the next card face down in the middle, next to the draw pile, without looking at it: the hidden card.

The youngest player starts the first round.

Bidding

The start player looks at everybody else's card and bids a number: their guess of the total of all cards in play – everybody's cards, their own and the hidden card. Then, clockwise, each player in turn must do one of two things:

• Raise: bid any number higher than the last bid.
• Call "Count!" if you think the total is less than the last bid.

Bluffing is allowed and part of the game: you can bid high to push the next player into a bad spot.

Peeking: at the start of your turn, if you have an open life card, you may turn it face down and secretly look at the hidden card. After peeking, you must raise. The start player may not peek on their very first turn of a round.

Counting

When someone calls "Count!", put all the forehead cards face up on the table and turn over the hidden card. Then add up:

1. Mystery (joker): replace it with the top card of the draw pile and count that card instead.
2. Top to zero (A♠): the highest-valued card in play counts 0. Do this after the mystery card has been replaced.
3. Add up all the values.

• If the total is less than the last bid, the caller wins and the bidder loses.
• If the total is equal to or higher than the last bid, the bidder wins and the caller loses.

Example: Anna has the Q♥ (15) on her forehead, Ben the 7♥ (7), Carla the K♥ (20), Dan the 5♠ (−5); the hidden card is the 3♥ (3). Anna, the start player, sees 7 + 20 − 5 = 22 and bids 26. Ben sees 15 + 20 − 5 = 30 and bids 33. Carla sees only 17, but she can't be sure, and raises to 34. Dan sees 15 + 7 + 20 = 42 and bids 45. Anna thinks that is too much and calls "Count!". The total is 15 + 7 + 20 − 5 + 3 = 40, less than 45: Anna wins, Dan loses. Dan's own −5 was what hurt him.

Example: Had the hidden card been the A♠, the highest card in play – Carla's K♥ – would count 0, and the total would be only 15 + 7 + 0 − 5 = 17.

After a round

• The winner turns one face-down life card face up again, if they have one.
• The loser puts one of their life cards (open or not, their choice) back in the box. A player without any life cards left is out: they give back their forehead card, stay at the table to watch, and must not give anyone hints.

Shuffle all 17 cards for the next round. The loser starts it; if the loser is now out, the player to their left starts.

Winning the game

The game ends when only one player has life cards left. That player wins.

Tips for beginners

• Start from what you can see, then add an average card for your own and one for the hidden card – about 5 each.
• Watch the others' bids: a player who raises far above what you'd expect probably sees a high card on your forehead.
• The top-to-zero card and the mystery card make any total uncertain. If you can see the A♠ on someone's forehead, the highest card you see may count nothing.
• Save your peeks for when the hidden card really matters – and remember that after peeking you have to raise.
• Small raises keep you safe; big jumps put pressure on the next player.

Variants

• Trickster (from the original, without its extra card): each player starts with only one open and two face-down life cards. Before the cards are counted, all players except the caller and the last bidder point at the same time at the player they think will win. Everyone who guessed right turns a face-down life card face up; everyone who guessed wrong turns an open one face down.
• Double: earlier editions of the original had a card that doubles the total. Add a second joker that looks different from the first: if it is in play, double the total at the very end.