Description

This 1906 trick-taking card game has a deck of 54 cards divided into six suits of nine cards each. The suits are ranked by color: Purple (highest), Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Brown (lowest). Each suit has the following cards: King (highest), Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Bishop, Baron, Baronet and Knight (lowest).

The key difference from most trick-taking games is that there is no trump suit, only relative ranks. The Purple King takes anything; the Brown Knight loses to everything; the Brown King takes any card of any suit lower than King, but loses to all the other Kings.

Each trick taken during a hand counts as two points. Each Viscount taken counts an extra two points. A game is normally to 40 points.

After the deal, each player starting to the dealer's left has an opportunity to make a Single Call. He may call a Peerage (five tricks), House of Lords (seven tricks), Royal (all the tricks) or Misere (lose all the tricks). Any player making a call then plays against all the other players. A successful Peerage scores 20 points, Misere or House of Lords 30 points, and Royal 40 points . If unsuccessful, each other player scores 10 points against Peerage, 15 against House of Lords or Misere and 20 points against Royal.

The booklet includes rules for a partnership version, a two-player version and a variant called Game of Viscounts.