Trick-taking

TRICKTAKERs is a...trick-taking game featuring role selection. After being dealt a hand of cards, the players choose from various characters (such as King or Gambler) that change how they will participate in the game.

The basic game consists of three rounds of trick-taking, and the winner will be the person that wins the most tricks in two of the three rounds. Alternatively, if no one achieves that condition, if a player has taken no tricks in all three rounds, they will be the winner.

Not mentioned above, the game also has a higher priority victory condition and a lower one. Each character in the game grants the player holding it a special "immediate victory" condition that could be achieved. The characters also give the players ways to earn points, and this is the lowest tier of victory determination: who has the most points.

To illustrate some of the character abilities, the Gambler can discard cards from the initial hand to draw replacements, and will bid for how many tricks they take, possibly granting them extra points if successful. The Resistance has the potential to cause a "revolution" which reverses the strength of the ranks, and earns more points if they can win tricks with what would normally be the "high" cards.

In Lindyhop, a co-operative trick-taking game about swing dancing, players start by dealing out the music cards to create the song to which they will dance. Players then play tricks as dance moves to progress through the song, picking up points as they go. Some of the cards have powers, but these powers activate only on specific parts of the music — and you can't discuss what each player has in their hand. Try to beat your score each dance, but if you run out of dance cards before the music finishes, you score nothing!

—description from the publisher

In the trick-taking game Seas of Strife, formerly Texas Showdown, originally published as Strife, you want to avoid taking tricks as skillfully as you can, but playing off-suit might not keep you safe as the suit can change during the trick, possibly stinging you in the end.

Before play, all the cards are distributed evenly among the players. Once a player leads a single card for the first trick, all other players must play a card of the same suit, if possible. If a player can't play on suit, they can play a card of any color — but after they do this, all subsequent players can play a card of either matching color (or possibly a third color if they have neither of the first two).

Once all players have played to the trick, you see which color has been played most frequently in the trick. Whoever played the highest card of this color wins the trick. If two or more colors are tied, then the highest card counts as the winner.

You play several rounds until someone reaches the target number of tricks taken. At that point, whoever has captured the fewest tricks wins!

The card game Velonimo allows you to depict the merciless struggle in the animal world for the distinctive and highly prized "petits pois-carottes" jersey rewarded to the best climbing cyclist. This trick taking game features ultra simple rules for an absolutely addictive play experience.

Goal of the Game: Race to the summit to score as many points as possible and win the covered jersey. To win a race, you must be the first player to get rid of all your cards. Racer cards may be played alone or in specific combinations of the same color or same value. There are also breakaway specialist cards which work alone to speed ahead of the pack.

Victory: The game has 5 rounds, each representing the ascent of a different mountain summit by riders in a cycling race. To win the round, yo need to get rid of all of your cards before any other player. Even if you are not the winner, you can still score points for your position. Keep playing until there is only one player left. At the end of each round, the player with the highest points total is the leader and received the coveted jersey. The player who receives the jersey at the end of the last round, after the final scoring, is the winner.

Dragons compete in a variety of ways, but one of their favorite ways to compete is by playing trick-taking games.

In Wicked & Wise, players are either the dragons who are playing a trick-taking game OR they're a mouse allied with a particular dragon to help manipulate the trick-taking game. Over the course of three rounds, each team of mouse and dragon fight over tricks, treasures, and coins to see which team ends up on top!

The game isn't all about winning tricks; it's about setting goals and utilizing magical treasures. If you can make enough of your goals or sabotage enough of the other team's goals, you'll have the most coins at the end of the game and be crowned king of the caves!

—description from the publisher