Tricks and Trumps: Series Introduction (Or Reintroduction?)
This is the series introduction for a 13-part series featuring trick-taking games. And today marks the start of Trick-Taking Week here on The Opinionated Gamers.
If you’re a long time reader, this might look familiar. We tried to write this series nearly seven years ago, starting in March 2016. It was an ambitious project at the time: we had rated more than 100 trick takers, and broken the series into eleven articles, in an attempt to highlight a history of the mechanic and shed a light on the best trick takers.
Ultimately, however, I chose to abandon the series after a few articles, because the project was a significant undertaking, yet each piece was only being read by a few hundred people. To put it mildly, in 2016, the trick-taking trend had not yet started, at least not outside of Japan.
But since then, trick-taking has taken off internationally. I am frequently asked “why” that happened. There is no one reason. But as we re-embark on this series, I wanted to attempt to answer that by giving the biggest reasons. Plus, Tricks & Trumps is about the history of trick-taking design, so a good way to start it is with a recap of the past few years, even if it is from my (admittedly limited) point of view of the recent growth in the English-speaking world. Another author will have to explain in detail the rise of trick-taking in Japan, though I’ve tried to put the highlights as I know them below. This post is also a “thank you” to those who have contributed to the growth, which is why there are so many names mentioned.
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Tricks and Trumps #1: The Classics Before 1965
This is a relaunch of our long-lost trick-taking series, Tricks & Trumps. You can find the series introduction posted just before this article; I’d recommend reading it first, since it lists the methodology we used to select the games discussed below, and since it provides a nice overview of recent developments in trick taking.
As David Parlett noted in his book A History of Card Games, trick taking games “are by far the most varied and widespread form of card-play in the west.” Trick taking games seemed to have originated shortly after decks of cards themselves reached Europe. Parlett provides a great overview of trick taking history in his book, which I enthusiastically recommend. You can also find countless trick taking variations — as well as a decent classification system — at the card game site Pagat.
We discuss the early trick taking games below. Each of these games is in the public domain, and they can be played with standard playing cards. There are doubtlessly numerous variations on each game below, but we tried to discuss a mainstream one.
These are the games you may have played with your grandparents, and they are the classics, so to speak. Any series about the history of trick taking design necessarily begins with these. I’ve crammed them all into one article, so this is longer than most articles in the series, but I hope it gives you a feeling of nostalgia for games you perhaps enjoyed (or even still enjoy) with your family.
We’ll start on designer trick taking games in Article #2, which will publish later this week.
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