Include 1 suit (all cards 1-9 of one color) per player. Pick anyone to be the Kittykeeper ( = start player). That’s it!
The game ends when a player reaches 9(+) lives. The player with the most lives wins.
Play happens in rounds. Each round has three steps: bidding, playing, scoring.
Shuffle the deck and deal as fairly as possible. (You might have a few cards left over in some rounds. Reveal them, but don’t use them.)
At the start of each round, everyone secretly places a bid. Simultaneously, all players take a card from their hand and place it facedown in front of them. The number on that card indicates how many “tricks” you expect to win.
Once done, reveal all the bids. Any players who bid the same suit are—for this round only—in the same “team”.
This is a trick-taking game with a twist. You keep playing “tricks” until all players are out of cards.
So how does a trick work?
The Kittykeeper starts by playing any card they want.
- The suit of their played card is called the leading suit.
- The suit of their bid card is the trump.
Then take clockwise turns around the table. On your turn, play one card from your hand. If possible, match the leading suit. Otherwise, play anything.
Once everybody has played, check who won this trick.
- If a trump was played, the highest trump wins.
- Otherwise, the highest card in the leading suit wins.
Now comes the biggest twist of this game.
- If a player played a card in the same suit as their own bid, that card is ignored. Pretend it doesn’t exist.
- If all cards in a trick are ignored in this way, the Kittykeeper wins.
The winner receives the trick and places it facedown before them (to track how many you’ve won). They become the new Kittykeeper.
Once you’ve played all the tricks, scoring happens.
If you won exactly as many tricks as you bid, score your bid card! (Add it facedown to a pile that represents your lives.)
If you were in a team, you also score if you collectively scored the correct amount.
EXAMPLE: A and B are teamed. A bid 2, B bid 3. But at the end of the round, A has won 5 tricks and B has won 0. They’re still both allowed to score, because together they’ve scored the right amount (2 + 3 = 5 + 0).
If this causes somebody to have 9 (or more) lives, the game ends here. Otherwise, play the next round!
You might have noticed that there are powers on the cards. These can be ignored for your first few games. Once you’re familiar with trick-taking, however, it’s highly recommended to add the rules below.
Your “bid” card starts a faceup row in front of you.
- If you win a trick, pick one of its cards and place it in this row. (The other cards are discarded.)
- Your current “bid” is always the left-most card of this row. (So yes, your bid might change during the game.)
On each turn, you may
- Discard one card from your row …
- … to execute the power written on it!
- However, only one power may be used per trick (in total).
Powers are executed before playing your card for this trick. Unless the power specifically states some other moment at which it triggers.
Powers only apply to the remainder of the current trick. If multiple powers contradict each other, the last one played overrides the others.
This is a variant you can try. The black suit (“crowns”) is a wildcard and an inverter.
- When played, it’s any suit you want it to be. (You declare the correct suit after playing it.)
- It can never be your bid card.
- If any black cat is played, the lowest number wins this trick (instead of the highest).