Cahoots (Mayday Games)
Cahoots Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 48 card deck (8 cards in each of 6 suits)
- 4 Identity Cards (each with 3 of the 6 suits represented)
- 1 Start Player Card
Set Up
To begin the game, randomly put one Identity Card in front of each player so everyone can easily see it throughout the game. Each Identity Card shows three of the six suits. When a suit wins a trick, the players with the corresponding Identity Card score. Each player shares one suit in common with each other player.
The Deck consists of forty-eight cards in six suits with eight cards in each suit (one 4, two 5s, 6s, and 7s, and one 8).
For a three player game, remove one 5 and one 7 of each suit from the Deck.
Randomly determine a starting dealer. The dealer shuffles the Deck and deals a hand of twelve cards to each player. The dealer receives the Start Player Token and places it in front of him or herself.
Tricks
The game is played over eleven rounds, called tricks. Each trick has three phases: Card Play, Resolution, and Keeping/Killing Cards.
Card Play
The player with the Start Player Card begins the first trick by playing any card from his or her hand by placing it face-up in the middle of the table. Then, each other player does likewise in clockwise order. This is repeated around the table until each player has played two cards. Play cards so that everyone can see the suit and value of each card in the trick.
Resolution
Once cards have been played, separate them by suit and total the combined value of each suit. The suit(s) with the highest total value wins the trick.
Keeping/Killing Cards
Beginning with the Start Player, each player will choose any card played in the middle of the table and place it either face-up or face-down in front of his or herself. A face-up card will eventually go into your hand (which we call "keeping") while a face-down card will eventually go into the discard pile ("killing").
Next, each player chooses another card in turn order, killing it if they kept the first time and keeping it if they killed the first time. Once everyone has a face-up card and a face-down card in front of themselves, put the face-up cards into your hands.
Divide the face-down cards among the winning players to track points, 1 point per card. In a three-player game, randomly add one of the cards removed during setup so that there are always four cards/points being distributed each round.
After scoring and keeping/killing cards, if each player has two or more cards in hand, pass the Start Player Card to the left of the previous starting player and play another trick.
Game End
The game will last 11 tricks. The game is over when players' hands are empty before the Keeping/Killing phase. (The final Keeping/Killing phase is only for collecting score cards.)
Scoring
Scoring is as follows:
| # of Winning Suits | Scoring |
|---|---|
| 1 | The two players with the winning suit on their Identity Card each score 2 points. |
| 2 (one player has both winning suits) | If one player has both winning suits on their Identity Card, they announce 'cahoots' and score 4 points. |
| 2 (all players have one winning suit) | If each player has one of the winning suits on their Identity Card, they each score 1 point. |
| 3 (one player has all three winning suits) | If one player has all three winning suits on their Identity Card, they announce 'cahoots' and score 4 points. |
| 3 (two players have two of the winning suits) | If two players each have two of the three winning suits on their Identity Card, they each score 2 points. |
Note: In a three-player game, each player has one suit to themselves. If a trick is won by one of these suits alone, its owner gets to announce 'cahoots,' scoring all 4 points.
Example of Play
Anne has the Identity Card showing spades, hearts, and stars. Bob has clubs, hearts, and cups. Carrie has clubs, diamonds, and stars. Derek has spades, diamonds, and cups.
Anne is the starting player and plays the 8 of spades. Bob is to her left and doesn't want spades to win because that's not one of his suits. He plays a 5 of clubs, hoping to lure Carrie into playing more clubs. Carrie, knowing that Derek will play the final card in the round, tries to appeal to him with a 6 of diamonds. Derek is tempted by Anne's spade as well as Carrie's diamond. He goes with a 6 of spades.
Coming into the second half of the trick, Anne feels good about her chances of scoring, and decides now would be a good time to get rid of an enemy card from her hand. She plays a 5 of cups. Bob sees that no one is interested in clubs right now, and changes gears with a 6 of cups. Carrie knows she's beaten and opts to ditch the 7 of cups. Derek is still winning, so he plays the 8 of hearts.
Cups have won the trick with a total value of 18 compared to spades' 14 and three suits in the single-digits. Bob and Derek each score 2 points as their reward. Anne keeps the 8 of spades, Bob keeps the 8 of hearts, Carrie kills the 7 of cups and Derek kills the 5 of clubs. Going around again, Anne kills the 6 of cups, Bob kills the 6 of spades, Carrie keeps the 6 of diamonds and Derek keeps the 6 of cups. Bob becomes the next starting player. Bob and Derek split the 4 face-down cards that were killed to represent the points they earned.
Scoring Variant
To remove perfect information and add a little luck to the game, count the face-value of cards you've scored rather than the number of cards. When splitting cards for points, either do so randomly, or take turns choosing them, starting with the winner closest to the starting player, and snaking back from the last chooser to the first.