Welcome to Fipsen!

Fipsen is an exciting card game for four players. You and three others will compete against each other in rounds, forming temporary alliances to stop the single player from scoring points. The objective of the game is to have the highest score by the end. You achieve this by making bids and winning tricks to earn points. And if you play your cards right, there are special moves that can give you even more points!

Getting Started

To play Fipsen, you’ll need a special deck of cards. First, remove all the cards numbered 6 and lower, as well as all the diamonds except for the 7 of diamonds. This will leave you with a deck of 25 cards.

When we play a game of cards called Skat, the first dealer is chosen randomly. From there, the deck is shuffled and the player to the right gets to cut the deck. Each player is then dealt 5 cards in batches of 3 and 2, going in a clockwise direction.

On the table, two cards called the skat are placed in the center. In a special type of deal called a kieker deal, an additional 3 cards are discarded face down to the side of the dealer and are not used in the game.

Once the hands are dealt, the bidding begins. It starts with the player to the left of the dealer. The purpose of bidding is to determine who will play alone against the other players and to decide the value of the round. Bids range from a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 5. There are also modifiers that can be added to increase the rank of the deal.

Let me explain to you the different types of modifiers in a card game. We have a hand game, a ruten, and a durch. The hand game and ruten are equally ranked, which means one cannot be chosen over the other to increase the bid. On the other hand (no pun intended), the durch is ranked higher than both of them.

Now, let’s go into more detail about each modifier. A hand game is when a player decides not to look at or use the skat. It’s like playing blind! A ruten is when the bidder chooses diamonds as the trump suit. This means that diamonds will be the most powerful suit in the game. And lastly, we have the durch. If you choose this modifier, you’re in for a challenge because you’ll have to win all five tricks in the game. It’s not an easy task, but if you’re up for it, go for the durch!

Let me tell you about the bidding system in this game. It’s pretty interesting! So, there are different rankings for bids. For example, a bid can be a 2 (low), a 2 hand game, a 2 ruten, or a 2 durch. All of these bids are ranked the same. Now, here’s something cool – when a modifier is used in the game, the score for the round doubles, no matter whether the modifier was used in the bid or not.

But wait, there’s more! There’s a special bid called kieker. It’s kind of like a wild card bid that falls between 4 and 5. Here’s the catch – you can only bid kieker if you don’t have any face cards in your hand.

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. If your kieker bid wins, the player sitting to your left has to verify it. And guess what? You get to take the skat and the three cards that were set aside to exchange from with your hand. Pretty cool, right?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention – the bid also includes winning all 5 tricks once the cards are exchanged. It’s a lot to take in, but I hope this explanation helped clarify things for you!

When it comes to bidding in this game, things are done a bit differently. It all starts with the player on the left of the dealer, known as the Vorhand. The Vorhand gets the first chance to make a bid or, if they prefer, they can pass altogether. If the Vorhand does make a bid, the player to their left can choose to pass or make a higher bid. If they go for a higher bid, the Vorhand has a choice to make: they can either match the bid and retain control or go for an even higher bid. And if they decide to pass, then it’s the next player’s turn to make a decision by bidding higher or passing.

If everyone passes, we collect the cards and the dealer deals again. But if someone bids, they take charge. If it’s not a hand game, you can peek at the skat and swap cards. Or you can choose not to look at the skat and double your points at the end. In the next round, we call the next set of trumps. And if diamonds are chosen, we double the score again for a Ruten game.

Cards in Order

Here’s how the cards rank: Ace (the highest), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, and 7 (the lowest).

Let the Game Begin!

The Vorhand starts the first round, and everyone else has to follow the suit if they can. But if they can’t, they can play any card. The highest trump card, or if there isn’t one, the highest card of the lead suit, wins the trick. The winner gets to lead the next trick.

If I win the number of tricks I bid, I can choose to end the round and score. But if I haven’t lost any trick yet, I can decide to keep playing by calling a “durch” and now I must win all 5 tricks or else I’ll lose the round.

During the game, if I happen to have all 4 7s and an Ace of any suit in my hand, I can call “siebener fips.” This means I reveal my cards, end the round, and score 30 points.

SCORING

Once the round is over, it’s time to calculate the scores. If I, as the bidder, won the number of tricks I bid, I will score the base game bid plus any applicable doubles. For example, if the base game score is 4 and I played a hand game and ruten, my score for the round will be 16 points.

When I play the bidding game, there’s a rule that makes losing even worse. If I lose and don’t fulfill my contract, I get double the negative points that I would have received for winning. So, in the example I gave earlier, I would have gotten 16 points for winning, but if I lose, I would get a whopping negative 32 points. Ouch!

But when I do win, things aren’t so bad. I earn 20 points for a successful game, which feels pretty good. However, if I end up losing, it’s a real bummer because I get slapped with a negative 40 points. Talk about double-edged sword!

It’s important to note that each player keeps their own score, so it’s independent of what others are doing. And the scores add up over multiple rounds, so it’s a cumulative thing.

END OF THE GAME

The game comes to an end either when we’ve played a certain number of rounds or when all the players agree it’s time to stop. The player with the highest score at the end is declared the winner. It’s all about those points!

By the way, have you met Amber? They’re a writer from Austin who absolutely loves games. If you need any advice or tips, Amber is your go-to person. They’re also a pro when it comes to dogs, plants, and D&D. They’re the whole package!