Tricks Together

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Cards and tricks
3. The rounds
4. Setup of a round
5. Committing to a number
6. Playing
7. End of a round
8. Winning the game
9. Difficulty levels
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Tricks Together is a light cooperative trick-taking game: all players form one team and win or lose together. In every round, each player commits to a number of tricks they will win – and the round is only a success if everybody wins exactly their number, no more and no fewer. You may not talk about your cards, so you have to help each other through the cards you play. The rounds get longer and longer: start with one card each and climb up to seven.

• Players: 3–5; best with 4.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers and 3–4 coins as lives.

Tricks Together is a new game written for this site and not yet playtested. It turns the bidding game Oh Hell! into a team game; if you like it, try Orbit, our bigger cooperative trick-taking game.

Cards and tricks

In each suit the cards rank from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

A trick is one round of play in which every player puts down one card, one after the other, clockwise. The first player leads – plays any card. The others must follow suit: play a card of the suit that was led if they have one. If you have none, you may play any card.

In every round one suit is trumps. A trump beats every card of the other suits. The trick is won by the highest trump in it – or, if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit led. The winner puts the trick face down in front of them (keep your tricks apart, so everyone can count them) and leads the next trick.

The rounds

The game is a climb through seven rounds. In round 1 everyone gets 1 card, in round 2 2 cards, and so on up to 7 cards in round 7. Clear round 7 and the team has won.

The team starts with 3 lives (coins). A failed round costs one life, and you play the same round again with a new deal. If you have to lose a life and none is left, the game is over.

Setup of a round

1. Dealer: for the first round anyone deals. After every round – won or lost – the deal passes one player to the left.
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles and deals the round's number of cards to everybody, one at a time, face down.
3. Trumps: the dealer turns up the next card of the pack. Its suit is trumps for this round. The rest of the pack isn't used in this round.

Committing to a number

Look at your cards. Everybody except the dealer now chooses how many tricks they will win – any number from 0 up to the number of cards in the round. Don't say it yet.

When everyone has decided, count "three, two, one" and all show your number at the same time with your fingers (a closed fist is 0). Remember the numbers.

The dealer doesn't choose: the dealer must win exactly the tricks that are left – the number of cards in the round minus the total of the others.

• If the others' total is more than the number of cards, the round has already failed: lose a life and deal again (the next player deals).

Example: Round 3, four players. Anna deals and turns up the 9♠: spades are trumps. Ben shows 1, Carla 0 and Dan 1. That makes 2, so Anna must win exactly 3 − 2 = 1 trick.

Playing

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick. Play all the cards of the round as described above.

During the round you may not say anything about your cards or about how to play: no "I'll take this one", no "don't lead hearts", no groaning. You may talk about the rules, the numbers everyone committed to and how many tricks everybody has already won.

If someone wins a trick too many, or can no longer reach their number because too few tricks are left, the round has failed – you may stop at once.

Example (continued): Anna holds A♥ 7♣ 4♦, Ben K♠ 10♥ 3♣, Carla 5♥ 2♦ 6♣, Dan Q♦ 8♣ 2♠.

Trick 1: Ben leads the 3♣, Carla plays the 6♣, Dan the 8♣, Anna the 7♣. Dan's 8♣ wins – that is Dan's one trick.

Trick 2: Dan now wants to lose, so he leads his low trump, the 2♠. Anna has no spades and throws away the 4♦, Ben takes the trick with the K♠, Carla throws away the 2♦. Ben has his trick.

Trick 3: Ben leads the 10♥, Carla follows with the 5♥, Dan has no hearts and plays the Q♦, and Anna wins with the A♥. Ben 1, Carla 0, Dan 1, Anna 1 – everyone hit their number, and the team moves on to round 4.

End of a round

• Success: everybody won exactly their number. Move on to the next round.
• Failure: at least one player missed. The team loses one life and plays the same round again.

Winning the game

The team wins when it succeeds in round 7. Your score is the number of lives you have left – try to win without losing a single life. If you run out of lives, the round you were stuck on is your score for the day: next time, climb higher.

Difficulty levels

Secret numbers: keep your number in your head. At the end of the round everybody says their number at the same time. Since the dealer takes whatever is left, the dealer never knows their own number – they just help. The round fails if anyone missed, or if the others' numbers add up to more than the number of cards.

Tips for beginners

• Zero is safe to choose, hard to play. With low cards a 0 is easy, but an unlucky trump card can force you to win a trick.
• The dealer is the team's buffer. Choose carefully – if everybody chooses low, the dealer has to win a lot of tricks.
• Lead low to give tricks away, lead high to take one – and watch who can still follow suit.
• Players who have reached their number want to lose. Give them the chance to throw away their high cards.
• Count the trumps. A trump that falls where nobody needs a trick can ruin a round.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Long climb: with 3 or 4 players, go on up to 10 cards.
• Up and down: after round 7 go back down to 1 card, as in Oh Hell! – 13 rounds in all.
• No trumps: in rounds with an odd number of cards, play without trumps (still turn up a card, but ignore its suit).