What Trump?

What Trump? is a trick-taking card game for 3–4 players using a 36-card deck (ranks 1–9 in four suits: red ♥, green ♣, yellow ♠, and blue ♦). The twist: the trump suit and trump number are chosen secretly by the dealer at the start of each round, and no one else knows what they are until the cards have been dealt.

Goal

Each player starts with 5 personal task chips. Win the game by completing and discarding all of your chips first. Tasks include things like “win exactly 2 tricks,” “never capture a green card,” or “win the very last trick.”

Setup — Chip Draft

All 24 task chips are laid face-up in the center. Starting with the dealer, players take turns clockwise picking one chip each until everyone holds exactly 5.

Setup — Card Draft

The 36 cards are arranged in a 9-column grid of 4 cards each. Before drawing, the dealer secretly sets the trump suit and trump number (either, both, or neither may be “none”). Cards are dealt column by column; a random marker indicates who picks first from each column. Players then draft one card each from the active column, clockwise from the marker player, until all cards are taken.

Trump Reveal & Task Selection

After the draft the dealer reveals the trump suit and trump number to all. Each non-dealer player then privately selects one of their own chips as their personal task for the round. The dealer does not select a task—instead, the dealer’s objective is to complete any task that its non-dealer owner fails. If the dealer succeeds at a failed non-dealer task, the dealer may discard one of their own chips.

Trump Hierarchy

When both a trump suit and a trump number are set, the card of that suit and rank (“supertrump”) beats everything. Below that: other trump-number cards beat other trump-suit cards, which in turn beat cards of the led suit. When no trumps apply, the highest card of the led suit wins the trick.

Important: a card of the led suit that is also a trump card does not count as a legal follow. For example, if red is led but the trump number is 5, your red 5 is a trump—not a red card for following purposes.

Trick Play

The player holding the lowest card of the trump suit (or lowest overall if no trump suit) leads the first trick. After that, whoever wins a trick leads the next. You must follow the led suit if you can; if you cannot, you may play any card including a trump.

Scoring & End of Round

After all tricks are played, each non-dealer player checks whether they completed their chosen task. Success means you discard that chip. The dealer checks whether they completed any task that its non-dealer owner failed—if so, the dealer discards one chip of their choice. The round then ends, the deal rotates left, and a new round begins. The first player to discard their last chip wins the game.

Task types