Orbit

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. The task table
4. Setup
5. Choosing the tasks
6. Playing a trick
7. End of the mission
8. Talking and signals
9. A failed mission
10. Missions
11. Keeping score
12. Orbit for two
13. Mole mode
14. Tips for beginners
15. Variants

Overview

Orbit is a cooperative card game: all players form one team and win or lose together. It is a trick-taking game – everybody plays one card, the highest card wins all of them, and those cards together are called a trick. At the start of each round the team takes on a few tasks, such as "I win exactly two tricks" or "I win the 9♥". Each task belongs to one player, and every task must be fulfilled. The catch: you may not talk about your cards. Apart from one small signal per round, you have to read your teammates from the cards they play.

The game is played as a series of missions. The higher the mission number, the more difficult the tasks you have to take on. Failed missions are simply played again.

• Players: 2–5; best with 4. With two, a third hand is played in the open – see "Orbit for two".
• You need: two standard 52-card decks (ideally with different backs), one coin or small token per player, and paper and pencil for the score sheet.

Orbit is an original game written for this site, inspired by the cooperative card game The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. Its task table and missions are its own; the signal is borrowed from The Crew.

The cards

Play cards (deck 1). Take the Ace to 9 of each suit – that is A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 – and the four Kings: 40 cards. Put the 10s, Jacks, Queens and jokers of this deck back in the box.

• In each suit the Ace counts as 1 and is the lowest card; the 9 is the highest.
• The four Kings are trumps. A trump beats every ordinary card. The Kings are ranked K♣ (1) < K♦ (2) < K♥ (3) < K♠ (4). They do not belong to any suit – K♥ is not a heart.

Task cards (deck 2). The whole second deck without jokers – 52 cards – is the task deck. The rank of a task card says what the task is, the suit tells you which suit it is about (only for tasks that mention "this suit"). The task table below lists all tasks.

The task table

Each task has a difficulty (1 = easy, 3 = hard). "I" is the player who owns the task. "Cards" means the play cards in the tricks you win; Kings belong to no suit.

Example: The task card 6♥ means "I win no hearts". The task card 9♣ means "I win the trick that contains the 9♣". The task card 7♠ means "I win no tricks" – for the 7, the suit doesn't matter.

Task K is the trickiest: your Ace is the lowest card of its suit, so it can only win a trick if you lead it, nobody else has a card of that suit to follow with, and nobody plays a King.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal all 40 play cards, one at a time, face down: - 4 players: 10 cards each. - 5 players: 8 cards each. - 3 players: 13 cards each. The last card is laid face up in the middle and is out of play for this round.
2. Everybody picks up their cards and sorts them. Don't show them to anyone.
3. Whoever holds the K♠ is the pilot for this round and says so. (With 3 players, if the K♠ is the face-up card, the player holding the K♥ is pilot.)
4. The mission number gives the target: the total difficulty of the tasks you must take on (see "Missions" below).

Choosing the tasks

1. The pilot shuffles the task deck and turns up 6 task cards, face up in the middle.
2. Starting with the pilot and going clockwise (to the left), each player takes one of the face-up task cards and puts it in front of themselves. Keep a running total of the difficulties taken. If the target is not reached after one round, carry on around the table.
3. A card may only be taken if the total does not go above the target and the task is still possible – for you, judging by your own hand, and together with the tasks already taken. The K♠ holder can't take "no tricks", for example, and nobody can take a second "first trick". Taking is compulsory: the player whose turn it is may not pass. If no face-up card fits, turn up more cards until one does. If the task deck runs out and still no card fits, the attempt has failed – deal again.
4. Stop as soon as the total equals the target. Put the remaining task cards aside.

Some players may end up with several tasks, others with none. Choose by looking at your own hand – but in silence. Nobody may say "I can do that one" or "please don't give me that". With 3 players, a task naming the face-up card can't be taken; put it aside.

Example: Mission 7, so the target is 4. Anna is pilot and turns up 9♣, 2♥, 7♠, Q♦, J♥ and 3♠. Anna holds the K♠ and lots of high cards, so she takes the 2♥ ("exactly 2 tricks", difficulty 3): total 3. Only a difficulty-1 card still fits. Ben holds the K♥ and no clubs, so he takes the 9♣ ("win the 9♣"): total 4 – done. Carla and Dan have no tasks this time.

Playing a trick

The pilot leads (plays the first card of) the first trick. Then, clockwise, each player adds one card face up:

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit that was led, you must play one. If a King was led, you must play a King if you have one.
• If you can't follow, you may play any card – a King (to trump) or a card of another suit.

Who wins the trick? If any King was played, the highest King wins. Otherwise, the highest card of the suit that was led wins. Cards of other suits never win, however high they are.

The winner takes the trick, lays it face up in front of them (slightly overlapping the previous tricks, so everyone can count them and see which cards they hold) and leads the next trick.

Example: Ben has the task 9♣. Dan leads the 9♣. Anna follows with 2♣, Ben has no clubs and trumps with the K♥, Carla follows with 5♣. The K♥ is the only King, so Ben wins the trick – and with it the 9♣. His task is fulfilled.

End of the mission

Play until all cards have been played. Then check the tasks: if every task is fulfilled, the mission is a success. If even one task is not, the mission fails.

Often you notice earlier that a task can no longer be fulfilled – for example when the owner of "no tricks" wins a trick, or another player wins the card someone needed. Then the mission has failed and you can stop at once.

Some tasks are impossible from the start: whoever holds the K♠ always wins the trick they play it in, so they can't fulfil "no tricks" or "no King". That is why such a task may not be taken, nor one that contradicts a task already taken (a second "first trick", or "no tricks" and "the last trick" for the same player).

Talking and signals

During a mission you may not give any information about your cards: no hints, no "hmm", no pulling faces. You may talk about the rules, whose turn it is and the mission number. Between missions, talk as much as you like.

The only way to tell the team something is a signal. Each player may give one signal per mission:

1. You may signal only between tricks or before the first trick – never in the middle of a trick.
2. Take one card from your hand (not a King) and put it face up on the table in front of you.
3. Place your coin on it to say what it is: - coin on the top edge: this is my highest card of this suit, - coin in the middle: this is my only card of this suit, - coin on the bottom edge: this is my lowest card of this suit.
4. The statement must be true at that moment. If a card is none of these (for example the middle one of three), you can't signal it.

The card still belongs to your hand. It stays face up until you play it, and you play it normally whenever you like (following suit as usual). Once it has been played, turn your coin over: you have used your signal.

Example: Carla holds 2♥ and 8♥. She lays the 8♥ face up with her coin on the top edge: "the 8♥ is my highest heart". Now everybody knows that Carla does not have the 9♥ and that her other hearts are all lower. Later Dan lays his 4♣ face up with the coin in the middle: it is his only club. Once he has played it, everyone knows he can't follow clubs any more and may trump them with a King.

A failed mission

Example: Carla has the task "exactly 1 trick" and has already won one. Dan leads the 4♠. Anna plays the 6♠, Ben the 2♠. Carla's only spade is the 9♠ – she has to follow suit with it and wins her second trick. The mission fails. Had Carla signalled "9♠ – my only spade" earlier, Dan would have known better than to lead a spade.

Missions

Play the missions in order, starting with mission 1. Each deal is one attempt. If you succeed, write down the attempts and go on to the next mission. If you fail, collect all cards, shuffle and try the same mission again – with a new deal, possibly a new pilot and new tasks.

The target is half the mission number, rounded down, plus 1:

• Blackout: missions 5, 10, 15 and 20 are played without any signals.
• 5 players: with only 8 tricks each round, lower the target by 1 (but not below 1).
• After mission 20 you can go on with the same formula as long as you like.

Keeping score

Keep a sheet of paper with one line per mission: the mission number, the date and the number of attempts it took. After mission 20, add up all attempts – that is your team's score – the fewer, the better (20 is the best possible). Next time, try to beat it.

Orbit for two

With two players, a third hand joins the table: the autopilot. It has no brain of its own – the pilot plays its cards. The idea comes from The Crew, which two players play with a dummy called JARVIS.

1. Seats: the autopilot takes the third side of the table. Play goes clockwise: Anna, Ben, autopilot, Anna …
2. Dealing: take the K♠ out of the 40 play cards. Shuffle the other 39 and deal 7 cards face down in a row at the autopilot's place, then 7 cards face up, one on each of them. Shuffle the K♠ into the remaining 25 cards and deal 13 to each player. So the pilot – whoever holds the K♠ – is always one of you.
3. Tasks: the autopilot takes part in choosing tasks in its seat order. When it is its turn, the pilot chooses a task for it, judging by its face-up cards (or it takes none, if the target is already reached). Tasks that name "the player on my left" follow the seat order.
4. Playing the autopilot: when it is the autopilot's turn in a trick, the pilot plays one of its face-up cards. Only the face-up cards count for following suit: if one of them is of the suit led, one of those must be played. After the trick, turn up any face-down card that is no longer covered. If the autopilot wins a trick, the pilot leads the next one from its face-up cards.
5. The autopilot never signals. 13 tricks are played, as with three players, so the mission targets stay as they are; the autopilot's last card is not played.

Example: Ben holds the K♠ and is pilot. The autopilot shows 3♥, 8♥, 5♣, K♦, 2♠, 7♠ and 9♦. Diamonds are led: the autopilot's only face-up diamond is the 9♦, so Ben must play it for the autopilot – and it wins the trick. The card under the 9♦ is turned up after the trick, and Ben chooses the autopilot's lead from its seven face-up cards.

Mole mode

A variant for 4 or 5 players, inspired by Inside Job (Tanner Simmons, 2022): one of you is secretly a mole who wants the mission to fail – without being caught. Everyone else is crew.

1. Roles: from the cards of deck 1 that you don't play with, take one black Queen and one red 10, Jack or Queen for every other player. Shuffle these role cards and deal one to each player face down. Look at yours secretly and leave it face down in front of you. The black Queen makes you the mole; a red card makes you crew.
2. The mission: don't climb the mission ladder – choose one mission for the evening (mission 6, target 4, is a good start) and play it again with every deal. Tasks, tricks and signals work as usual. The mole takes tasks like anyone else.
3. The mole's freedom: the mole need not follow suit and may lie with their signal. But everyone sees what is played: whoever fails to follow a suit and later plays that very suit has given themselves away. Use it when it hurts most.
4. After the mission – played to the end, or stopped because a task can no longer be fulfilled: - Success: the crew wins. - Failure: talk it over freely, then on "three" everybody points at one player. If more than half of the players point at the mole, the mole is caught and the crew still wins. Otherwise the mole wins.
5. Score: turn up the role cards. When the crew wins, every crew member scores 1 point; when the mole wins, the mole scores 3. Play as many deals as there are players; the highest total wins.

Example: Five players, mission 6. Carla is the mole and has taken "I win no hearts". Early on she can't follow a heart lead and throws a club instead – although she holds the 8♥. Later Dan leads a heart, and Carla must now choose: follow with the 8♥ and give herself away, or refuse once more and hope that nobody is counting hearts. She plays the 8♥; the mission fails when Ben can't win his last trick, and four fingers point at Carla. The crew wins.

Tips for beginners

• Lead high to collect, lead low to give. To win a card you need, lead the highest card of that suit. To hand a trick to a teammate, lead low.
• Watch the face-up tricks. All won tricks are visible – count which high cards and Kings are already gone, and how many tricks everyone has.
• Take tasks your hand can control. "The first trick" is easy with the K♠, "no tricks" is easy with many low cards and no Kings, "the 9 of a suit" is easy if you hold it.
• Use your signal early – especially to show a dangerous only card or a highest card.
• Save your Kings. Trump only when the trick holds something you need – a careless King can wreck a teammate's task.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Task swap: once per mission, after the tasks are chosen and before the first trick, one player may put back one of their own tasks. Turn up task cards until one of the same difficulty appears; that player takes it. The attempt counts double on the score sheet.
• Free choice: turn up 8 task cards instead of 6.
• Hard mode: no signals at all in any mission.