18 April 2025
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A mechanism in card games where players lay cards into the middle of the table one by one. The highest card wins that play.
Traditionally trick taking is seen as a slightly serious mechanism. I have this image of four Bridge players silently around the table battling to prove their wit and intelligence. It makes your brain whirr in ways other mechanisms can’t, and in its modern applications it can be great fun too! Even though I’m not as proficient as my Player Two, who gets irritated to the core when I miss an obvious play, trick taking is one of my favourite mechanisms in the gaming world.
If you’ve not encountered trick taking before, or always found it opaque and confusing, here are the things you need to know. A “trick” refers to the cards in this current battle. Usually one card per player, played in the middle of the table. “Suit” means the family of the card, hearts, spades, wands or yellows. Usually, it’s the highest numbered card that “takes” the trick, but this can change if there is a trump suit. “Trump suit” means one suit is more powerful than all the others. In a standard pack of cards, this could be any of the four suits and is usually decided at random or chosen by players. In some games, the trump suit is set.
“No, you can’t play that, you have to follow suit.” It’s a common thing to hear, especially with new players or those who in their excitement to make the best play occasionally forget the basics. But what does it mean? In most trick taking games, when one player has laid a card, the rest of the players must play a card of the same suit, if they can. If they don’t have any of the suit that was “led” they can discard a card from a random suit or play a trump card. This restriction leads to a lot of the tactical methods of playing, where you play some cards knowing you’ll lose, so that you can win something else in the future.
Love it or hate it, this is one of those mechanisms that is absolutely everywhere in card games, and you haven’t come across it yet, you’ll find countless classic and modern games to intrigue and infuriate you.
Trick Taking Games
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
Cooperative trick taking campaign card game for 2-4 players. Talking isn’t allowed, so it becomes a mind melding style of play. From the moment the tasks are visible, players are trying to get onto the same wavelength to make everyone’s goals possible at the same time. When it goes well, it’s like working as a perfect trick taking hive mind. There’s also a deep sea version when you’ve breezed through outer space.
Read more with our interview with the designer Thomas Sing.
Cat in a Box
This is a weirdly thematic trick taking game based around the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, where even the rulebook is written as the dossier of a quantum scientist. Nothing is what it seems - or is it? All the cards are black and players declare the suit of the card when they play it. There are four suits and five cards of each number. Be careful not to cause a paradox!
Sail
You’re a crew of pirates sailing your ship across the seven seas avoiding the rocks. Oh, and the Kraken. It’s a tight game where one wrong move will scupper the entire round. Card combos you play can either move the ship or protect you from the Kraken but does your crewmate have the card you need to make it happen? Teamwork is a necessity, and being able to communicate telepathically would be a bonus.
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