The Viashi Card Deck

Finance

Designed by my son Ben, this is a seriously mind-bending game. It has only had limited playtesting so far.

Choose a starting player. Players will alternate who goes first on subsequent hands. Shuffle the deck. For each hand deal both players 9 cards. Set the rest aside. Before each trick the player selects a card from their hand and sets it on the table. Then they pick up the card selected by the opposing player. Play the trick according to standard trick taking rules. (As is usual in Viashi card trick-taking games, if the a Queen(1) would normally take a trick and the Fool (9) of the same suit is in play, the Fool will take the trick instead.) God cards 1 through 5 are trump. God cards 6 through 9 are not trump, and are played as normal cards, but they do have special scoring rules.

The objective of each hand is to take four tricks, if possible. After the entire hand is played, if you have taken 4 tricks, that is worth 3 points. If you have taken 5 or 6 tricks, that's worth 2 points. And if you have taken 3 tricks, that is worth 1 point. If you take more than 6 or less than 3 tricks, you do not score for that hand. Any trick with the 6-9 of Gods doesn't count as a trick taken.

After the hand, set the cards taken in to a discard pile, and deal the new hands from the remaining cards (that were not dealt out earlier.) A 'set' is three hands, this will go through the deck once, and each card will have appeared in play once. After the set all the cards will be in this discard, which should then be shuffled and turned into the deal pile before starting the next set. A game is typically four sets, or 12 hands.

Sayings from Racciman's World
 
'Skill recognizes skill, and no trickery can hide its lack'
 
-- Prince Asond
 
 
Copyright © Michelle Bottorff

Email mbottorff at lshelby period com