Quantum Tricks Card Game Preview

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components will change in the final game.

This is the words at the start of the rule book. I will leave this here for you to read, word for word.

Quantum Tricks supports 3-5 players and plays similarly to many other Trick taking games, making it simple to learn. But there area few twists which make it very difficult to master. Instead of just one Trick, you will be playing to up to three Tricks at any one time, requiring considerable hand strategy. And, oh yes, you’re not actually trying to win the most Tricks. Intrigued?

Well, yes! I am intrigued in fact! What a brilliant opening.

This game is coming to Kickstarter in the Autumn of 2025. I will add a link when I have one.

How To Set Up Quantum Tricks Card Game

To set up, place the three Trick markers on the table, spaced out so there’s plenty of room to lay cards around each one. I don't have these with the preview copy but its essentially like a four sided dice, with four colours either side to signify the different players. These are used to identify who owns each card placed on the table in three separate areas. You'll find out why soon!

Build the deck based on how many are playing. If there are three players, take out all cards ranked four, five, six and seven. If there are four players, just remove cards ranked four and five. If there are five of you, keep the whole deck as it is.

Each player picks one of the coloured edges or numbered sides on the Trick markers to use as their player identifier. This helps everyone see whose cards belong to whom. And then simply, you are left with the task of picking first player. The game very helpfully suggests you do this by picking the last person who has been into space which my buddy Buzz loves.

How To Play Quantum Tricks

The dealer shuffles the whole deck and deals everyone the same number of cards. If there are any leftover cards, put them aside unseen. They will not be used this round. On your turn, play a single card next to your player marker on one of the trick slots. You can either add your card to an existing trick, (if you do this, you must follow the suit that has already been led in that trick) or, you can start a new trick in an empty slot. There can be three tricks running at once you see! Three trick markers, three tricks at once! Cool huh!

When you start a new trick, you must choose a suit that is not already in use in any current trick. If you cannot follow suit in any trick and cannot legally start a new trick, then you must play a card face down as space debris. When you do, you can place your debris in any trick. The debris still counts as a card towards finishing that trick.

As soon as a fourth card is played into a trick, that trick is resolved. Space debris cards count towards the four. The player who played the most powerful card wins that trick. Remember to check for special effects from the lowest cards when you decide who wins. The are called Spacial anomalies. More on that soon! When you win a trick, take all the face-up cards and keep them in a single pile in front of you. This pile shows you have won one trick. Keep each trick you win in its own separate pile. Any space debris cards from that trick go back, still face down, to the players who played them. Those players keep them as penalties.

Tricks will finish at different times, so new empty slots will open up and close as the round goes on. The round ends when all cards have been played. If there are unfinished tricks left, give them to the player who has the strongest card in each trick at that moment. Then it is time to score.

When you score, first look at how many tricks everyone won. The player who won the most tricks went over budget and gets zero points. If there is a tie for the most tricks, all those players get zero. Everyone else scores one point for every trick they won. Then take off one point for each piece of space debris you played.

There is a special rule too. If you win exactly five tricks, you make a historic discovery. In that round only, players who also have exactly five tricks get to score their points and avoid space debris penalties.

It is possible to have a negative score in a round, but your total score for the whole game cannot go below zero. At the end of each round, the next player clockwise becomes the new dealer. You will play as many rounds as there are players. At the end, the player with the most points is the winner.

Now for the anomalies! When working out who played the most powerful card, the three lowest cards in each suit have special effects. You can see these on the cards. If you play a zero, you must remove the highest printed face value card currently in that trick. This happens straight away as you play the zero, so the trick still keeps the same number of cards. If you play a one, it normally counts as one. But if there is an eleven in the same trick, your one beats the eleven. If you play a two, it normally counts as two. But if there is a ten in the same trick, your two beats the ten. These again are shown on the card in what I believe, is a soon to be updated icon as the rules develop.

Is It Fun? Quantum Tricks Card Game Preview

What makes this game feel different and fun is how it runs several tricks at the same time. Instead of waiting around for one trick to finish before starting the next, you are juggling up to three at once. It keeps everyone involved every turn because the shape of the game changes so quickly. One trick might be almost done while another has just started, so you are always rethinking where to put your cards and what might happen next.

Another clever touch is the idea of space debris. You cannot always play what you want, so sometimes you are forced to dump a card face down as rubbish. It feels a bit like a last resort, but even that has weight because it still helps push a trick towards finishing and ends up costing you points. Or maybe winning you a trick if you had the best card there already. It is a simple rule, and a clever way to keep the tricks moving even when you cannot follow suit, but it creates tension in ways throwing a dead card away in other trick-taking games does not do.

But we haven't even mentioned the special low cards that can flip everything yet! Playing a zero and wiping out the highest card in the trick feels cheeky and clever, and everyone can see it coming but can rarely stop it. What really brings it all together is the scoring twist. The fact that winning too many tricks can be bad forces you to hold back. You cannot just throw your best cards out every time. And the historic discovery rule where getting exactly five tricks wipes your penalties and scores points adds another layer. It becomes a real push and pull, trying to win but not win too much, and timing when to play those powerful cards. It feels quick, sharp and just messy enough to be fun. How people keep reinvented trick-taking I do not know! But they have and they continue to do so, and I am here for it.