Tornei
Tornei Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Tornei is a trick-taking game. Each player selects a card from their hand, and whoever plays the strongest card takes all of the played cards; this is called taking a "trick". Play continues in this manner until the players' hands are empty.
In Tornei, players do not simply aim to take the most tricks; there are many cases where taking fewer tricks will award more points! Rather, players aim to predict the strength of the played cards in each trick, scoring points for each correct prediction.
What's special about Tornei is that players do not try to predict how many tricks they will take in total. Instead, they predict whether their played card will be the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th strongest card in each trick.
Components
- 56 cards (4 suits, with cards numbered 1 through 14 in each suit)
- 4 player boards
Preparation
The player who last rode a horse, or last saw someone ride a horse, becomes the Dealer.
The Dealer shuffles all of the cards and deals 14 cards to each player, which form the players' hands.
In a 3-player game, the remaining 14 cards become the dummy player's hand. For detailed 3-player game rules, please refer to the "3-Player Rules" section later in this rulebook.
Finally, give a player board to each player.
Flow of Gameplay
Tricks in Tornei are divided into the Prediction Phase and Play Phase.
1. Prediction Phase
The player to the left of the Dealer begins the game. The player who begins a trick is called the "Leader".
The Leader chooses one card from their hand and places it face-up in front of them; this card is called their "Joust card". Then, the Leader chooses another card from their hand and places it face-down in front of them; this is called their "Prediction card". In this way, each player will play two cards per trick.
The objective of the game is to predict the following: "When the Joust cards are ranked by strength, what rank will my card be in?" The strength of cards is determined as follows:
- First, cards are ordered by suit, from strongest to weakest.
- Then, cards with the same suit are ranked by their numbers, from highest to lowest.
Suit Strength and Prediction Ranks
| Suit | Wyvern | Fleur-de-lis | Shamrock | Cross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 1st (Strongest) | 2nd | 3rd | 4th (Weakest) |
The non-Leader players then look at the Leader's played card, and try to predict what rank their Joust card will be in for this trick. Choose a card and place it face-down as your Prediction card; its suit determines your prediction for this trick as shown above. (For example, playing a Shamrock Prediction card indicates that you believe your Joust card will be the 3rd strongest.)
However, players do not yet select their played cards! Also, note that only suits matter for Prediction cards; the numbers are ignored.
Once all of the non-Leader players have made their predictions, proceed to the Play Phase.
2. Play Phase
Starting with the player to the left of the Leader and continuing clockwise, each non-Leader player chooses a card from their hand and places it face-up as their Joust card. Players must follow the Leader's suit if possible; if the player has a card in their hand that has the same suit as the Leader's Joust card, they must play it. However, if the player does not have any cards matching the Leader's suit, they may play any card they wish. Once each player in turn has played a card, rank the four Joust cards by strength.
Note: Don't collect the cards from the trick yet! First, make sure to check whether each player's prediction was correct.
After ranking the four Joust cards by strength, each player reveals their Prediction card and checks whether it matches their Joust card's actual rank. Then, the player places their Prediction card face-up on their player board:
- If the prediction was correct, place the card above the player board.
- If the prediction was incorrect, place the card below the player board.
Place cards so that the numbers on the cards are visible. Additionally, each card should be placed on the section of the player board matching its suit, either above or below as mentioned previously.
Finally, the player who played the strongest Joust card (and therefore won the trick) collects the Joust cards and places them face-down next to their player board, taking care not to mix the cards with the Prediction cards.
- Correct predictions are placed above the board.
- Incorrect predictions are placed below the board.
Note: Each Prediction card is placed face-up on the player board of the player who made the prediction. Joust cards are placed face-down next to the board of the player who won the trick.
Game End and Scoring
When the players' hands are empty, calculate each player's score according to their successful predictions and number of tricks taken.
Points for correct predictions
- 1st (Wyvern): 2 points each
- 2nd (Fleur-de-lis): 3 points each
- 3rd (Shamrock): 3 points each
- 4th (Cross): 2 points each
Points for tricks taken
- For each trick taken: 1 point
- If the player took exactly 0 tricks: 3 points
After calculating each player's score for the round, a new round begins, and the player to the left of the Dealer becomes the new Dealer.
Once each player has been the Dealer once, the game ends. Whoever has the highest total score across all rounds is the winner! If multiple players are tied for the highest score, they rejoice in their shared victory.
Three-Player Rules
In a 3-player game, a dummy player is added and acts as the fourth player.
As in the normal 4-player game, deal 14 cards to each player. Then, take the remaining cards and deal 7 cards face-up, one at a time, onto the section of the dummy player's board that matches each card's suit. Do not rearrange or sort the cards in each suit; they should remain in the order that they were dealt.
Then, place the remaining 7 cards face-down next to the dummy player's board. These will be the dummy player's Prediction cards.
How the dummy player plays Joust cards
- If the dummy player has a card of the Leader's suit, he plays the top card of that suit from his player board.
- Otherwise, he plays the top card of the strongest suit he has remaining on his player board.
- When the dummy player takes a trick and becomes the Leader, he always plays the top card of the strongest suit he has remaining on his player board.