Welcome to Vidrasso!

I’m excited to introduce you to Vidrasso, an amazing trick-taking game created by the talented Sean Ross, who also designed Haggis. In this game, it’s just you and a friend, and together, we’ll explore a whole new level of excitement and strategy!

Now, let’s dive into the rules. In Vidrasso, your goal is to capture tricks using the cards in your hand and your layout. We call the cards in your layout “strawmen.” But here’s the twist – instead of earning points for each captured trick, you’ll earn points based on the rank of the cards you capture. This means that low-ranking cards suddenly become super valuable, flipping the traditional trick-taking gameplay on its head!

Get Ready to Play!

Card Ranks:

When it comes to Vidrasso, the game is played with a special deck of cards. The deck consists of 36 cards, from Ace to 9, in each suit. It’s important to know that in this game, Aces are considered high cards while 9’s are low cards. This means that the ranking goes like this: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace.

Before each round, the dealer gets to choose a trump rank. This trump rank determines which card has the highest value within the game. For example, if Hearts is chosen as the trump suit and the dealer selects 7’s as the trump rank, the order of the cards will be as follows: 9, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace, Trump Suited 9 to Ace, and Trump Ranked 7’s.

However, it’s important to know that trump rank cards are still considered part of their original suit when it comes to following suit. Let’s say someone leads with Diamonds and the next player doesn’t have any trump cards or any other Diamonds except for the trump rank 7. In that case, they must play the trump rank 7 card.

Hey there! I wanted to share some important info with you. Did you know that when playing cards, if more than one trump card is played in a trick, the second card wins? Pretty wild, right? In that case, the suit doesn’t even matter! Let me give you an example. Let’s say we’re playing a game where Hearts is the trump suit, and the 7 of Hearts is led. Well, any other 7 card would beat it and win the trick. Cool, huh?

Now, let’s talk about dealing the cards. You start by dealing eighteen cards to each player. Here’s how it goes: deal the first five cards face down to make a row, then deal the next five cards face up on top of that row. After that, each player gets eight cards for their hand. Simple enough, right?

Oh, and something important to note – the dealing alternates each round. Gotta keep things fair!

Now, let’s get to the exciting part:

We need to determine the trump suit. This is a crucial step! The trump suit is the suit that holds the highest power in the game. So how do we figure it out? It’s up to you! You can choose a suit randomly or use some other method if you prefer. Just make sure everyone agrees on it to avoid any confusion.

When we’re playing this game, the first thing we need to do is decide which suit will be the trump for the round. The person who isn’t dealing gets to make that decision. Then, the dealer gets to choose the trump rank. This rank is really important because it determines which cards are the highest for the round.

Once the trump suit and rank are chosen, but before we start playing the first trick, each player gets to pick one card from their hand to add to their capture pile. This card will earn them points at the end of the round, so it’s an important decision. After everyone has chosen their capture card, we’re left with a seven-card hand to begin the game.

Now we’re ready for the first trick!

When it’s my turn to start a trick, I can choose any card from my hand or any face-up card from my strawman row. I have to wait until the trick is over before I can flip up any face-down cards. If the other player has a card of the same suit as the lead suit, they can choose to play a card of that suit, play a trump card, or play a trump rank card. If they don’t have a card that matches the lead suit, they can play any card from their hand. The trick is won by the highest ranked card of the lead suit or the highest ranked trump card. If more than one player plays a trump rank card, the second one played wins the trick.

After winning a trick, I lead the next one. We keep playing tricks until all of them have been played.

SCORING

The value of each card is equal to the number on the card. For example, a 1 is worth 1 point, a 2 is worth 2 points, and so on.

WINNING

The goal is to be the first player to earn 300 points or more.