just a punny card game - in the bridge/spades/hearts family

Looking for some card players to test a spades/bridge/hearts like game - just uses standard playing cards.

Pardon the pun (but does seem to be the best name for the game).
Unless doing a mobile version, I see no way to commercialize this thing.

Playtesting is needed to determine the proper "win triggering" point levels which are currently a +-50 point guess (+-100 is too high for sure but hope for testing to give proper levels for 3 player, 4 player, 5 player, and 4 players as 2 teams).

Since the game (like poker) depends on creating an imbalance between the players (in score vs cash) the trigger limit acts as an analog of fixed table stakes in a poker tournament.

In a 4 player 2 teams game communication between team members should follow limits for bridge and similar team bidding trick taking games.

Rules as a text file (for easy updates) are at http://thesingularitytrap.com/corrupt_trumps.txt

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Corrupt Trumps (the card game)

For 3-5 players (ideal with 4 players in two teams)
A bidding and trick taking game. Deal passes clockwise each hand.

Equipment:

Standard deck of 52 cards
- all cards are dealt evenly among the players
-- 3 player game does not use the 2 of spades (51 cards total)
--- 5 player game also does not use the 2 of hearts (50 cards total)

Bidding:

Players bid number of tricks they (or their team) can take and the trump suit.
- begin at dealer's left and go clockwise with each player bidding or passing
-- NO TRUMP exceeds a bid of any suit with the same number of tricks,
but otherwise a bid must be for more tricks than the previous bid.
--- Bidding continues until all but one player have passed.
Once passed, a player may not rejoin bidding for that hand.

Playing:

Play begins with the winning bidder playing a lead card for the first trick.
Subsequent tricks are lead by the taker of the previous trick.

In a trick you must play the lead suit if possible.
Highest card in lead suit (or trump suit) takes the trick.

Scoring:

Player/team with winning bid scores 2 points for each trick taken up to the bid number
- minus 2 points for any missed tricks (if less than bid number are taken)
- minus 1 point for each trick taken that exceeds the bid number.

Other players/team score 1 point per trick they take.

All players lose points due to corruption from any trump suit cards in the tricks they have taken:
- King of trump suit is -3 points
- Ace & Queen & Jack are each -2 points
- the other trump suit cards are -1 point each

Winning: **playtest needed to determine proper point levels**

Winner is highest score when someone reaches +50 or -50 points.
(Hands continue until a winner is determined.)

edit:

Based on feedback in other forums, a kneejerk response saying the scoring system is broken since it trends slightly negative seems to be common from some.

The end game trigger point values are analogous to poker with fixed table stakes where the game ends when one player goes broke.

If suitable trigger points are not determined by playtests it may need to have a time limit or number of hands limit also added. Such may need to be recommended in any case.

edit 06 May 8:45 AM

For playtesting, set a maximum number of hands and note highest and lowest point values touched during play. Need input from diverse player groupings to properly determine point value triggers for end game (looks like point triggers plus maximum number of hands if no triggering happens is best way to go).