Margin for Error Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Game Play (for 4 players)
  • Deal
  • Establish a Captain
  • Choose Point Suit & Strategy
  • Pass Cards
  • Play
  • Expose Strategy
  • Winning the Round
• Scoring
• Tips
• Rules for 5 Players
• Winning the Game

Equipment

56 cards (4 suits, numbered 1-14) and 2 Strategy cards (1 Low goal card and 1 High goal card)

Game Play (for 4 players)

Deal

Choose a dealer, who shuffles and deals all 56 cards facedown to the players evenly. Players keep their hands hidden throughout the game. Each player is partnered with the player sitting opposite him. Players take turns being the dealer in subsequent rounds, rotating clockwise.

Establish a Captain

After looking at his cards, the dealer decides if he wants to be the Captain. If the dealer declines, the option to become Captain passes clockwise. The first person to accept becomes the Captain, but if all 4 players pass, the dealer must assume the Captain's role.

Choose Point Suit & Strategy

The Captain chooses and announces the point suit for the round. (At the end of the round, each card of the point suit is equal to one point card, regardless of the number value on the card.) Then, he decides whether he wants to tell his partner that their strategy is to: 1. win point cards totaling less than or equal to 4 (by giving him the "Low goal" card), or 2. win point cards totaling more than or equal to 10 (by giving him the "High goal" card). The Captain gives his partner the chosen Strategy card facedown, which the partner checks and then keeps facedown. The Strategy card does not become part of the partner's hand.

Pass Cards

The Captain passes 3 cards facedown to his partner. The partner can look at the passed cards, and then he passes 3 different cards from his hand facedown back to the Captain. The player to the Captain's left simultaneously does the same with his partner, however they only exchange 2 cards. Passed cards then become part of the players' hands.

Play

The player with the Green 1 card starts the first trick by leading that card faceup (or the Blue 1 card, if Green is the point suit), and play proceeds clockwise. Each of the other players plays one card faceup, following suit. If a player does not have a card in his hand of the suit led, he can discard any card (and if he discards a card of the point suit, the point suit is considered "broken"). There are no trump cards. After each player has played, the player who played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick and leads to the next trick. The winner of the trick takes the cards and places them facedown before him in two piles, separating point cards from non-point cards (taken cards cannot be viewed thereafter, but any player can count them). A player cannot lead a card of the point suit until the point suit is broken (unless he only has cards of the point suit in his hand, and thus has no choice). The point suit cannot be broken on the first trick (again, unless a player has no choice). The round ends after all cards have been played (or when the round's scoring outcome is no longer in question).

Expose Strategy

When (a) at least half of the tricks have been played, or (b) either partnership has taken at least 5 point cards by itself, whichever comes first, the Captain's opponents are permitted to turn over and expose the Strategy card. (e.g.: In a 4-player game, the Captain & his partner together have already taken 4 total point cards, and their opponents also have already taken 4 total point cards. The opponents can turn over the Strategy card once either partnership takes at least one more point card, or after 7 tricks have been played, whichever comes first.)

Winning the Round

If the Captain's team chose the Low goal:

• the Captain's team wins the round if they took 4 or less total point cards;
• the opposing team wins the round if they took between 0 and 8 total point cards, inclusive;
• if the Captain's team took exactly 5 total point cards, the round is a draw.

Captain's Team: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Opposing Team: 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

If the Captain's team chose the High goal:

• the Captain's team wins the round if they took 10 or more total point cards;
• the opposing team wins the round if they took between 6 and 14 total point cards, inclusive;
• if the Captain's team took exactly 9 total point cards, the round is a draw.

Captain's Team: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Opposing Team: 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Scoring

1. If the Captain's team won the round, the Captain's team receives 15 points. If the opposing team won the round, the opposing team receives 10 points. If the round was a draw, neither team receives points.
2. If the Captain's team chose the Low goal and they took zero point cards, they also receive 5 bonus points. If the Captain's team chose the High goal and they took all 14 point cards, they receive 10 bonus points.
3. Individuals do not score points for the actual number of point cards that they took.

Tips

1. The Captain's opponents generally should "break" the point suit as early as possible. This enables them to observe whether the Captain & his partner are trying to take or avoid point cards.
2. If the Captain chooses the High goal, his partner generally should pass his highest cards (frequently of the point suit) to the Captain.
3. If the Captain chooses the Low goal, and his partner's only cards of the point suit all have high number values, such as 12, 13 & 14, the partner should consider passing some of these cards to the Captain.

Rules for 5 Players

1. The last card is not dealt. It is set aside, facedown.
2. The partnerships change each round. The Captain's partner is the player sitting 3 seats to his left, with whom the Captain exchanges 2 cards, in the same manner described above. The other 3 players play as a team against the Captain and his partner. The player to the Captain's left passes 2 cards facedown to the player seated to the Captain's right, who then passes 2 different cards facedown in return. The remaining player, sitting 2 seats to the Captain's left, adds the non-dealt card to his hand, and then he discards any one card (even the card just added to his hand). After all cards have been passed, the discarded card is then turned faceup, set aside, and is not played.
3. If the Green 1 card is the discarded faceup extra card, the Green 2 card leads the first trick (or if Green is the point suit and the Blue 1 card is the extra card, the Blue 2 card leads the first trick).
4. At the end of the round, after all tricks have been played, the Captain can elect whether or not he wants to include the extra card (if it is a point card) in his team's point card total.
5. The scores are recorded as above, but each player (instead of the team) receives the points (e.g. the Captain's opponents each receive 10 points for winning the round).
6. Every 5 rounds (after each player has had a turn being the dealer), randomly change the seat order of all players by redrawing for seats. New partnership combinations will almost assuredly result. The player with the lowest score becomes the next dealer (if 2 or more players are tied for last place, then the youngest of these players becomes the dealer). The deal rotates clockwise thereafter.

Winning the Game

The entire game is over when a team has accumulated at least 60 points, or when a player, in a 5-player game, has accumulated at least 50 points (a 5-player game can result in a tie). The team (or player) with the highest score wins!