Trick AND treat: the joys of trick-taking games

Gaming reflections by Derek Turner

With Halloween around the corner, many people’s thoughts turn not only to treats but to “tricks” – and in the world of tabletop gaming, that usually means trick-taking games! This subset of card games originated in its modern form in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with games such as Euchre, Whist, Bridge, Hearts, and Spades gaining prominence, but the concept of “trick-taking” dates back centuries and nearly every culture and region of the world has its own unique variations on trick-taking!

In a trick-taking game, cards are played (usually one at a time) into a “trick”, the set of cards played by everyone. A predetermined number of cards are played – often until players’ hands are empty – at which point the round is scored and cards are redealt for the next round.

In addition to incorporating unique and compelling themes, most modern trick-taking games invert or subvert several of the expectations of the genre, such as: the size of the deck and number of suits; player partnerships; bidding methods and predicting bids; following suit or “sloughing” (not following suit); and declaring a “trump” suit (usually to win the trick) and/or including “super-trump” cards.

With over 2,500 trick-taking games listed on BoardGameGeek, it can be overwhelming to consider a dive into the genre, so here are my best tips and recommendations for games you may want to explore.

The rise in interest in the genre in recent years is arguably largely due to the influence of trick-taking advocates and game designers such as Taylor Reiner, who runs Taylor’s Trick-Taking Table on YouTube, and Chris Wray, who frequently writes about the genre for the Opinionated Gamers blog. They are both significantly involved with The Trick-Taking Guild on BoardGameGeek, a group of gamers who vote each year for the Golden Trickster – the best trick-taking game of the year – as well as voting classic games into the Golden Trickster Hall of Fame, which is a great place to start if you want to expand your trick-taking repertoire.

With so many established expectations and constant innovations, it can be challenging to know where to enter this wonderful world of trick-taking, or how to go beyond your current favourites. If you’re interested in exploring beyond the traditional trick-taking games, here are several widely acclaimed and readily available games that have been released (or re-released) in the past five years.

The Crew – There are two variations of this cooperative trick-taking game – The Quest for Planet Nine (2019) and Mission Deep Sea (2021) – but the concept for both is essentially the same: players work together to accomplish a mission determined by a book of fifty challenges of increasing difficulty (with Mission Deep Sea presenting slightly more of a challenge). While there’s a lot to be explored just by playing each campaign once, the missions often involve capturing or avoiding certain cards which are determined by a secondary deck of smaller cards, so there is variation from play to play even before considering how different players might affect each game.

Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition – Quantum physics meets trick-taking as “Schrodinger’s Cat” enters the chat. Players predict how many tricks they will take based on the numerical values in their hand, but they do not decide the colour value (suit) until the card is played. Players need to be careful not only to meet their bid and play cards that will help them score points, but also to avoid creating a paradox (which is nearly inevitable, it seems).

Stick ’Em – The classic German trick-taking game Sticheln was originally released in 1993, but it gained wider popularity when it was finally released in English in 2020. The first twist is that players are actively attempting to avoid taking tricks, as each player gains negative points for all cards taken. The second twist is that each player has a “pain colour” of cards that will be worse for them to take, so all of the other players are trying to “stick ’em” with points. It’s a mean game, but it’s all in good fun.

Potato Man – The theme of this game – superhero potatoes – is a weird one, but don’t let that deter you from an experience in defying convention. This is a “must not follow” game, in which only one of each colour (suit) can be played in a trick and each colour has a different number and spread of cards. Each trick won will earn its player points based on the winning colour, with the lower-numbered suits being worth more points. And as if that wasn’t enough variation, the lowest cards in the game can also be the most valuable. It’s really not like any other trick-taking game out there in terms of theme or mechanic.

For Northwood! – One of the challenges in enjoying the genre can be finding others to play with, since most trick-taking games require at least three or four players. For Northwood! solves this problem by limiting the game to only one player. It’s unusual, but it works, as the player is essentially playing against the deck, with the help of a given set of woodland friends. The goal of the game is to take an exact number of tricks (between 0 and 7) in each round over eight rounds. But the twist is that the player has to predict that number at the start of the round, and the powers that are available to the player may vary. It’s a surprisingly rich trick-taking experience, and as a bonus, it’s always easy to find enough players!

The world of trick-taking games is always expanding and always rewarding, and the “gotcha!” or “aha!” moments are arguably more satisfying than they are in any other genre of games. Trick-taking games really are a treat – any month of the year.