Pass The Ewe

There are five suits in this game: The 12 royal cards (J, Q, K) of all four traditional suits make one suit; they don’t count for their normal suits. The remaining cards in the other suits (A to 10 in spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds) make the other four suits.

If you’re starting a hand, you must play one or more cards of only one suit (S, H, C, D, royals). Play passes to your left.

When play passes to you, you may pass or play. If you pass, play passes to your left. If you play, you must play a homogeneous set of cards that beats what was most recently played. The rank of the card you play is irrelevant, but the number of cards you play and their suit is relevant.

Suit Ranking: Hearts beat spades and clubs. Clubs beat hearts and diamonds. Diamonds beat clubs and royals. Royals beat diamonds and spades. Spades beat royals and hearts.

If the most recent play was one heart, you can play one club, or one spade, or two hearts. You can not play more than what you need to beat what was played; you can’t play three or more hearts or two or more clubs or spades.

Short play example: Alice starts a hand by playing two clubs. Bob plays three clubs. Cathy passes. Dan plays three diamonds. Alice passes. Bob passes. Cathy plays three royals. Dan plays four royals. Alice plays four diamonds. Bob plays four clubs. Cathy plays four hearts. Dan passes. Alice plays five hearts. Bob, Cathy, and Dan all pass and Alice takes the hand.

If play passes back to you and you were the last player to play, you get the ewe totem and all of the cards played go face-down into your Wool Pile. You get a one-point bonus to your score. The hand is over.

If all players have cards left in hand, the player to the left of the player with the ewe starts the next hand. If at least one player is out of cards the round is over. If you have cards in hand at the end of a round, you lose one point for every card in your hand. If you have the ewe at the end of a round, you get a two-point bonus to your score.

If the round is over, count the number of cards in your Wool Pile and have the scorekeeper add that to your score. If one or more players have 100 points or more, the game is over. If the game is not over, collect and shuffle all of the cards.

If you have the ewe at the end of the game, you get a 5-point bonus to your score.