Designed by: Sean Ross
Haggis is a trick-taking card game with a twist: as well as being able to play single cards (as with classic whist), you can also play sets or runs of cards, or bomb the trick and sacrifice the points in order to gain the crucial first-to-play place.
The deck is made up of five suits running from 2-10 and three sets (one per player) of double-sided court cards: Jack, Queen, King. In a two-player game you remove one of the suits before starting play. Each player is given a set of court cards and then the rest of the deck is shuffled and each player receives 14 cards face-down. The remaining cards are placed face-down and not revealed until the end of the game – these are the ‘Haggis’ of the title.
The starting player can play a variety of things to the table – a single card, a set (of the same number cards), a run (4-5-6 and so on) or a combination of sets and runs: for instance, 7,7-8,8-9,9-10,10. Each player, going clockwise, is then obliged to beat whatever cards have been playing by playing the same combination, only with higher-value cards. Your aims are twofold: to be the first to get rid of your cards (and claim the Haggis for yourself) and to collect as many stars as you can, which form the scoring system. The stars only appear on card numbers 3-5-7-9 and the court cards – anything else does not score.
However there are a couple of extra layers of complexity. First, as well as being played as ordinary court cards, the jack, queen and king can also be used as wilds, to represent a number card instead. Second, as mentioned above, players can choose to ‘bomb’ the hand currently in play. What this means is they play a certain combo of cards to end the trick, but get to go first on the next round. In a game where everyone is desperately trying to get shot of their cards, this can be crucial – but the bombing cards are made up of the scoring cards: 3,5,7,9, and the court cards can all be used to ‘bomb’.
At the end of the game everyone scores – but the first player out scores both the Haggis and whatever point cards are left in the opponent’s hands.
It's not a game where anyone can feel targeted.
Not much, though there may be brief lulls whilst whoever is leading considers their options.
The thinking is not with the rules, but how to best play your cards. Every turn represents a gamble of some type.
Haggis is always different due to the random dealing of the cards - and how they are played.
2-3
Players
10+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
If you're a fan of Whist - especially Contract - then it'll float your boat. A clever game that, despite looking like an underwhelming box of shortbread (and sounding rather less sweet) will get its claws into you.