Components
- 1 standard 52-card deck
- 4 six-sided dice per player
Setup
Give each player four dice and set them to 2, 3, 4, and 5 .
Choose a dealer. The player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick.
Deal all cards out as evenly as possible: 13 cards each with 4 players, or 17 cards each with 3 players. Set any undealt cards aside; they are not used this round.
Trump
The game lasts four rounds. Each suit is trump once, in this order:
- Hearts
- Diamonds
- Spades
- Clubs
Trump cards outrank all non-trump cards.
After each round, the dealer passes clockwise.
Playing a Trick
The leader plays any card face up.
Going clockwise, each other player must play a card whose suit has not already been played face up during that trick .
For example, if the led suit is Hearts, the next player clockwise may play any suit except Hearts. If that player plays a Spade, the next player may play anything except Hearts or Spades, and so on.
No Legal Suit
If you have no card belonging to a suit that has not already been played face up, choose any card from your hand and play it face down.
Face-down cards:
- have no suit or rank for the trick
- cannot manipulate dice
- always rank below face-up cards
Winning and Ranking the Trick
Rank all face-up cards as follows:
- Trump cards beat non-trump cards.
- Otherwise, the highest rank wins regardless of suit.
- Ace is high and 2 is low.
- If cards of equal rank are tied, the card played later ranks higher.
- Face-down cards rank below all face-up cards.
If multiple face-down cards need to be ordered, the later-played card ranks higher.
The player ranked first wins the trick and leads the next trick.
The Middle
The middle positions manipulate dice.
4 Players
The players finishing 2nd and 3rd in trick resolution must each manipulate one die using the suit of the card they played.
3 Players
The player finishing 2nd in trick resolution must manipulate one die using the suit of the card they played.
PIP Suit Powers
The suit of your own played card determines your action.
♥ Hearts — Increase
Increase one available die by 1. Maximum value: 6.
♦ Diamonds — Decrease
Decrease one available die by 1. Minimum value: 1.
♠ Spades — Flip
Flip one available die to its opposite value: 1 ↔ 6, 2 ↔ 5, or 3 ↔ 4.
♣ Clubs — Swap
Choose one available die and swap it with one die already used during the current cycle. The values of the dice do not change.
The previously used die becomes available again, and the chosen available die becomes used.
You may instead take no die action.
Using Dice
Whenever you manipulate a die with Hearts, Diamonds, or Spades, set that die aside as used.
You cannot manipulate that die again until every currently active die has been used once.
Once all active dice have been used, return them all to the available area and begin a new cycle.
Clubs may alter which dice are available by swapping an available die with a used die.
End of a Round
After all cards have been played, each player chooses one active die and locks it into their score.
A locked die:
- keeps its current value
- cannot be manipulated again
- cannot be swapped with Clubs
- remains visible for final scoring
The remaining dice carry their current values unchanged into the next round.
At the beginning of the next round, all remaining active dice become available again. This resets only which dice have been used during a manipulation cycle; the numbers showing on the dice do not reset or change.
This means players have:
- Round 1: 4 active dice
- Round 2: 3 active dice
- Round 3: 2 active dice
- Round 4: 1 active die
End of the Game
After Round 4, every player will have four locked scoring dice.
Add the values of your four dice. The player with the highest total wins.
Ties
If players are tied, compare their scoring dice in this order:
- Most 6s
- Most 5s
- Most 4s
- Most 3s
- Most 2s
- Most 1s
If still tied, share the victory.
Easier Start Variant
For a simpler opening position, each player may begin with all four dice set to 4, 4, 4, 4 .
All other rules remain unchanged.