Blindes Huhn / Blind Chicken

Credits

Published by Hans-im-Glück
Designed by Michael Schacht
Translated by Mike Schloth

3-6 players
20 minutes
12 DM

A trick taking card game for 3 to 6 players.

Try to avoid taking any tricks that contain Blind Chicken cards because they'll subtract from your score. It may be tough to avoid taking a few because you may only play the leftmost and rightmost cards from your hand. So after the cards are dealt but before the first card is played, everyone needs to take some time to sort their cards because once the first card is played the order of the cards in your hand may not be changed.

What you get

Before you start

You'll need a pencil and paper.

If there are fewer than 5 players in the game you'll need to remove some of the cards from the deck.

If 3 players: remove the cards numbered from 0 to 23.

If 4 players: remove the cards numbered from 0 to 11.

Now shuffle the deck and deal all of the cards to the players.

The player clockwise from the dealer plays the first card and play continues clockwise. After the first trick is taken, the player who took the trick leads the first card in the next round.

How it works

After the cards are dealt, each player should take some time to sort his cards. This is important because once the game begins the order of the cards in your hand may not be changed and you may only play the leftmost or the rightmost cards in your hand on your turn.

The person who is to play the first card must first ask if everyone has finished sorting their cards. If everyone is ready, then play begins.

On your turn you must play a card and the card you play must be either the leftmost or the rightmost card in your hand.

The card marked "59" is the highest card, and the card marked "0" is the lowest. The highest card played takes the trick. Because the Blind Chicken cards count as minus points you want to avoid taking them. At the same time, if you have any Blind Chickens in your hand you want to try to give them to another player.

In short, avoid taking tricks that contain Blind Chickens.

The game is over when all of the cards have been taken in tricks.

Scoring

Only the Blind Chicken cards score, all other cards are worthless. Each egg on a Blind Chicken card is worth minus one (-1) point.

If you take more than one Blind Chicken card in a trick, then you multiply the total number of Blind Chicken cards you took by the total number of eggs on the cards. So, for example, if in one trick you take one Blind Chicken card that has two eggs and another Blind Chicken that has three eggs, then you have scored ((-2) + (-3)) x 2 = -10 points.

Write down the scores and then deal out another hand.

You can either play a set number of hands or to a set (minus) score. Once you reach the set number of hands or score, the player with the least minus points wins.

The Last Trick

Whoever wins the final trick may set aside one of his previously won tricks and not score it. You may not set aside the Last Trick.

Example of the start of a 4 player game:

Sabine played the highest card so she wins the trick.

At the end of the game, the trick will be worth 14 minus points: (4 eggs + 3 eggs) x 2 Blind Chickens = -14.

Because Sabine won the trick, she plays the first card in the next round.

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell