Secret Trumps

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Goals
4. A round
5. Winning the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants

Overview

Secret Trumps is a trick-taking game in which you don't simply try to win many tricks. Each player has four goals – "no tricks", "exactly two tricks", "the last trick" and so on – and in every round tries to fulfil one of them. There is no deal: the cards lie face up in rows, and the players pick their hands one card at a time. The catch: only the start player knows which suit and which rank are trumps this round. After each row they tell you who would have won it as a trick, and you must work the trumps out from those hints. The first player to fulfil all four goals wins.

• Players: 3–4.
• You need: one standard deck with a joker, the Ace to 9 of one suit and a joker from a second deck, and paper and pencil for the goals.

Secret Trumps is our own adaptation for an ordinary deck, inspired by Was sticht? (designed by Schmiel, Moskito 1993). It has not been playtested yet.

What differs from the original: the original has its own cards (1 to 9 in four colours), cards for the trump colour and number, and 24 goal tiles. We use the Aces to 9s as the number cards, the four 10s and a joker to choose the trump suit, and ten cards of a second deck to choose the trump rank. Our goal list with eleven goals, each available twice, is our own; the original's 24 tiles use the same kinds of goals, but we don't know how many of each. We follow the later edition in 4 in 1, with four goals each.

The cards

• Number cards: the Ace to 9 of all four suits – 36 cards. The Ace counts 1 and is the lowest card, the 9 the highest.
• Trump-suit cards: the four 10s and a joker (joker = no trump suit).
• Trump-rank cards: from a second deck, the Ace to 9 of any one suit and a joker (joker = no trump rank). Only their ranks count.
• First-pick card: any spare card, e.g. a King.

The Jacks, Queens and other Kings stay in the box.

Goals

Write this list on a sheet of paper. Each goal can be taken by two players at most.

Choosing goals: choose a start player for the first round. They choose one goal and write it down next to their name, then the others follow clockwise, one goal at a time, until everyone has four different goals. Everyone can see everyone's goals.

A round

A round has four steps: pick cards, choose a goal, play the tricks, cross off goals.

1. Picking the cards

1. The start player shuffles the four 10s and the joker, and secretly looks at the bottom card: its suit is the trump suit this round (joker: no trump suit).
2. The same with the ten trump-rank cards: the bottom card's rank is the trump rank this round (joker: no trump rank).
3. The start player shuffles the 36 number cards and lays them face up in 9 rows of 4 cards. Only the start player knows the trumps.
4. The player to the start player's left takes the first-pick card. They take one card from the first row and lay it face up in front of them; then, clockwise, each of the others takes one card from that row.
5. The start player now looks at the four cards as if they were a trick led by the player with the first-pick card, and says who would have won it – nothing else, no reasons.
6. The first-pick card passes to the left, and the next row is picked the same way, until all nine rows are gone.

The start player picks cards too, just like everyone else. With 3 players, a row has only 3 cards: put the fourth card of each row aside face down; those nine cards take no part in the round.

Example: Anna is the start player; the trump suit is hearts and the trump rank 5. Ben has the first-pick card and takes the 7♠ from the first row. Carla takes the 6♥, Dan the 2♣ and Anna the 5♦. Anna says: "Ben led – I would have won." The others now know that the 5♦ must be a trump: either diamonds or 5s are trumps.

2. Choosing a goal

Everyone picks up their nine cards. The start player turns both small stacks over: now all know the trumps.

Every player except the start player secretly chooses one of their open goals and lays it face down (point at it on the sheet under your hand, or write it on a slip of paper). All reveal them at the same time.

The start player doesn't choose a goal. Instead they try to fulfil another player's goal that that player misses – and they don't have to say which one.

3. Playing the tricks

The player to the start player's left leads (plays the first card of) the first trick. Clockwise, everyone adds one card.

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit that was led, you must play one.
• A card of the trump rank is a trump and has no suit any more: you never have to follow suit with it, and it doesn't count as that suit when it is led.
• If a trump is led – of either kind – you must play a trump if you can.
• If you can't follow, you may play any card.

Which card wins? From the top:

1. The super trump – the card of the trump rank in the trump suit.
2. The other cards of the trump rank – all equal: the first one played wins.
3. The trump suit, 9 down to Ace.
4. If there is no trump in the trick: the highest card of the suit led.

Example: Hearts are trumps, the trump rank is 5. The 5♥ beats everything, then come the 5♠, 5♦ and 5♣ (the first one played wins), then 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ A♥.

The winner takes the trick face down and leads the next one. A round has nine tricks.

4. Crossing off goals

• Every player who fulfilled the goal they chose crosses it off.
• The start player may cross off one of their own goals – any one – if they fulfilled a goal that another player chose and missed. Even if they managed several, it is only one.

Then the player to the left becomes the new start player and the next round begins.

Example: Ben chose "Exactly 2 tricks" and took two: he crosses it off. Carla chose "No ♣" but got the 2♣ in a trick: she missed. Anna, the start player, took three tricks without a club – so she fulfilled Carla's goal, which Carla missed, and crosses off one of her own goals.

Winning the game

As soon as a player has crossed off all four goals at the end of a round, they win. If several players manage it in the same round, they share the victory.

Tips for beginners

• Take goals that go together. "No tricks" and "The fewest tricks" need the same kind of hand; so do "The most tricks" and "The last trick".
• Read the hints. Every "X would have won" rules out some trumps. If a low card beat a high one of the same suit, its rank or its suit is trumps.
• As start player, pick quietly. Don't grab all the trumps at once – the others watch what you take.
• Pick for your goals. Want no tricks? Take low cards and some of a single suit you can throw away. Want the last trick? Keep a high trump for the end.
• As start player, watch the others: choose the goal that someone is most likely to miss and that your hand can reach.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Five goals: as in the first edition (Moskito, 1993), everyone chooses five goals. The first edition also gave each goal a difficulty value, used to decide between players who finish in the same round; our list has no values, so you share the victory.
• Without a second deck: the start player secretly looks at the bottom card of the shuffled number cards; its rank is the trump rank (there is always one). Since that card is then laid out with the others, the start player simply names the trump rank after the picking.