The Decktet Wiki

A trick-taking game inspired by the Chinese Dominoes game Tien Gow.

Materials

4 Players: Standard deck only (36 cards).
3 Players: Number cards only (24 cards).

Plus some tools to track scores (pencil and paper, tokens, etc.).

Gameplay

Only the suits of a card are used during this game.

Setup

Shuffle the deck, then deal 9(4 players)/8(3 players) cards to each player.

Sets and Tiers

The 36 cards are divided into 3 Sets and 6 Tiers, as the table below.

- Only use Set of the Cycle and Set of Inter in 3-players game.

How to remember them?

• Set of Suits: 12 one-suit cards (Aces and Crowns).
• Set of the Cycle: 11 cards whose suits are adjacant in suit-order, plus 2.
• Set of Inter: the other 12 cards.

First compare the order of the upper-suit (following te suit-order), then compare the lower-suit (see structure). The only exception is that Moon+Knot is the lowest card in Set of the Cycle.

During the game

Round 1: decided the leader randomly.
Round 2+: player who won the last round become the leader.

1. Leader play at least 1 cards with the same Tier.

2. Other players choose to follow or pass, counter-clockwisely.

• To follow: play the equal amount of card(s) as the leader, face-up, that satisfies:

a. the Set combination of the card(s) should be exactly the same to the leader's;
b. the cards should be in a same Tier;
c. their Tier should be higher than all face-up cards that have been played so far in this round (not only the leader's cards).

Example
Leader played A++7 (Suit+Suit+Circle, Tier 4)
Second player played A++5 (Suit+Suit+Circle, Tier 2)
It's your turn. To follow, you can only play A++3 or A++6 (Suit+Suit+Circle, Tier 1). If you don't have those cards, you have to pass.

• To pass: play the equal amount of card(s) as the leader, face-down (No one will know what the face-down cards are).

- It is ok to pass even if you're able to follow.

3. When the last player(to the leader's left) finishes his/her turn, a round ends. The play who played the face-up card(s) with the highest Tier wins the round. If the leader played X cards at the beginning , than the winner wins X tricks. (You can put 3/4 cards in a stack to represent a trick. )

End of the game

Player who wins the last trick(s) wins the game.

You can only win a game when you take at least 2 tricks. So if you didn't win any of the first 8 tricks, than you must pass the last round, even if you are able to win it.

- If you didn't win any of the first 7 tricks, but the leader played 2 cards for the last round, you're allowed to win this round (thus win the game).

Scores

• All players get scores equal to the number of tricks they won.
• Winner of the game get a 5-score bonus.

Example

Player	Tricks won	Score
A	5	5
B	1	1
C	0	0
D(winner)	2	2+5=7

Play several games and add up the scores. Player with the highest score is the final winner.

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