Wizards and Jesters

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Tricks and trumps
4. Setup
5. Bidding
6. Playing the round
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Wizards and Jesters is a trick-taking game with predictions. Everybody plays one card, and the best card wins all of them – those cards together are a trick. Before each round, every player bids: they say exactly how many tricks they will win. Hit your bid exactly and you score well; one trick too many or too few costs points.

The game runs over many rounds. In round 1 everybody gets one card, in round 2 two cards, and so on, as far as the deck lasts (see the table under Setup). Four special cards always win a trick – the Wizards – and four always lose – the Jesters. They make every hand, even a hand of one card, a small puzzle.

• Players: 3–6 (best with 4–5).
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pencil (or the score pad) for the scores.

Wizards and Jesters is our own adaptation for an ordinary deck, inspired by Wizard (Ken Fisher, K. Fisher Enterprises, 1984; in Germany Amigo, 1996).

What differs from the original: only the deck. The original adds eight special cards to the 52; here the Aces become the Wizards and the 2s the Jesters, so each suit has only 11 cards (3 to K) and there are fewer rounds – 13 instead of 15 with four players. Because of that, the last round usually still has a card left to turn for trumps, while in the original the last round is always played without trumps. Bidding, play and scoring are unchanged.

If you know Oh Hell!: the bidding is the same, but here the hand size only goes up, anyone may bid anything (there is no "hook" for the dealer), missed bids cost minus points, and the Aces and 2s have become Wizards and Jesters. The Oh Hell! page has a lighter Wizard-style variant with two jokers of each kind; this game is the full version with four of each, played with a single deck.

The cards

• Wizards and Jesters have no suit. The A♥ is not a heart and the 2♣ is not a club – the suit symbol on them means nothing.
• A Wizard or a Jester may be played at any time, even when you could follow suit.

Tricks and trumps

In a trick, the first player leads (plays any card). Then, clockwise, everyone adds one card.

• Follow suit: if you hold a suit card of the suit that was led, you must play one – or a Wizard or Jester instead.
• If you have no card of that suit, you may play any card.

In most rounds one suit is trumps. A trump beats every card of the other suits.

Who wins the trick?

1. If any Wizard was played, the first Wizard wins.
2. Otherwise the highest trump wins.
3. Otherwise the highest card of the suit led wins.
4. If the trick is only Jesters, the first Jester wins.

Special leads:

• A Wizard is led: it wins whatever happens, so everyone may play any card.
• A Jester is led: the first suit card played after it sets the suit that must be followed. If a Wizard comes before any suit card, there is nothing to follow – everyone may play anything.

Setup

1. First dealer: anyone; afterwards the deal passes one player to the left (clockwise) each round.
2. Number of rounds: round 1 has 1 card each, round 2 has 2 cards each, and so on:

3. Deal: the dealer shuffles the whole deck and deals the round's number of cards to each player, one at a time, face down, starting on their left.
4. Trumps: the dealer turns the next card of the pack face up. - A suit card: its suit is trumps for this round. - A Jester (2): no trumps this round. - A Wizard (A): the dealer looks at their hand and chooses the trump suit. - No card left (the last round with 4 players): no trumps.

The rest of the pack is not used in this round.

Bidding

Look at your cards. Starting with the player to the dealer's left and going clockwise, each player says how many tricks they will win – from 0 up to the number of cards in hand. The dealer bids last. Write all the bids down.

Any bid is allowed. The bids may add up to exactly the number of tricks, to more or to less.

Playing the round

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick. The winner of each trick lays it face down in front of them (keep tricks separate, so they are easy to count) and leads the next one. Everyone holds the same number of cards, so all hands run out together: the round ends after the last trick, and then it is scored.

Scoring

So a correct bid of 0 scores 20, a correct bid of 3 scores 50. Bidding 2 and winning 4 scores −20. Scores can go below zero.

Example: Round 3, four players. Dan deals three cards each and turns the 8♥: hearts are trumps. Anna bids 1, Ben 0, Carla 2, Dan 1 – four tricks wanted, only three to win.

Trick 1: Anna leads the 9♠. Ben holds the J♠, but he doesn't want a trick, so he plays his 2♦ – a Jester, allowed at any time. Carla follows with the Q♠. Dan has no spades and trumps with the 4♥. No Wizard, one trump: Dan wins.

Trick 2: Dan leads the A♣ – a Wizard – and wins it at once. Now he has 2 tricks, one more than his bid.

Trick 3: Dan leads the 6♦. Anna plays K♦, Ben has no diamonds and throws away his J♠, Carla plays 10♦. Anna wins with the K♦.

Scores: Anna bid 1, won 1: 30. Ben bid 0, won 0: 20. Carla bid 2, won 0: −20. Dan bid 1, won 2: −10.

Winning the game

After the last round, the player with the most points wins. If players tie, they share the win.

Tips for beginners

• Count your sure tricks. Each Wizard is one certain trick. High trumps are nearly as safe; a King of a side suit often isn't, because someone may trump it.
• Jesters are escape hatches. A Jester lets you duck a trick you don't want, even if you could follow suit. Save one for the end, when you might otherwise be forced to win.
• Watch the total. If the bids add up to more than the number of tricks, the fight will be hard; if they add up to less, someone will get a trick they don't want.
• Round 1 is a guess – but a Wizard is a sure 1 and a Jester a sure 0.
• Remember the Wizards. Once all four Aces have been played, a high trump is safe.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Hook: as in Oh Hell!, the dealer may not bid the number that makes the bids add up exactly to the number of tricks – so at least one player always misses.
• Hidden bids: everybody writes their bid secretly, then all bids are revealed together.
• Fixed trumps: in the last round, when no card is left to turn, the dealer chooses trumps after looking at their hand instead of playing without.