HUND (2013)

Overview

The smartest dogs in the world are getting together for game night! Now you have to keep an eye on which dogs will play which roles and make the right choices. Who will be the best dog?

In the trick-taking game HUND, which was first released as ebbes, players try to collect as many points as possible, but initially no one knows which suit will generate positive or negative points! To start a round, shuffle the deck of cards, which has five suits, and deal players their hand. Next, reveal a number designation card from a separate deck. Let's say it's 3.

Gameplay is similar to traditional trick-taking games. The lead player for a trick plays one card, and the other players must follow suit if possible, while throwing any other card if they can't. The highest card of the color led wins the trick, unless one or more trump cards were played, in which case the highest trump wins the trick — but at the start of the round, trump is undetermined! The first time a 3 is played, the color of that card becomes trump for the rest of the round. What's more...

The color of the second 3 played determines which color is worth 1 point per card at the end of the round. The color of the third 3 determines the "hund" color; at round's end, the player(s) who don't have the most or fewest cards of this color each earn 3 points. The color of the fourth 3 determines which color is worth -1 point per card. The color of the fifth 3, which is evident as soon as the fourth 3 is played, allows the player who collects the most of these cards to determine the start player of the subsequent round after cards for that round have been dealt.

The game includes color markers to track this information. After five rounds, whoever has the highest score wins.