Fortey-One

Hey there! Let me tell you about an awesome card game called Fortey-One. It’s a super fun game for four players, and it’s all about strategy and teamwork. Here’s how it works:

In Fortey-One, we form two teams of two players each. You sit opposite your teammate, and together, you’ll try to outsmart the other team. But here’s the cool part: even though it’s a partnership game, we also keep score individually and make our own bids!

The objective of the game is to be the first team to reach 41 points. Sounds simple, right? Well, here’s the thing – you have to make bids and win tricks to score points. And those points add up, helping you get closer to that magical 41.

Getting Set Up and Making Bids

To get started, we need to choose a dealer. We can do this by picking a player at random and passing the dealer position to the right after each round. The dealer will shuffle the deck of cards and give each player 13 cards. They’ll do this by dealing one card at a time, and then two cards at a time, until everyone has 13 cards. Oh, and we need to deal counterclockwise – that’s important!

Once the hands are dealt, the bidding begins. Each of us gets one chance to bid. We start with the player to the right of the dealer, and go counterclockwise from there. The idea is to predict how many tricks we think we can win. Every player must make a bid, and the minimum bid is one. If you bid between 1 and 6, you score points equal to your bid. But if you bid 7 or more, you score double the number you bid.

If the total bids from all players don’t add up to at least 11, we have to reshuffle the cards and start over.

Now let’s talk about how the cards rank. The Ace is the highest card, followed by the King, Queen, Jack, and so on, all the way down to 2. And the trump suit in this game is always hearts.

That’s the basic gameplay!

Let’s get the game started! I’ll explain how it works. The first person to play is the one sitting to the right of the dealer. From there, we go counterclockwise.

When it’s your turn, you can play any card you want. But here’s the catch: if the person before you played a card of a certain suit, you have to follow suit if you can. If you don’t have any cards of that suit, you’re free to play any card, including trumps.

The winner of each trick is the one who played the highest trump card, if any were played. If no trumps were played, then the highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick. The player who won the trick gets to keep it and leads the next one.

Scoring

Once all the tricks have been played, it’s time to tally up the points. Each player scores individually, and the scores can be positive or negative.

If a player wins at least the number of tricks they bid, they score points equal to their bid. For example, if they bid 6 and won 8 tricks, they still only get 6 points. But if their bid was 7 or more, they score double points.

If I fail to score as many points as I bet, then I lose the number of points I bet. This includes doubles for larger bets, so a failed bet of 7 loses me 14 points.

THE END OF THE GAME

I win if I reach 41 points or more while my teammate has a positive score. If both teams achieve this in the same round, the team with the higher score wins.

I’m Amber, and I’m an Austin writer and gaming connoisseur. I consider myself a gaming master, and I have a passion for dogs, plants, and D&D.

I’m Amber, and I’m an Austin writer and gaming connoisseur. I consider myself a gaming master, and I have a passion for dogs, plants, and D&D.