Components:

A "standard" Tarot deck; use a 60-card deck made up of: cards from all four suits, along with 6 Trump cards (any of the Trumps can be used), and 2 score cards.

Object:

To bid the exact number of tricks you will capture during the round. You lose points if you do not capture the exact number of tricks you predicted. The game ends when any players score drops below 500.

Play

Setup:

Randomly choose a player to be the dealer for the first round. The deal will then pass clockwise after each round. The dealer shuffles and deals a hand of 10 cards to each player. (Note: unless you are playing with six players, not all the cards will be dealt.) Designate a player to be the scorekeeper.

Bidding:

Starting with the dealer and proceeding clockwise, each player bids the number of tricks he or she intends to capture during the round. A player may bid as few as 0 tricks up to the maximum possible 10 tricks. The scorekeeper records each player's bid.

The Deal:

• The dealer leads by playing any card from his or her hand. Play then proceeds clockwise.
• If you have a card of the same suit as the suit led, you must play that card. (This is called "following suit.") If you have more than one card of the suit led, you choose which of those cards to play.
• If you don't have any cards of the suit led, you may play a card of another suit or a trump card.
• If a trump card is led, you may either play a trump card or a card of any other suit (even if you have a trump card).
• If a trump card is played on a trick, you still have to play a card of the suit led (if possible).
• After everyone has played a card, the player who played the highest card in the suit led captures the trick unless someone played a trump card.

Taking Tricks:

• If someone plays a trump card, that player captures the trick, because trump cards are higher than all nontrump cards.
• All trump cards share the same rank. If more than one trump card is played, whoever played the last trump card captures the trick.
• The player who captures the trick puts the cards face-down in front of him or her (once a trick is turned face-down, players cannot look at those cards). That player then plays the first card for the next trick.

Scoring:

• If you capture exactly as many tricks as you bid, you get 0 points.
• If you capture more or fewer tricks than you bid, you score penalty points.
• Penalty points:
  • If you take 1 trick less or more than your bid, you get -5 penalty points
  • If you take 2 tricks less or more than your bid, you get -10 penalty points
  • If you take 3 tricks less or more than your bid, you get -20 penalty points
  • If you take 4 tricks less or more than your bid, you get -40 penalty points

  The penalty point sequence continues as above; ie. doubling for each additional trick less or more than the amount bid.

Winning the Game:

The first player to score -200 or more points ends the game. The winner is the player with the highest score. If there is a tie for high score, both players win the game. If you want to play a short game, you can play until someone reaches -100 points or until each player has dealt twice, whichever comes first.

Variant

If a mixture of beginning and expert players are playing, then an alternative scoring system can be used for the beginners.

• Take 1 trick less or more than your bid; get -5 penalty points
• Take 2 tricks less or more than your bid; get -10 penalty points
• Take 3 tricks less or more than your bid; get -15 penalty points
• Take 4 tricks less or more than your bid; get -20 penalty points

The penalty point sequence continues as above; ie. an additional -5 points for each additional trick less or more than the amount bid.

Strategy

• The Underbid: When the total number of tricks bid by all players is fewer than 10, there are more tricks available than players want to take. You should find it easier to capture tricks, so don't be too aggressive; only capture the tricks you thought you would capture when you made your bid. For example, if you bid 2 tricks because you have a King of Cups and a trump card, don't capture a trick with your 10 of Swords if you can help it.
• The 10 Bid: When the total number of tricks bid is exactly 10, there are exactly enough tricks for everyone to make their bids. During a round with an 10 bid, if one player misses his or her bid then at least one other player will also miss his or her bid.
• The Overbid: When the total number of tricks bid is more than 10, there are fewer tricks than players want to take. You should find it more difficult to capture tricks because most of the royalty and trump cards have probably been dealt. Capture any trick you can, even if it's a trick you weren't planning to capture when you made your bid.

Follow these general strategy guidelines until a player misses his or her bid - after that, you can bet that player will then try to make you miss yours. Remember that once you miss your bid, you might as well try to make others miss theirs. You will already have incurred penalty points, so you have nothing to lose.

Player Errors

• Bidding out of turn: If someone makes a bid out of turn, the bid stands and the other players continue bidding in the proper order. There's no penalty for bidding out of turn.
• Playing cards out of turn: If someone plays a card out of turn, the card remains in play and the other players continue playing cards in the proper order. To determine which trump card was played last, pretend all cards were played in the proper order. There's no penalty for playing out of turn.
• Revoking: Failing to follow suit when you are able to do so. Players should not intentionally revoke, but revoking does occasionally happen by mistake. If any player thinks another player has revoked during the round, he or she must challenge that player before the end of the round. When a challenge has been made, the round ends and all other players score as if they made their bids. If the challenger is correct, he or she scores his or her bid and the player who revoked scores -10 points. If the accused player did not in fact revoke, he or she scores his or her bid and the challenger scores -10 points.

Terminology

• Hand: The 10 cards dealt to you.
• Trick: Each player plays one card from his or her hand (following suit if possible). When everyone has played a card, the collection of played cards is called a "trick." The highest card played captures the trick.
• Round: A round consists of 10 tricks.
• Bid: The number of tricks you claim you will capture during the round.
• Trump: There are six trump cards that beat all other nontrump cards regardless of the suit led.

Close Call was inspired by a game called Instinct, designed by Wizards fof the Coast.