Rage'n Glyphs

Summary of Play

Each player will be dealt a number of cards for each Hand, starting with 1 card and increasing by 1 every Hand. Each player bids the number of Tricks he thinks he will win this Hand. Each player in turn then lays down a single card into each Trick. The player who played the highest ranking card of the led suit (or the Trump suit) wins the Trick and takes the cards. After each Hand, points are given for Tricks won, with bonus points given for correctly predicting the number of Tricks won. The game ends after the maximum Hand size is reached, and the player with the highest score wins the game!

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Definitions

Trick = The cards on the table after each player has played a card.

Trump = The trump suit card determines which suit Trump is. Trump cards win Tricks over cards of other suits.

Follow Suit = Players must, if able, play a card that has the same suit as the first played card of the Trick.
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Rules of Play

1) Setup
A player is chosen as scorekeeper and writes the names of the players on the score sheet. He then shuffles the cards and deals 1 to each player, this is the first Hand. After each Hand, the player on the dealer's left becomes the new dealer. The stack of undealt cards are placed face down on the table, and the top card is flipped over and placed next to the pile. This is the Trump suit card, it determines the starting Trump suit for the current Hand. If a joker is turned over, continue turning over cards until a suited card is revealed. (In the extremely rare event all the undealt cards are jokers, hearts is the starting Trump suit.)

2) The Hands
In the first Hand, each player is dealt 1 card, giving 1 Trick available to win the first Hand. When a Hand is over, the cards are reshuffled and dealt, with each subsequent Hand increasing by 1 card. So, in the second Hand, each player is dealt 2 cards, giving 2 Tricks available. In the third Hand, each player is dealt 3 cards, giving 3 Tricks available. The maximum number of cards that can be dealt evenly to the players (while leaving at least 4 undealt for the Trump suit pile) will be the final Hand.

For example: With 9 players, the final Hand will have 10 cards apiece. There will also be 8 cards undealt, in a face down pile, to determine Trump.

3) Bidding
After the players have sorted their cards by suit and rank, each player considers how many Tricks he will win this Hand. Beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and continuing clockwise, each player states their bid prediction for the Hand. The scorekeeper notes the bids on the score sheet.

4) The Tricks
The player to the left of the dealer plays the first card in a Hand. Play continues clockwise, everyone playing a single card into the center of the table. If the led card has a suit, everyone must Follow Suit, if they can. If the first card (or cards) played is a joker, the first suited card played sets the suit and all remaining players must Follow Suit.
If a player does not have a card of the suit led, he may play anything he likes, including a Trump card, or a joker.

5) Jokers
When jokers are played, they modify the trump suit. Jokers cannot win a Trick, unless there is nothing but jokers in the Trick; in that case, the first played joker wins the Trick. There are two types of jokers—four with 2 dots and four with 4 dots.

When a joker with 2 dots is played, the trump suit changes immediately. Flip over the top undealt card until a different suit is revealed; this is the new trump suit. (In the unlikely event that there is not a different suit in the undealt card pile, or if the whole pile is flipped over, the trump suit changes to the next lower suit, ranked mushrooms, hearts, diamonds, clovers, crosses, horns.) This trump suit remains until the end of the Hand, or another joker is played.

When a joker with 4 dots is played, there is no trump suit immediately. Flip over the trump suit card so they are all facedown. Only the lead suit can win a trick. There will be no trump suit until the end of the Hand, or a 2-dot joker is played.

6) Winning the Trick
The player who played the highest card in the suit which led the Trick, will win the Trick, unless a card in the Trump suit is played. If a Trump card is played, it will win the trick. If several Trump cards are in the Trick, the highest ranking Trump card wins the Trick.

Each Trick won by a player should be placed in separate piles, so it is always known how many Tricks each player has won to this point.

The winner of a Trick opens the next Trick by playing a new card from their Hand. When each player has no more cards in their Hand, the Hand is over and points are scored.

7) Scoring
After a Hand is over, each player receives 1 point for each trick they won. They also receive 10 points if they correctly predicted the number of tricks they won, unless they bid 0. If they bid and won 0 tricks, they only receive 5 points. The total number of points is recorded on the score sheet.

Game End

The game ends after the largest Hand possible for that many players, leaving at least 4 cards undealt for the Trump suit pile. So, for 10 players, there will be 9 Hands—with the final Hand having 9 cards. 9 players, 10 Hands. 8 players, 11 Hands. 7 players, 13 Hands. 6 players, 15 Hands. 5 players, 18 Hands. 4 players, 23 Hands. 3 players, 32 Hands. (With smaller number of players, you may want to use the Skip Up variant below.)

After the final Hand is played and scored, the scores for all 10 Hands are added up. The player with the highest score is the winner!

If there is a tie, the player who scored the most points the final Hand wins. Still tied? Flip a coin for the winner!

Variants

Skip Up: For a shorter game, add 2 cards to each Hand. So, the first Hand will have 1 card, but the second will have 3 cards, the third Hand will have 5 cards, and so on. This is especially useful when playing with 5 or fewer players.

Hose the Dealer: The total number of bids may not equal the total number of Tricks available. For example, in the fifth Hand, with 5 Tricks available, the total number of bids by all players may not equal 5.

Hidden Bid: Every player records their bid on a piece of paper. When everyone has finished bidding, bids are announced and recorded by the scorekeeper. This keeps the bids unaffected by competitor's bids.

Secret Bids: Every player records their bid on a piece of paper. The bids are only revealed after the last Trick of the Hand is taken. Therefore, it is unclear during the Hand how many Tricks each player would like to win.

Shooting the Stars: If a player wins all the Tricks in a Hand, he receives 2 points for each Trick taken, instead of only 1. This includes the first Hand, with only 1 Trick available!