Salvage
An oil tanker is on fire and you are a rescue team sent to deal with it. You will take damage as you put out the fires, but before the operation begins you can salvage oil as an insurance against the costs you expect to suffer.
A simple trick-taking game that combines the fun of Hearts with the assessment of Oh Hell and the fairness of duplicate Bridge.
3-4 Players
30 mins
Everyone starts at 20 points and plays the game taking damage and reducing their score until someone's points fall to zero. The player with the highest score wins.
Key Game Mechanics:
It's played like Hearts but ....
First assess your hand and bid how many points you think you may lose
Then play the hand - your bid acts as insurance and you only lose points above that level.
BUT if all players bids combined reach the maximum total, everyone loses points equal to their bid and
THEN hands get passed around the table and other players have a chance to bid and play those cards better.
Player Benefits:
Mitigates bad hands as bids act like insurance to reduce the effect of poor cards
Push-your-luck tension as players approach the maximum total bids
Card skill rewarded as multiple players may assess and play the same hand differently