Bid Coin
Bid Coin Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Components
- Play cards (from here on simply "cards") — 55 cards
- There is one card of each value 0 to 10 in each of 5 colours (from here on a colour is called a "suit" and a number is called a "rank").
- The rank "4" and rank "6" card of each suit carries a "2-win icon".
- Bid Coin cards (from here on simply "Bid Coin") — 25 cards
- Value 1: 9 cards. Values 2, 3, 5 and 7: 4 cards each.
Glossary
Trick: Starting with the start player, each player in turn plays one card face up. When all players have played a card, a winner is decided. This mini-game is called a trick.
Round: Playing tricks until all players have used up their hands is called a round. In this game each round consists of 13 tricks. A 3-player game lasts at most 3 rounds and a 4-player game at most 4 rounds, but the game can also end sooner.
Trump: A card that wins with priority if it has been played is called a trump. In this game one suit is determined as the trump suit for each round.
2. Setup
2.1. Game setup
Do the following preparation before the first round starts.
2.1.1. Adjust the number of cards
Adjust the number of cards you use to the number of players.
- 4-player game: 5 suits, ranks 0-10 (55 cards)
- 3-player game: 5 suits, ranks 0-7 (40 cards)
In a 3-player game the cards of rank 8 and higher of each colour are not used, so put them back in the box.
2.1.2. Hand out the starting Bid Coin
Each player takes one Bid Coin of each of the values 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 and lays them out in front of themselves, in portrait orientation, so that everybody can see them.
Put the remaining value-1 Bid Coin together in a place all players can reach (this is called the supply). In a 3-player game, put the remaining Bid Coin of value 2 and higher back in the box.
2.2. Preparation for each round
Do the following preparation at the start of each round.
2.2.1. Deal the hands
Shuffle all the cards you use face down and deal 13 cards to each player. In a 4-player game 3 cards are left over; in a 3-player game 1 card is left over.
2.2.2. Determine the trump suit
Put the leftover cards face down where everybody can see them and reveal only the top card. The suit of the revealed card is the trump suit for this round.
In a 4-player game, the 2 cards other than the top one are not revealed.
2.2.3. Determine the first lead player
In the first round, determine the first lead player (the player who plays the first card of the first trick) by any suitable method. From the second round on, the first lead player moves to the player to the left of the previous round's first lead player.
3. Round flow
Each round consists of 13 tricks played one after another. Each trick has steps 3.1 to 3.3, done in order.
3.1. Play a card
The lead player plays any one card from their hand face up. The suit of the card the lead player plays is called the lead suit.
After that, the other players also play 1 card each, in clockwise order, following the must-follow rule.
Must-follow
This rule says that if you have a card of the same suit as the lead suit in your hand, you must play one of those cards with priority.
Only if you have no card of that suit may you play a card of any suit (including the trump suit).
3.2. Determine the winner, take the trick
When every player has played one card, determine the winner. The player who played the highest-ranked card among the cards of the lead suit is the winner of that trick.
However, if any player has played a card of the trump suit, the player who played the highest-ranked card among the cards of the trump suit is the winner of that trick.
The winner of a trick becomes the lead player of the next trick.
The winner of the trick collects the cards everybody played into a single pile and places it face down in front of themselves. If they have already taken cards, they must line the new pile up next to them, so that it is clear how many tricks they have won in this round.
Note: You must not look at the faces of cards that have been taken.
Special winner (rank 0)
If, in a trick, the rank-0 card of the lead suit is played at the same time as the highest rank of the lead suit (10 in a 4-player game, 7 in a 3-player game), the winner is the player who played the 0 of the lead suit. (Even in this case, if a card of the trump suit has been played, the trump suit still wins.)
In the same way, if the highest rank of the trump suit and the rank 0 of the trump suit are played at the same time, the player who played the 0 of the trump suit is the winner.
2-win cards
If the player who played a rank 4 or rank 6 card (a 2-win card) becomes the winner of the trick, they collect all the cards everybody played, split them into 2 piles and place them in front of themselves. In other words, they have won 2 tricks with that single trick.
Note: If only players other than the winner played a rank 4 or rank 6 card, the winner does not split the cards collected in that trick into 2 piles.
Examples
(a) The trump suit this round is yellow. A, B, C and D play as shown in (a) — A plays green 1, B plays green 8, C plays green 6, D plays red 10. B, who played green 8, the highest rank in the lead suit, is the winner.
(b) B is the lead player of the next trick, and everybody plays as shown in (b) — B plays green 9, C plays green 0, D plays yellow 1, A plays yellow 4. Cards of the trump suit have been played in this trick, so A, who played yellow 4, the highest-ranked one of them, is the winner. Because A won by playing a 4, A splits the cards as if having won 2 tricks.
(c) A is the lead player of the next trick, and everybody plays as shown in (c) — A plays red 0, B plays green 8, C plays red 10, D plays green 9. In this trick the 0 and the 10 of the lead suit are played at the same time, so A, who played red 0, is the winner.
3.3. Update your bid (if necessary)
The winner of this trick compares the number of wins they have in this round with their current bid.
Your current bid is the total value of the Bid Coin you have pushed back (away from you) in front of you. At the start of a round, every player's current bid is 0.
If your number of wins in the round is greater than your current bid, you must immediately push back exactly 1 Bid Coin of your choice that is in front of you and not yet pushed back. This updates your bid. You may also match your current number of wins exactly.
Important: You cannot pull a Bid Coin you have already pushed back to the front again. In other words, every time your number of wins exceeds your bid, the number of Bid Coin you have pushed back grows by exactly 1.
Note: Late in the game it can happen that you have already pushed back all the Bid Coin in front of you. In that case you do not push back a new Bid Coin even if your number of wins exceeds your bid (and because you can no longer raise your bid, you are certain to fail your bid).
If your number of wins in the round is less than or equal to your current bid (including when they match), you do not update your bid.
Examples
(a) A became the winner of a trick. Their number of wins is now 1, which is greater than their bid of 0, so A pushed back the value-3 coin and made their current bid 3.
(b) After that, A won 3 more tricks, so their number of wins is now 4. The number of wins exceeds the bid of 3, so A must push back 1 more Bid Coin. Thinking they can still win plenty more, A pushed back the value-5 coin and made their current bid 8.
Special bid: declaring a bid of 0
If you predict that you will not become the winner of a single trick in this round, you can declare a bid of 0.
You can declare a bid of 0 only immediately before you play your card in step "3.1. Play a card" of any trick. At that moment, choose any number (1 or more) of your Bid Coin whose combined value equals the number of cards left in your hand, and turn all of them sideways to show that you have declared a bid of 0.
Note: If a player who declared a bid of 0 becomes the winner of a trick in that round, they cannot carry out "3.3. Update your bid".
Also, a player who has already been the winner of at least 1 trick cannot declare a bid of 0.
Example
C has not been the winner of a single trick. Judging that they will stay at 0 wins, C decided to declare a bid of 0 at the moment they play a card. C's hand held 9 cards before playing, so C turned the value-7 and value-2 Bid Coin — 2 cards — sideways.
4. End of the round
You play 13 tricks, and when all players have no cards left in hand the round ends. Each player checks whether their bid succeeded or failed.
4.1. A successful bid
A player whose number of wins in this round matches their bid at the end of the round (the total value of the Bid Coin they pushed back) has a successful bid. Discard all the Bid Coin you pushed back from in front of you.
Alternatively, if you succeeded with a declared bid of 0, discard all the Bid Coin you turned sideways from in front of you.
It is a good idea to put discarded value-1 coins into the supply and to put coins of value 2 or more back in the box.
Example
A's number of wins in this round was 8, and their bid was also 8 (5 + 3). The number of wins and the bid match, so A's bid is a success. A discarded the 2 Bid Coin they had pushed back.
4.2. A failed bid
A player whose number of wins in this round does not match their bid at the end of the round has a failed bid.
If you had pushed Bid Coin back (that is, you did not declare a bid of 0), return all the Bid Coin you pushed back to their original position. There is no further penalty.
Example
B's number of wins in this round was 5, and their bid was 10 (7 + 3). The number of wins and the bid do not match, so B's bid failed. B returns the 2 Bid Coin they pushed back to their original position.
If you failed a declared bid of 0, return all the cards you turned sideways to their original position.
In addition, as a penalty, you must take value-1 Bid Coin from the supply — as many as the number of tricks you won in this round — and line them up in front of yourself. If there are no value-1 Bid Coin in the supply, you must substitute something else and take that instead.
Example
C had declared a bid of 0 but won 2 tricks. Because C failed the declared bid of 0, C returns all the Bid Coin turned sideways to their original position, takes 2 value-1 Bid Coin from the supply (because they won 2 tricks) and lines them up in front of themselves.
4.3. End of the game, preparation for the next round
Once every player has resolved their successful or failed bid, check whether at least one of the game-end conditions is met. There are 2 end conditions:
- Somebody has 0 Bid Coin left in front of them.
- You have played as many rounds as there are players.
4.3.1. Preparation for the next round
If neither end condition is met, play another round. Go to "2.2. Preparation for each round".
Do not forget to shuffle the cards that were not dealt in the current round back in.
The first lead player of the new round is the player to the left of this round's start player.
4.3.2. End of the game
If at least one end condition is met, the game ends without another round being played. At that moment, the player with the lowest total value of Bid Coin in front of them is the winner of the game.
If several players are tied, the one among them who has discarded the value-7 Bid Coin wins. If all of them have discarded it (or all of them still have it), compare the values 5, 3 and 2 in that order; the player who alone discarded the higher-value Bid Coin is the winner.
Note that if there is a player who has discarded all of their Bid Coin, that player is the winner.
If several players have discarded all of their Bid Coin, all of them are winners.
Example
At the end of the game, the Bid Coin left in front of A, B, C and D were as shown in the figure — A: 7; B: 1 and 5; C: 1, 2 and 3; D: 3 and 5. The lowest total in front of a player is 6, which B and C both have. Of those two, both have discarded the value 7, and only C has discarded the value 5. C, who alone discarded the higher-value Bid Coin, is the winner.
Credits
Game design: Shibu. Illustration: Natsuki Okada. Rules proofreading: Makoto Nishida. Rulebook DTP: Hakkutsu.