Voodoo Prince

Voodoo Prince is a trick-taking game following the basic rules of the classic card game whist: one player leads a card, everyone must follow suit if they can, and the highest card wins the ‘trick’. But with a name like Voodoo Prince, you know there will be a twist…

The deck is made up of five suits of cards numbered from 0-12. The zero of each suit can only beat the 12 of its own suit, nothing else. Players are dealt a hand of cards and five rounds are played. In each round, as soon as any player takes their third trick, they are out of that round – and their score is the number of tricks the other players have taken at that point. The exception is the last player standing will only score their own tricks – so really the key here is not to be out first or last, but – ideally – get out before the round ends! There is a trump suit (a trump suit beats anything, though you must still keep to the follow-suit rule if you’re able to) and there’s an extra twist in that if you win a hand with a 5 or a 7, that wins you two tricks instead of just one. Handy at times; often disastrous. Additionally playing a zero when you don’t want to win the hand can be risky, because if someone else dumps the 12, you go from being the lowest card to the highest!

When the fifth round ends, the player with the most points wins.