▼ Intro for play testers
Print & Play for evaluation – with rules
Evaluation feedback
Take a Hike is a 52 card trick-taking card game for three or four players. Competitive, without being combative.
Using the three-player game as the example, there are three ‘hikes’ of 16 kilometers in each full round. In each, hikers receive 16 cards each – 16 tricks. Each also has their own, different goal.
One is tasked to ‘lead the hike’ for 8 kilometres – they seek to win 8 tricks. The hiker to their left seeks 5 tricks (tasked to lead for 5 kilometres). The other aims for 3.
The longest-goal hiker deals and chooses trumps. The first four cards are set aside. These are the ‘picnic’. Dealers can opt to discard four cards from their hand, and pick up these four cards.
Each turn (hike) is sixteen tricks (12 in four player game). The game can be played for an agreed number of rounds, or for an agreed length of time (minutes or hours), or until someone achieves an agreed score. There is not a predetermined end-condition. The players decide when/how to end.
Scores are derived from the difference between hikers’ goals and number of tricks won. Scores generally stay close during the game.
▼ for public-display later
Take a Hike is a trick-taking card game for three or four players. It’s got a very small footprint, which makes it ideal for the dining table, the airport lounge, or the caravan.
It can be picked up quickly, even by people who’ve not played trick-taking card games before. It’s easy to learn. Not always easy to win.
As with all card games, there’s a sizeable element of luck – for every hike, players are randomly dealt a new hand of cards. But the way that players make the best of their cards matters a great deal .
It helps greatly to look ahead, to take risks, and to play with a bit of cleverness and craftiness. The cards count, but so do the players.
The cards are in four suits, with thirteen cards in each. The suits are based on the kind of weather that hikers have to contend with
– sun, rain, wind, and snow.
The game provides a balance between trying to achieve your own goal while subtly (or not so subtly) thwarting your opponents’ efforts.
It’s important to keep a keen eye on the plans and intentions of other hikers.
Every time they put their boots on, each hiker seeks to fulfill a unique contract, which they do by winning tricks. By winning tricks, they win points.
For example, in the three-player game, there are three hikes in each full round. Each hike is for 16 kilometres. So, sixteen tricks can be won on each sixteen kilometre hike.
(There are four hikes with four players – each being 12 kilometres)
It’s been agreed that one of the three hikers will lead for 8 kilometres. That hiker seeks to win 8 tricks.
The hiker sitting to their left will lead for 5 kilometres, and seek to win 5 tricks. The other aims for 3.
That’s sixteen altogether.
(With four hikers, there will be twelve kilometres – twelve tricks.)
Every time the hikers go out, each will be set a new target, as the targets rotate clockwise after each hike.
Though they’re good friends, the hikers don’t miss a chance to feel a little bit superior. So each tries to do a bit more than the goal they’ve been set. They seek to be out in front for just a bit longer, by winning more tricks than their goal for this hike.
It’s a tussle !
Take a Hike brings challenges.
Every hiker sets out with a different goal, and shorter ones may be easier to achieve.
It may sometimes be easier than the hiker had expected.
A hiker may do well with a short goal, but can they keep their energy up if a longer one soon follows?
Camaraderie counts
The hikers don’t see their opponents as enemies – they’re friends. If someone doesn’t do too well on the walk, and fails to reach their goal because of blisters, they’ll get a sticking plaster from a friend.
This helps them all stay fairly close together – even whilst they’re all seeking to be “top hiker”.
It’s not exactly cooperation, but hikers do tend to be helpful to others who are dragging a bit – they’re not horrid or uncaring.
Nobody is likely to feel left out or left behind. Take a Hike is not a game where someone can rapidly leap ahead. Scores remain close throughout the game.
But that doesn’t stop the hikers from fighting to stay in the lead.
How long does it last?
Take a Hike can be played for an agreed number of rounds, or for an agreed length of time, or until someone achieves an agreed score.
Each hike takes just a few minutes, and it doesn’t take long to complete a round, which is either three or four hikes. So, playing for an agreed number of rounds or for an agreed time are perhaps the best options.
But, of course, you can play until you simply decide it’s time to stop.
Playing until someone gets an agreed score may take a while. There’s tussle all the time, so each step forwards may be followed by a step backwards.
Because it takes no time to set up or to store away, Take a Hike can be started and stopped almost at a moment’s notice.
And it lasts as long as you want it to – it can be played in a tea break, or for Sunday afternoon, or for the whole of January.