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Step A: Cut along the outsidedotted lines.

Step B: Fold along all of the lines. Step C: Cut along the dotted linein the middle.

Step D: Flatten the sheet and foldit in half along the long dimension.

Step E: Push in the ends, allowingthe pages on either side of thecentral cut to fold in oppositedirections.

Step G: Fold theresulting packetin half.

Tada! It’s abooklet.

Step F: Push until the center pagescome together, and then fold pagesflat.

@©2008 P.D. Magnus. Some rights reserved.

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE DECKTET [February 17, 2010]

[p. 1] Contents & Instructions [p. 2] Biscuit [p. 3] Chicane [p. 4] Emu Ranchers [p. 5] Jacynth [p. 6] Quincunx[p. 7] Varg Bid

This file contains the rules for over several games that you can play with the Decktet, along with a guide to card interpretation.

Most of the items are laid out as eight-page mini-books; with some cutting and folding, a single printed sheet turns into a pocket-sizedrulebook. If you want the same text formatted for on-screen reading, visit http://www.fecundity.com/decktet

Biscuit Scoring

STRAIGHT: Two or more cards ina row, scores the length of the run

ELEVENSIES: Two ends of the lineadd to 11, each opponent must drawa card

CROSS CARD: Same rank asstarting card, opens cross line

MATCHING ENDS:

1 Biscuit [different line]2 Hot Biscuit [main line]4 Hot Cross Biscuit [cross line]

PLAYING LAST CARD: 5 points,plus bonus for opponents’ hands:1 per Ace/Crown, 2 per numbercard, 3 per Pawn

Games for [ ]:Biscuit 2-4

The basic idea— Put down one cardper turn, match the suit of anadjacent card, and score pointsby card placement and being thefirst player to play all their cards.The first player places a card tothe left or right of the initial card.Subsequent players place cardson the left or right side of thismain line. Later in the game, theremay be cross lines that allow cardsto be played up or down.

{ GAME PLAY }Deal one card face down in themiddle of the table and anothercard face up crosswise on top ofit. Each player starts with a hand

of six cards. The remaining cardsform the draw pile. The player tothe left of the dealer takes thefirst turn.On your turn, choose one card fromyour hand and place it so as toextend one of the lines. The cardyou play must match at least onesuit with the card adjacent to itin line.If you do not have a card thatcan be played, then you must drawa card. You may play it immedi-ately if possible. Then it is thenext players’ turn. If there areno cards left in the draw pile whenyou are supposed to draw, you donot draw and play continues.STRAIGHTS: If the card you playedforms a continuous run of cardsin rank order, then you score the

length of the run. Aces are be-fore 2s, Crowns are after 9s, andstraights do not wrap around.For example: If the initial card isa 5 and you play a 6 next to it,then you score two points. If thenext player plays a 7 next to the6, then they score three points.It does not matter if the straightgoes left-to-right, right-to-left,or (on cross lines) up-down, butall the cards must be in the sameline.

ELEVENSIES: If the card you playand the card at the opposite endof the line add to 11, then everyopponent must draw a card. (Ina four-player game without part-ners, only your opponent with thefewest cards must draw. If more

for the purpose of straights.Pawnsmay count either 1 or 10 forthe purpose of elevensies;thismeans that aPawnmakes eleven-sies with an Ace at the other endof the line,with a Crown,or withanotherPawn.When you go out,you score a bonusof 3 for eachPawnremaining inopponents’ hands.

=Biscuit was invented by David VanSlyke.

http://www.fecundity.com/decktet

a bonus for cards remaining in youropponents’ hands:1 for each Aceor Crown,2 for each number card.If the draw pile is exhausted andno player is able to make any fur-ther plays,then the game is stale.The hand ends.There is no penaltyfor cards left in your hand if thishappens.

{THEEXTENDEDDECK}If you want to spice up the game,you can add in theExcuse,thePawns,or both.Just shuffle themin at the beginning of the game.TheExcusemay be played in anyline,regardless of suit.Any cardmay be played next to it.Play-ing theExcusedoes not score anypoints.Pawnsare between 9s and Crowns

main line.This scores 5 (= 4 forthe hot cross biscuit + 1 for thebiscuit).CROSSLINES: If you play a cardin the main line that is the samerank as the initial face up card,then you open a cross line.Crosscards are open on three sides:Subsequent cards may be playedup or down from them,and themain line may be continued to theleft or right.Note that the initial face up cardis not a cross card.Cards playedin cross lines (up or down fromcross cards) cannot start crosslines.

{GOINGOUT}If you play the last card in yourhand,then you score 5 points plus

than one opponent has the samefewest number,each draws.)BISCUITS: If the card you playedis in the main left-to-right line andit matches the card at the otherend of the main line,it’s called ahot biscuit and is worth 2 points.If the card you played is in an up-to-down cross line and matchesthe card at the other end of thatcross line,it’s called a hot crossbiscuit and is worth 4 points.If the card you played matchesthe end of another line,then it’sa biscuit worth 1 point.It is possible to score multiple bis-cuits in a single turn.For exam-ple:You play a Crown at the topof a cross line that already has aCrown at the bottom of it;thereis also a Crown at one end of the

Games for [ ]:

Chicane 2-4

In this basic deck trick-taking game,players bid to decide how the suitsand ranks will be determined.

A BIDDING a

Deal out the entire basic deck. Start-ing with the player on the dealer’sleft and proceeding clockwise, play-ers bid for control of the hand.A bid is a number and either Top orBottom. The number is the exactnumber of tricks the player thinksthey can take if they determine suits.A Top bid is considered higher thana Bottom bid with the same number.A player may bid Nil, which commitsthem to taking exactly zero tricks.In the order of bidding, a Nil Bot-tom bid is higher than any numberbid whatever. ANil Top bid is higher

than Nil Bottom. Once someonebids Nil Top, there is no room leftfor further bidding.Continuing around the table clock-wise, players may make a higher bidor pass. Bidding continues until ahighest bid is unchallenged. A playermay not bid after they have passed.Note that only the highest bid de-termines whether the hand is playedTop or Bottom; lower bids don’t mat-ter once play begins.

B PLAYING THE HAND b

The high bidder selects any cardfrom their hand to lead the firsttrick.Going clockwise, each player plays acard that matches the suit of thecard that was led. If you have nocards of the suit led, then you mayplay any card from your hand. Thehighest card that follows suit wins

the trick.The winner of the trick leads thenext trick. Play continues until play-ers have no cards remaining.

C SCORING c

If the high bidder won fewer tricksthan they bid, they score nothing; ifthey score exactly as many tricksas they bid, then they score theirbid plus three bonus points; if theyscore more more tricks than theybid, then they score their bid mi-nus one penalty point per overtrick.Other players score one point foreach trick they won, regardless ofbids.A player who bids Nil and wins notricks scores ten points. If the playerwins even a single trick, however,the Nil bid is lost. The player losesone point for each trick they won.

D TOP HAND d

aA A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *bB A 2 3 5 6 7 *cC A 2 4 7 8 9 *dD A 3 6 9 *eE A 4 5 8 *fF A *

E BOTTOM HAND e

aA A *bB A 4 8 9 *cC A 3 5 6 *dD A 2 4 5 7 8 *eE A 2 3 6 7 9 *fF A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

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you may discard one of your birds thatwould lose money rather than scoringit. If you have no losing birds, thenthe Excuse has no effect.Pawns: A Pawn (#) is a limited wild card.It may be played as any number rank,but only to grow a bird that matchesone of the Pawn’s suits. A Pawn maynot be played as an Ace or Crown, normay it be played to hatch a bird.

©2008 P.D. Magnus. Some rights reserved.

Rules for this and other games are available on [ ] website:

http://www.fecundity.com/decktet

Games for [ ]:Emu Ranchers 2

It’s a hardscrabble life for emu ranch-ers like yourself, raising exotic birdsfor foreign markets. With the high costfor every bird you hatch, it probablywon’t be worth it in the end.

Each bird on your ranch is representedby a stack of cards. Cards in a singlebird stack must all share a suit andmust be in rank order. At the endof the hand, the value of a bird isdetermined by the total of the num-ber cards in the stack. If the totalis too low, then you can end up los-ing money on a bird. An Ace or Crown(*) makes the stack worth more: moreprofit if you can cover expenses, butmore loss if you can’t. The object,

naturally enough, is to raise profitablebirds.SETUP: Deal six cards to each player.The remaining cards form the draw pile.There is no discard pile at the begin-ning.

{ GAME PLAY }

On your turn, you may do one of thefollowing: hatch a new bird, by startinga new stack; grow a bird, by adding acard to an existing stack; or discard acard. After that, you draw one card.bird varietiesHATCH A NEW BIRD: You may starta new bird stack by selecting a cardfrom your hand and playing it face upin front of you.GROW A BIRD: You may grow a birdby adding a card from your hand to

the top of a stack already in front ofyou. All of the cards in the stack mustshare a single suit, although of coursenumber cards will each have anothersuit as well. Stacks must be in ei-ther increasing or decreasing order,although you may skip ranks.Aces are below 1s, and *s are above9s.If you hatch a bird with a number card,you do not need to declare which suitthe stack will follow or which directionit will go; this will eventually be deter-mined by cards you play when growingthe bird.When you add cards to a stack, youshould set them at a bit of an offsetso that both you and your opponentcan see what cards are in the stack.

Example:At the end of the year,thestack for your blue bird is the Ace,2,3,5,6,8,and*of Waves.You discardthe 5,6,and 8 to pay upkeep;althoughthis totals to 19,there is no way todiscard exactly 18 with this combinationof cards.This leaves the Ace,2,3,and*.You score 15 points (2+3=5for the number cards plus 10 for theAce&Crown).Your score for the year is equal to thetotal value of your birds.

{THEEXTENDEDDECK}

If you want to spice up the game,youcan add in the Excuse,the Pawns,orboth.Just shuffle them in at the be-ginning of the game.TheExcuse:If you have theExcuse

in your hand at the end of the year,

both.Example:At the end of the year,thestack for your orange bird is the*,9,and 8 of Suns.You lose 6 points(18-9-8=1 for the number cards plus5 for the*).POSSIBLEPROFIT: If the total ofthe number cards is 18 or more,youstill need to pay upkeep for the bird:Discard number cards from the stackthat total at least 18.You do not ‘getchange’ for cards if you discard morethan 18.If there are any cards re-maining,you earn some profit.For profit,you score the total of anyremaining number cards.Furthermore,you gain 5 points if there is an Aceor Crown in the stack;10 if there areboth.

may not hatch new birds or draw cardsafter the year has ended.Since thereis no further player interaction afterthe year end,you may lay down re-maining cards without waiting for otherplayers.Then discard any cards thatyou are not able to play.For each bird,total up the numbercards in the bird stack.If the total isless than 18,then the you lose moneyon the bird.If the total is 18 or more,then you may make a profit.LOSINGMONEY: You lose points equalto the difference between the bird’stotal and the upkeep cost of 18.Ifthe number cards total to 15,for ex-ample,you lose 3 points.Furthermore,you lose 5 points if there is an Ace orCrown (*) in the stack;10 if there are

DISCARD: If you don’t want to playany of the cards in your hand,you mayselect and discard one card.Put it onthe top of the discard pile,startingthe pile if necessary.DRAW: If you discarded,take the topcard of the draw pile.Otherwise,youmay take either the top card of thedraw pile or the top card of the dis-card pile (if any).After you draw,your turn is over.Ifthere are still cards in the draw pile,it is now your opponent’s turn.

{YEAREND}

When the last card is drawn from thedraw pile,the year ends.After the year is over,you may playcards from your hands onto birds thatyou already have in play.However,you

shuffle them in at the beginning ofthe game.The Excuse is a block card. It is notpart of any adjacent districts, andno district may pass through it. Youmay not place influence tokens on theExcuse.A Pawn (#), since it has three suits,will be part of three different dis-tricts. You may not place influencetokens on Pawns.

©2008 P.D. Magnus. Some rights reserved.

http://www.fecundity.com/decktet

Games for [ ]:Jacynth 2

Jacynth is among the oldest cities,and a map of its streets is a recordof history. It is a haphazard mazeof overlapping interests and neigh-borhoods, with intricate social bondstying one block to the next. Youcould control the city if you couldcontrol a nexus in that maze of an-cient intrigue, but first you wouldhave to find it.In addition to a Decktet, Jacynth re-quires four influence tokens for eachplayer.During a hand of Jacynth, cards arelaid out to form a six-by-six grid thatrepresents the city. Players claimareas by placing influence tokens oncards, aiming to control more of the

city than their opponents.DISTRICTS: A district is a group ofcards that share a suit symbol andare adjacent to one other. The cardsin a district need not be in a straightline, but each card must share anedge with another card in the dis-trict. Districts do not connect acrossdiagonals or across open spaces thatdo not have cards in them yet.A number card (since it has two suits)will be part of two districts; one foreach suit.A player controls a district when theyhave an influence token on a card inthat district.You cannot place an influence tokenin a district already controlled by anopponent, but it is possible that sub-sequent card play will connect what

had been two separate districts. Ifthis happens, then the player whosetoken is on the higher ranked cardcontrols the district. Crowns beat9s; 2s beat Aces. If you have morethan one token in a district, the cardranks do not add together; only thehighest ranked card counts for dis-trict control.

{ SET UP }The dealer shuffles the deck, dealseach player a three card hand, anddeals cards face up to form the initialplay area. There are three possibleinitial arrangements; with each, fur-ther cards are played around themso as to form a six-by-six grid.Each player starts with four influ-ence tokens.

{ GAME PLAY }

points for each district you control:One point for each card that com-prises the district.There is no bonus or special advan-tage for having more than one influ-ence token in a district,and no ef-fect from unplaced influence tokensremaining at the end of the hand.Note that a district may consist ofa single card,if that card is not ad-jacent to any that share a suit withit.Asingle isolated Ace or Crownwould be worth one point to a playerwho had a token on it.Asingle iso-lated number card comprises two sin-gle card districts,one for each suit,and would be worth two points.

{THEEXTENDEDDECK}If you want to spice up the game,youcan add extended deck cards.Just

has another suit that also makes itpart of second district,where onlyone of the districts is controlled.Youmay,however,place an influence to-ken on a card that is part of a dis-trict you already control.You may not place more than one in-fluence token per turn,you may notplace an influence token on a cardthat already has an influence tokenon it,and you may not move an in-fluence token placed on a previousturn.DRAWACARD: Drawing a card endsyour turn.After the deck is de-pleted,play continues until thirty-sixcards have been played and the finalplayer’s turn is complete.

{SCORING}At the end of the hand,you score

Players take turns,starting with theplayer on the dealer’s left.On yourturn,you begin by adding a card tothe city.Then you may place an in-fluence token.Finally,draw a card.EXPLORETHECITY: Select a cardfrom your hand and play it face upon the table,adjacent to one of thecards already in play.You must placeit within the grid of the city.EXERTINFLUENCE: If you have in-fluence tokens remaining,you may placeone on a card in play;you are not re-quired to do so.You may place in-fluence on the card you added thisturn or on another card,even on oneof the starting cards.You may not place an influence tokenon a card that is part of a districtcontrolled by another player.Thisrestriction applies even if the card

Starting Configurations: TheRazeway is the simplest of thestarting boards. The Towers theOld City allow for more strategicand aggressive play, at the costof making the grid less obvious.

TOWERS theRAZEWAY

the OLDCITY

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Lose points equal to the totalranks of remaining cards.Aces are -15. Pawns are -10.

Quin

cunx Scoring Summary

Games for [ ]:Quincunx 1-4

The game is played on a five by five grid.On your turn, you place a card in an openspot, score points depending on the con-nections between the played card andnearby cards, and possibly draw cardsdepending on those connections. You arepenalized for any cards left in your handat the end of the game.

{ SETUP }

Shuffle the deck.With two players, deal 5 face up cards(one card in each corner and one in thecenter) and a 10 card hand to each player.With three players, deal 4 face up cards(one card in each corner) and 7 to eachplayer.

Starting configuration for two orfour players.

Starting configuration for threeplayers.

With four players, deal 5 face up cardsand 6 to each player.Play begins with the player on the dealer’sleft and continues clockwise.

{ GAME PLAY }

On your turn, select one card from yourhand and place it into an open space.This may score points in several differ-ent ways: Basic scoring, pairs, sequences,and power plays. If the total is nega-tive, then you lose points for the turn.BASIC SCORING: Consider this card (theone you played) with respect to each

horizontally or vertically adjacent card.Diagonals don’t count for basic scoring.Add the rank of the two cards together.. If the sum is 9 or less: Lose pointsequal to the sum of the two cards. TheAce Matching exception: If one of thecards is an Ace and the two cards sharea suit, then gain those points instead oflosing them.. If the sum is exactly 11 or 20: Draw acard.. If the sum is between 12 and 19: Addpoints equal to ten less than the sum.For example, a 6 next to a 7 (total 13)makes for 3 points.PAIRS: If this card is the same rank asan adjacent card, add 5 points.STRAIGHT: If this card completes a con-tinuous line of three or more cards that

many points as possible.The solitaire game is played on a 4x4grid.Starting cards are dealt in eachof the four corners.Deal yourself an 8card hand.Scoring is as per the usualrules,except that Straights and Threesof Kind may not be scored on diagonals.If you run out of cards before complet-ing the spread,you lose.This meansthat you will need to arrange basic scor-ing for 11 or 20 several times.Don’t do ittoo many times,though,because cardsin your hand at the end still count as apenalty.

=Quincunx was invented by Chris DeLeo,and the solitaire was suggested by JackNeal.

at least one card left over at the end.You lose points for each card left in yourhand:Subtract the rank of each numbercard,subtract 10 for each Crown,andsubtract 15 for each Ace.Anew round begins,with the new dealerbeing the player on the old dealer’s left.Agame consists of one round with eachplayer as dealer.

{THEEXTENDEDDECK}

Quincunx plays well with the basic deck,but you can shake it up by adding theExcuse.It’s a blank.Playing it scoresnothing,and it is worth zero at the endof the game.

{SOLITAIRE}

As a solitaire,Quincunx is played againstthe tableaux in an attempt to earn as

twice (for 40 points).POWERPLAY: If this card is an Ace orCrown and you play it adjacent to anAce or Crown of the same suit,then youscore a power play.Add the total valueof all other cards of that suit which arein play.This may be as little as zero (ifthere are no other cards of that suitin the grid) or as many as 44 (if all theother cards of that suit are present inthe grid.)Since the Ace and Crown sum to 11,youwill draw a card as part of basic scoringwhen you make a power play.

{ENDOFTHEROUND}

The round ends when all 25 spots arefilled.If you drew cards as the result ofplay during the round or if you are play-ing a four-player game,then you will have

are in rank order,add 20 points.Straightsmay be horizontal,vertical,or diagonal.If you make more than one straight,scorefor each.THREEOFAKIND: If this card com-pletes a continuous line of three or morecards of the same rank,add 30 points.Threes of a kind may be horizontal,ver-tical,or diagonal.If you make more thanone three of a kind,score for each.Cardsthat contribute to three of a kind maynot be scored as pairs.You may score several bonuses,but theymust be in different lines.For exam-ple,playing in the middle of a four cardstraight doesn’t count as two overlap-ping three card straights.Playing sothat your card completes two straightsin two different directions does score

Games for [ ]:Varg Bid 2-5

In Varg Bid, your hand of cards isused to provide both the commodi-ties being auctioned and the cur-rency for bidding on them. The aim isto win high ranked cards at auction;the cards you spend to win them arediscarded.

{ SETUP }Shuffle the basic deck and deal eachplayer ten cards. (With four playersand the basic deck, each player willget only nine cards. With five play-ers, each player will get only seven;this will leave one card.)Crowns (*) are treated as rank 10for both bidding and auction value.Aces are treating as rank 1 for thepurpose of bidding, but have an auc-tion value of 11.

The player to the dealer’s left startsthe first auction. (With five play-ers, the left over card is auctionedfirst; the dealer is the first to bidon it. After that initial auction, theplayer to the dealer’s left selects acard to auction and play proceedsnormally.)

{ GAME PLAY }The player starting the auction se-lects one card from his hand andplays it where everyone can see it.Starting on his left and going clock-wise, players choose to bid or pass.When you make your first bid in anauction, you may bid any card fromyour hand. After everyone has hada chance to play a first bid card,bidding continues. You may add onecard at a time to your bid, but youmay only add a card that shares atleast one suit symbol with the first

card you bid in this auction.You may not increase your bid if youcurrently have the highest bid in theauction.You may bid even if you passed ear-lier in the auction.Bidding continues until every playerpasses.When bidding is complete, the playerwith the highest total bid takes theauctioned card and puts it face downin his scoring pile. Add together theranks of multiple bid cards. If multi-ple players have the same total bid,then the player who reached thattotal first wins the auction.If no one played a bid card in theauction, then the auctioned card isdiscarded. Otherwise, all bid cardsare discarded. The player to theleft of the player who started theauction starts the next auction.

Once you have played all of yourcards, you sit out the remainder ofthe hand.At the end of the hand, Aces in yourscore pile are worth 11 points eachand all other cards are worth theirrank. The player to the dealer’sleft becomes the new dealer. A gameconsists of a number of hands equalto the number of players, so thateach player deals once.

=Varg bid was designed by FelbriggHerriot.

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