Trick-taking without numbers?

I think it’s best to start this post with the briefest elevator pitch of 🎨Yellow House: this is a trick-taking and card-shedding game for 2 players where cards do not have numbers, only colors. So the whole deck of cards only contains cards of 4 colors without anything on them - sounds pretty unusual right? 😉 The thing making it all work is a cloth-mat-track where you can track the values of all 4 colors!

As you start a round of Yellow House, both players randomly get 12 cards (from the 28 card deck). You then get to pass 2 cards to your opponent, who also gives you 2 cards at the same time. The colors of these four cards add to the starting values of those colors. You then start playing - thematically you are debating 🗨️ what is most important for an artist: skill (purple), passion (red), inspiration (green) or wealth (yellow). 👉Thus each trick consists of a maximum of 4 cards each with a different color.

You can play any card as you start a trick, but the next one has to be of a different color, and a higher value. 🧐 If the value on the tracker is currently lower, you have to discard cards of that same color to raise it up on the track. This is powerful because this lets you get rid of multiple cards, and you want to get rid of them all. However you also raise the value of that color for your opponent while you are getting rid of that color, so you could run into some problems later. 

You play tricks like this until someone runs out of cards - they win the round and get to take their last played card as a reward. If you manage to get 3 cards of different colors or 2 of the same, you win the game! 🏆

That is the gist of the game, though there is more. 🙃

🖼️There are 5 Support cards out in each game that you can take when you strengthen a color. These can substitute a normal card so you can raise values without losing too many cards.

🖌️Last but not least there is also an advanced variant where playing a color triggers that color’s unique effect, which changes up things in a big way! 

As expected by the elevator pitch, Yellow House is a really unique take on the genre and is superb. Really fun to play! 😊