Welcome to Kraken Variant!

I’m here to introduce you to an exciting trick-taking card game called Kraken Variant. It’s designed for 4 players who form partnerships of 2. The goal of the game is simple: score the most points by the end of the game. Each game consists of 16 rounds, and the score for each round is tallied before moving on to the next round.

But wait, there’s more! In this version of Kraken, we’ve added a thrilling betting element. Before the game begins, players will need to decide on the value of the stakes. This adds an extra layer of strategy and excitement to the game.

Let’s Get Set Up!

Before diving into the game, we need to make a few adjustments to the deck. We’ll remove all cards 6s and lower, leaving us with a deck of 32 cards.

To determine the first dealer, we’ll do it the old-fashioned way – choosing at random. The dealer position will then move to the left for each new round. Once the dealer is chosen, they’ll shuffle the deck and deal each player a hand of 8 cards. You can do this by distributing the cards in groups of 3, 2, and 3 cards or two groups of 4 cards.

Understanding Card Ranking and Values

Have you ever wondered how the ranking of cards works in different suits? Well, let me break it down for you. When it comes to the trump suit, the highest ranked card is the Jack, followed by 9, Ace, 10, King, Queen, 8, and 7 as the lowest ranked card.

Now, let’s talk about the values associated with winning cards in tricks. These values also vary depending on whether it’s a trump suit or a non-trump suit. In the trump suit, Jacks are worth a whopping 20 points, 9s carry 14 points, Aces bring in 11 points, 10s contribute 10 points, Kings add 4 points, Queens bring 3 points, while 8s and 7s don’t have any value.

In non-trump suits, Aces are valued at 11 points, 10s hold 10 points, Kings bring in 4 points, Queens contribute 3 points, and Jacks have a value of 2 points. Once again, 9s, 8s, and 7s don’t hold any value.

Choosing the Right Trump Suit

When I play the card game where we choose trumps, the team that selects the trumps becomes the team responsible for winning more points in the round. It’s my job to choose the trump suit if I’m sitting to the left of the dealer.

The Tough Part

Once we’ve figured out the trumps, the player to the left of the person who chose the trumps can challenge them by declaring “contra.” If they decide not to challenge, then the player to the right of the trump chooser can also declare a challenge. When you challenge, it means you believe that the other team won’t be able to win the number of tricks they said they would, and the score gets doubled at the end.

If a challenge is put forth, the team that chose the trumps can challenge back, with either player on their team issuing the challenge. Either person can declare “re” and double the score again at the end, so it gets multiplied by four.

Okay, let me break it down for you. We’ve got a tricky situation here. The opponents of the trump decider might come up with a challenge called “superkraken.” If that happens, the score gets multiplied by 8 at the end of the round. Sounds exciting, right?

Now, here’s the deal: each team has to declare “contra” at least 4 times during the 16 rounds. It’s like a rule of the game.

Let’s Talk About Gameplay

So, the game begins with the player sitting to the left of the dealer. They get to lead with any card for the first trick. And here’s the catch: all the other players have to follow suit if they have a card of the same suit. But if no trumps were played or everyone played the same suit, then the player with the highest card of that suit wins the trick.

Now, let’s say some trump cards are played. In that case, the highest-ranked trump card takes the trick. Got it? Great!

Oh, and the player who wins a trick gets to lead the next one. It’s like passing the baton in a relay race.

Here’s an interesting twist: players are allowed to give signals to their partners. Cool, right? But hold up! They need to discuss what kinds of signals they’ll use out loud before the game starts. Gotta keep it fair and square!

When it’s your turn to play a card in a trick, there are some rules you need to follow. If the other team is winning the trick and you have a trump card or a higher trump card, you must play it to beat them. But if you don’t have any trumps that can beat theirs, you have to play a card from a different suit. Under no circumstances are you allowed to play a trump card that has a lower rank than the opponent’s trump card, unless that’s the only card you have left.

If your team is currently winning the trick and you don’t have any cards that match the suit, you can play any card you want. But if your team is winning with a trump card, you can’t play a lower-ranked trump card unless it’s the only option you have.

When I lead with a trump card, everyone else must play a higher trump if they can, even if their team is winning. If they can’t play a higher trump, they have to play a lower one. And if they don’t have any trumps left, they can play any card they want.

Extra Points

Sometimes, you can earn bonus points if you win certain tricks. There are 7 different types of tricks, and each has its own score. If you win a bonus trick, you have to announce it to score the extra points. But if you don’t announce it, it won’t count in the game. This can be useful if you’re the one declaring and you know the other team will score more points than you.

The first type of bonus trick is called a run. It happens when you have three cards in a row that are all the same suit. If you have three consecutive cards of the same suit, you can call it a run and earn an additional 20 points.

There are different types of card combinations in the game, each with its own score. Let’s go over them:

The first type is a set of 4 consecutive cards of the same suit. When you have this, you earn 50 points.

If you have a set of 3 consecutive cards of the trump suit that includes both a king and queen, you get 40 points.

Now, if you have a set of 4 consecutive cards of the trump suit, and it includes the king and queen, you earn 70 points.

When you have 4 of a kind of kings, queens, aces, or 10s, you score 100 points.

But if you manage to get 4 of a kind of jacks, it’s even better! You get 200 points.

Lastly, if you have both the king and queen of trumps in one trick, you earn 20 points.

Oh, and here’s an extra tip: if your team wins all the tricks in a round, you score an additional 100 bonus points!

Keep in mind that these bonus points are not affected by the challenges and are not multiplied. They are scored separately, after multiplying and scoring the points for the round.

Declarations

In addition to the bonus points I mentioned earlier, you can also announce any combinations you have in your hand. Before we start playing, you have a chance to declare any combinations you have. If our team has the player with the highest-valued single combination, we can score all of our combinations. However, the other team won’t be able to score any.

Aside from that, we can always declare the king and queen of trumps during the game, even if our team doesn’t have the highest combination. You can declare it whenever one of the cards is played. This will give us an extra 20 points for scoring.

Now, let’s talk about scoring for combinations. Four jacks are worth a whopping 200 points! If we have four Aces, Kings, Queens, or 10s, that’s 100 points. And if we manage to get a run of 5 or more consecutive cards of the same suit, that’s another 100 points. A run of 4 cards is worth 50 points, and a run of 3 cards is worth 20 points.

Scoring

Let me break down how scoring works in the game. After each round, both teams add up their declaration points and the points for the cards won in tricks. For a regular game without any challenges, if the declarers have a higher score than the other team, both teams get to score their points. But if the declarers didn’t achieve a higher score, then the opponents take home all the points.

Now, let’s talk about challenges. If there were challenges in the game, the last team to challenge needs to score more points than the opposing team. If they manage to do so, they get to tally their points. However, if they don’t, the opposing team swoops in and scores all the points.

Here’s an important detail: if the trump suit was spades, there is an extra doubling of the points added to the score. So keep that in mind when strategizing your moves.

Before we move on, let’s discuss how the final scores are calculated. Each team divides their score by 10, rounding it to the nearest whole number. Then, all the multipliers are added to the scores.

So, after each round, it’s all about adding up the points, considering challenges, and applying multipliers to determine the true winners. It may sound confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, scoring becomes an exciting part of the game. Good luck!

When we score points in a round of the game, each team also earns bonus points.

Crosses

If a team wins all the tricks in a round, the opposing team gets 1 cross (or 2 if spades are trumps). If there was a challenge in the round, the losing team gets crosses. They get 2 crosses for contra, 4 for re, and 8 for superkraken. If spades were trumps, these crosses are doubled.

After the 16 deals are completed, the team with the lowest score receives 4 crosses.

END OF GAME

Once the 16 rounds are over, the game comes to an end. The team with the highest score is the winner. The team that has the most crosses has to pay the other team. We calculate the difference between the two teams’ crosses, and the losing team has to pay a stake for each cross.

I am Amber, and I go by They/Them pronouns. I am an Austin-based writer and a gaming enthusiast. I consider myself a gaming master, and I also have a great fondness for dogs, plants, and D&D.