BigWig Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• What's Included
• Before You Begin
• Let's Get Started
• Round Sequence
• Drawing Cards
• Special Cards
• When Does the Game End?

What's Included

1 altar, consisting of 1 box bottom 1 cover card

30 small cards, including 6 overview cards 20 point cards (8× 2, 6× 3, 4× 4, and 2× 5 victory points) 4 holmgang cards (HG)

58 large cards, including 6 well cards (# in lavender) 36 standard cards (values 1–9, in red, yellow, blue and green) 16 special cards (2x values 0, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 4x value 5 in white)

Before You Begin

• Build the altar: Place the empty box bottom (opening facing down) between you and place the cover card on top of it.
• Each player receives one well card (Mímisbrunnr) and one overview card. Place the overview card face up in front of you and take the well card into your hand face down. Any extra well and overview cards are not needed. Set them aside.
• Shuffle the remaining small cards and place them face down as a draw pile on the altar.
• Shuffle the remaining large cards* and deal 7 to each player. Take them into your hand face down together with your well card. Place the remaining large cards face down as a draw pile next to the altar. On the opposite side, leave some space for a face-up discard pile.

* Game-mechanically irrelevant but thematically interesting background info for newcomers to Norse mythology: The standard cards show the gates and names of the 9 worlds. The special cards depict selected characters, peoples, and weapons, which will be briefly explained later in these rules.

Let's Get Started

The game is played over several short rounds, in which (almost) everyone always plays at the same time..

Round Sequence

Reveal the top card on the altar. What appears?

• Point Card: "General mayhem!"

  Each newly revealed point card is worth 2–5 victory points and shows the corresponding number of trump colors that apply for the current trick. White appears on every point card and is therefore always trump. The other colors (red, yellow, blue, green) are only trump if they are shown.

  You now play a face-down trick for the point card. To do so, each player chooses one card from their hand and places it face down in front of them. Everyone ready? Then reveal the cards and resolve the trick. The card with the highest (trump) value wins the trick:

  • If no one played a trump card, the card with the highest value wins.
  • If at least one player played a trump card, the card with the highest trump value wins. All trump colors are equal in rank (for example, white is neither stronger nor weaker than the other trump colors).

  Whoever wins the trick takes the point card and keeps it face up in front of them so everyone can see it. Tie: If two or more players played a card with the highest (trump) value, no one wins the trick. As a result, no one receives the point card. Carefully lift the altar and place the point card face down underneath it.

  After resolving the trick, all played hand cards are placed on the face-up discard pile, and the next round begins.

  Example: The revealed point card is worth 3 victory points and shows white, red, and green as the trump colors. Thade plays a red 3, Mario plays a green 7, and Dominik plays a blue 8. Although Dominik played the highest number, his card is beaten by Thade's and Mario's trump cards. Mario's green 7 also beats Thade's red 3. Therefore, Mario wins the point card.

• Holmgang card (HG): "Care for a duel?!"

  Who currently has the fewest victory points? You challenge any one player who has already collected at least one point card to a . Choose one of that player's collected point cards and place it face up on the Holmgang card. Now the two of you play a single trick face down, just as described earlier. The point card you selected determines the trump colors. All other players may only watch. Whoever wins the trick receives both the and that may be resting under the altar (you may not look at them beforehand). Finally, slide the Holmgang card halfway under one of the four sides of the altar so that only part of it is still visible. Place your played hand cards onto the open discard pile, and continue with the next round.

Drawing Cards

You do not automatically draw cards after every round. To replenish your hand, you must play your well card (Mímisbrunnr)*** into the face-down trick instead of a standard or special card. If you do this, you have no chance of winning the current scoring card, but you may draw cards after the trick is resolved. Here is how it works: First, take your well card back into your hand (so it is always available to you every round). Then you must sacrifice one other card of your choice from your hand and place it, unplayed, onto the face-up discard pile. In return, you may draw 1–3 cards from the draw pile into your hand:

• Sacrificed a card with a value of 0–3? → Draw 1 card.
• Sacrificed a card with a value of 4–6? → Draw 2 card.
• Sacrificed a card with a value of 7–10? → Draw 3 cards.

*** Since Mímisbrunnr (Mimir's Well) is tied to knowledge gained through sacrifice, using sacrifice subtly reinforces the myth without needing extra explanation. It also mirrors Odin's sacrifice, which is a great resonance for players who catch it.

Important Hand Card Limit: At no time may you have more than 9 cards in your hand (including the well card). As soon as you reach this limit while drawing cards, you may not draw any additional cards, even if sacrificing a card would otherwise entitle you to draw more.

Draw pile empty? Shuffle the face-up discard pile to form a new face-down draw pile.

Special Cases:

1. What happens if several players play their well card at the same time? Is there a specific order for sacrificing and drawing cards? → Yes. The youngest player always starts, then the others follow clockwise.

2. What happens if a trick contains only well cards? → Funny enough, everyone may draw cards as usual, but no one wins the trick. The current scoring card is placed under the altar.

3. Can I play my well card in a holmgang? → Yes.

4. What happens if, at the start of a round, I have only my well card and no other cards in hand? → Tough luck, but not too bad. Play your well card into the face-down trick as normal. Afterward, you may draw 2 cards without having to sacrifice a card (since you don't have one).

Example: A scoring card is revealed showing white and blue as the trump colors. Mario and Dominik are worn out from previous rounds and each plays their well card into the face-down trick. That's good news for Thade, because he wins the scoring card uncontested, even though he played only a green 2. Since Dominik is younger than Mario, he begins the card-drawing procedure: he takes his well card back into his hand, sacrifices a green 5, and draws 2 cards. Then Mario takes his well card back into his hand, sacrifices a red 9, and draws 3 cards.

Special Cards

You can recognize the special cards by the white stars on them. Their values are always trump. In addition, almost all of them have different effects. These effects add just the right touch of chaos to the game, but they apply only to the current round in which the card is played. Your reference cards list each special card along with its value, quantity, and effect. Once you've internalized this information after a few games, you can simply set the reference cards aside and play without them.

• 0 // Til Valhallar! (2x) With the battle cry Til Valhallar!, it's straight into the fray: You may play this card normally as a trump 0 in the face-down trick. Alternatively, you can use it as a ticket to join a holmgang you would not otherwise be part of. To do so, reveal this card in time (before the holmgang players choose their cards for the face-down trick) and place it on the face-up discard pile. You then take part in the holmgang and choose a new card from your hand to play into the face-down trick.

• 3 // Dvergar (2x) The Dvergar (dwarves) really bring the house down: This time, the trick is not won by the highest value played, but by the lowest. In other words, the trick is won by the lowest non-trump value. If only trump cards are played, the lowest trump value wins instead.

• 4 // Loki (2x) The cunning god Loki lives up to his name: After the trick is resolved, you may take any one of the scoring cards that might be slumbering under the altar. If there are currently no scoring cards there, tough luck (you may not check beforehand). If Loki has the lowest value of all cards in the trick (for this check, only the numerical values matter, regardless of trump colors), you instead take all scoring cards slumbering under the altar.

• 5 // Surtr / Vanir / Ymir / Álfar (1x each) The fire giant Surtr, the divine clan of the Vanir, the frost giant Ymir, and the nature spirits Álfar (elves) outshine everything else: The two colors shown on these special cards (red/yellow/blue/green and white) are the only trump colors for this trick, regardless of what the current scoring card shows.

• 6 // Fenrir (2x) The much-feared wolf Fenrir breaks his bonds: In this trick, all special cards keep their values but lose their effects, with the exception of Fenrir.

Important: If two or more special cards with the same value are played in a round, their effects cancel each other out. Those cards then have only their regular trump value.

Example: Second Holmgang. Dominik has the fewest victory points and challenges Mario to a duel for Mario's highest scoring card, worth 5 victory points. Thade is not allowed to take part, but he whips out a Till Valhallar! card and is allowed to join the holmgang after all. When the trick is resolved, Mario cheers, because with Mjöllnir (white 10) he has played the highest-value card in a trump color. "Hold on," Dominik calls out. He has played Hugin & Munin (white 7), which makes Mario's card invalid and gives Dominik the highest-value trump card instead. "Hold on again," Thade calls out. He has played Fenrir (white 6), causing the effects of the other special cards to expire. However, Mario's card has no effect anyway, and its value of 10 remains unaffected by Fenrir. In the end, Mario prevails after all with Mjöllnir. He may keep the scoring card Dominik challenged him for and may also take a look under the altar for any possible free scoring cards.

Words of Wisdom: Hunting for scoring cards is important, of course. But just as important is knowing when to pass on them and draw cards instead. In most games, the hunt feels more like a marathon than a sprint, and good card management is a key to success. A second key to victory: Try to remember (at least roughly) which special cards have already been played. This will help you better judge the possibilities and combinations of upcoming tricks.

— Thado Pre (closet ancient game philosopher)

When Does the Game End?

As soon as the fourth and final holmgang card is revealed and the corresponding round has been completed, the game ends. Now count up the victory points you have collected. Who has the most? Congratulations, the BigWig is yours! Whether you want it or not, you now rule space and time, at least until the next rematch.

In the event of a tie, the tied player who has the most cards remaining in hand wins.

Still tied? Well then: share the helmet and go in peace…