落水邸物語 (Origin of Failing Water) (2005)

Overview

Origin of Failing Water (落水邸物語 or Rakusuitei Monogatari in Japanese) is a clever card game based on the system of trick-taking. There are six tricks, with the winner gaining positive or negative points for each trick. However, you must play from the last (sixth) trick, followed by the fifth, fourth, etc. until the first trick. Then players resolve tricks from first to sixth according to normal non-trump trick-taking rules.

To add more twist, everyone starts with one "thinking" card. You can play it instead of a regular card on any single trick, then replace it with the remaining card you have in your hand once cards are resolved.

Your score is the absolute value of what you collected, so you want to collect either positives or negatives but not both. A player who didn't take any tricks also scores if they're the only one without a trick.

This game has been called Origin of Falling Water in error. Just as the word in the Japanese title Rakusuitei is slightly different from the usual Japanese Rakusuiso for "Falling Water", the decision was made to have a similar pun in English and use "Failing Water" instead of "Falling Water".