Volltreffer
Volltreffer Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
- Players: 3-5
- Ages: 10 and up
- Game length: about 30 minutes
- Contents: 50 playing cards (ranks 1-10 in 5 suits), 4 price cards, 1 scoring track, 1 "meld points" reference card, 5 pawns
Setup
- Place the scoring track (numbered 1-80) in the middle of the table.
- Place the four price cards face up next to one another just below the scoring track, in the order 4 - 2 - 1 - 0 (left to right).
- Shuffle the 50 playing cards and place the deck face down beside the four price cards.
- Reveal the top card of the deck and slide it half under the deck so it stays visible. The suit of this card is the trump suit for the entire round.
- Each player takes a pawn and places it on the scoring track:
- 3-4 players: on space 25
- 5 players: on space 30
- (The pawns start out crowded together on the same space; they spread out again quickly.)
- Place the "meld points" reference card face up next to the scoring track. It is only a reminder of the melding point values below; experienced players usually set it aside once they know the values.
Course of Play
The game is conducted in 3 consecutive phases: Buying Cards, Melding Points, and the Trick-taking Game.
Phase 1 - Buying Cards
The top four cards of the deck are turned face up and laid out to correspond to the four price cards, one playing card per price card.
- If a trump card is among the four, it goes under the most expensive price card (the 4).
- If more than one trump is revealed, the highest-ranking trump goes under the 4, the next-highest under the 2, and so on.
- Among non-trump cards, higher rank costs more. If two non-trump cards tie in rank, the dealer decides which is considered higher for placement purposes; if a newly revealed non-trump ties an existing card already laid out, the new card goes to the right of it, i.e. under the next cheaper price card.
Starting with the youngest player, and proceeding clockwise, each player in turn:
- Takes one of the four face-up cards into his hand (any card he likes, not necessarily the cheapest).
- Deducts that card's price from his pawn's position on the scoring track (the card lying under the 0 price card is free).
- Reveals the new top card of the deck to refill the empty spot, then re-arranges the four face-up cards by rank so they again correspond correctly to the 4 - 2 - 1 - 0 price cards, following the placement rules above.
Play continues in this way, player after player, until every player holds 8 cards.
Phase 2 - Melding Points
Once everyone holds 8 cards, each player may meld cards from his hand to score points. Melded cards must be revealed to the other players, and any points scored are recorded immediately on the scoring track.
Melding values:
| Meld | Points |
|---|---|
| Triplet (3 cards of the same rank) | 5 |
| Quadruplet (4 cards of the same rank) | 10 |
| Quintuplet (5 cards of the same rank) | 25 |
| All 5 suits represented in hand | 5 |
| Smallest sum of all 8 card ranks | 5, and becomes start player for Phase 3 |
A player who believes he holds the smallest sum of all 8 card ranks must, if the player to his left asks, show his hand to that player. Whoever actually has the smallest sum must meld it for the points; melding the other combinations above is optional.
A single card may only ever be counted toward one meld — for example, four cards of rank 9 can be melded as a quadruplet or as a triplet (using three of the four), but not as both at once. Several different melds can be scored in the same hand, for example two separate quadruplets, or a quintuplet plus a triplet, or a triplet plus all-5-suits plus the smallest sum.
Phase 3 - The Trick-taking Game
The players now play their 8 cards as a standard trick-taking game.
- The player who had the smallest sum in Phase 2 leads first, playing any card he chooses.
- Each other player, in turn, must follow the suit led if able. A player unable to follow suit may play any other suit, including trump.
- The highest trump played takes the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led takes the trick.
- The winner of each trick immediately scores 5 points on the scoring track, then leads the next trick with a card of his choice.
- Play continues until all 8 cards have been played from every hand.
End of the Game
It will typically take several rounds to find a winner. If, after a complete round (i.e. after Phase 3), a player's pawn sits in the goal area (61-70 points), that player wins. If more than one pawn is in the goal area at once, the winner is whichever pawn is closest to space 66.
Additional Rules
- A different player makes the first purchase in Phase 1 of each new round.
- If a player's pawn would move past space 80 on the scoring track, it wraps around and continues counting from space 41. For example, a pawn on space 78 that scores 5 points ends up on space 43.
- If, after Phase 3, a player's pawn is on a space in the range 71-80, that pawn continues from that same space at the start of the next round.
- When totaling the smallest-sum meld in Phase 2, players are expected to add their 8 card ranks honestly. Verification by the left-hand neighbor should be the exception, not the rule.
- If there is a tie for smallest sum in Phase 2, the designer's suggested tiebreaker is: whoever holds the most cards of rank 1 wins the tie; if still tied, whoever holds the most cards of rank 2, and so on.
Variant
In this variant, the goal area shrinks to spaces 63-69. In Phase 1, a newly revealed card is placed into the same spot just vacated (rather than being freely re-sorted by rank among the four price cards), and the player who took a card must also swap two cards in his hand with each other. All other rules are unchanged.