CONCOMBRE



OBJECTIVE OF CONCOMBRE: The objective of Concombre is to not be eliminated.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:  2-7 Players

MATERIALS: A standard 52 card deck, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game 

AUDIENCE: 8+


OVERVIEW OF CONCOMBRE

Concombre a trick-taking game for 2 to 7 players. The goal of the game is to avoid being eliminated.

SETUP

To set up a player will be the dealer for the round. They will shuffle the deck and deal each player 7 cards facedown. This is for the first round. After this, the number of cards dealt is determined by the card that the losing player was penalized for. If there are not enough cards in the deck to deal everyone an equal number of cards, however, you only deal 7 to each player.  The remaining cards are placed in a facedown pile near all players.

The cards are ranked with Ace being the highest and 2 being the lowest rank of card. The full ranking is Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The suit of the cards doesn’t matter in this game.

GAMEPLAY

Concombre is played over a series of rounds. To start the game the player to the dealer’s left will play the first card of the trick. From then on, the winner of the trick will start the next one. 

When playing a trick in Concombre the player who starts the trick may play any card they would like. The remaining players must then play a card that is the same or higher rank or they must play their lowest ranking card. The player with the highest-ranked card or the highest-ranked card played last. 

The cards played by players will remain in front of them. Anyone can look through other players’ cards when deciding what cards to play for their turn. 

SCORING

When the last trick of the round is won, the player who won the trick is penalized. They receive a score equal to the rank of the card the trick was won with. Ace is worth 14 points, king 13, queen 12, jack 11, and the remaining cards are worth face value. They also keep the card that they were penalized for in front of them to keep track.

When a player receives a score of 21 or more, they are given “half-cucumber” and to signify this a cucumber is drawn under their score. They give the dealer all but their highest-ranked penalty card and start over from that score.  When a score of 21 or more is reached the second time the player is eliminated from the game. 

New rounds are started the player to the left of the dealer (if not eliminated) becomes the new dealer until a winner is determined.

END OF GAME

The game ends once there is only one player who is not eliminated.

Amber Crook
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