Assassin’s Trick

Winning the Game 

Assassin’s Trick is played in rounds where each player tries to out-bet the others to win a prize card. At the end of the game, each player sums together the influence values of their prize cards and the player with the most influence wins. 

Setup 

First the cards in the deck are separated into 4 stacks by suit and each player chooses a suit from the deck to be their hand. Then, one of the remaining suits is chosen to act as prize cards. Shuffle the deck of prize cards and place it face down between the players. The top card of the deck is now removed and placed aside without being revealed. 

Rounds 

Each round is broken down into 4 steps: 

  1. Reveal a Prize Card 

  2. Place Bids 

  3. Reveal Bids 

  4. Claim Prize Card 

Reveal a Prize Card: Take a card from the top of the prize stack and place it face up on the table. 

Place Bids: Each player places one of the cards in their hand face down on the table. 

Reveal Bids: Every player flips over the card their bet cat. 

Claim Prize Card: The player whose card has the greatest influence takes the prize card and sets it face up in front of them. If there is a tie for greatest influence, the player with the next greatest non-tied influence card takes the prize card instead. If all the players’ bid cards are tied, the prize card is discarded. All cards bid this round are discarded. 

Assassin Cards 

The assassin card (usually called the ace in other games) works a bit differently than other cards in Assassin’s Trick. It has no influence value and uses the following rules when it is revealed as a prize card or placed as a bid card. 

As a bid card: When any bid card is revealed to be an assassin, the prize card is discarded and the round ends. 

As a prize card: When an assassin card is claimed as a prize card, the player who claimed it puts the card into their hand instead of face-up in front of them. They may use this assassin as if it belonged to their suit. 

Joker Cards 

Assassin’s Trick may be played with 0-2 joker cards shuffled into the stack of prize cards. When a joker is claimed as a prize card, instead of taking the joker card, a card is taken from the top of the prize stack and used in its place. The joker card is then discarded.