LORA

OBJECT OF LORA: The object of Lora is to have the least amount of points at the end of the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 players. 

MATERIALS: A German-suited deck of 32 cards or a modified deck of 52 cards, a way to keep score, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Compendium Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adult

OVERVIEW OF LORA

Lora is a compendium card game for 4 players. The goal of the game is to not score points during the different rounds.

In Lora, the game consists of each player dealing for 7 rounds so there is a total of 28 rounds of play before the game ends. Each round a player deals uses a different contract to decide what scores players points.  

SETUP

If modifying the deck, you will need to remove any cards 6 and below. This leaves you with a deck of 32 cards.

The first dealer is chosen at random and passes to the right after a player completes their 7 rounds of dealing. Each round the dealer will shuffle the deck and have the player to their left cut the deck. Then each round the dealer will deal each player a hand of 8 cards.

Each dealer deals 7 rounds consecutively, after each round players will tally their score, before the next round is started.

Card Ranking

There are no trumps in Lora, but the cards still have a ranking order. Ace is high, followed by King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, and 7 which is low.

GAMEPLAY

While there are 7 different contracts that are played through there are rules that are used for most of the contracts.

The round always starts with the player to the right of the dealer. They may lead any card to the trick. The following players must follow suit if able, but if they cannot, may play any card they wish. The winner of the trick is the player who plays the highest card of the suit lead. The winner of a trick leads the next trick.

Contracts

There are 7 contracts that are played in this revolving order. Each dealer starts with contract 1 and once they finish contract 7 the next dealer starts back at contract 1.

One is called Minimum. The goal is to not take any tricks. Each trick that is won scores that player 1 point.

Two is called Maximum. The goal is to win as many tricks as possible. Each trick is worth negative 1 point.

Three is called Queens. The goal is to avoid winning queens in tricks. Each queen won scores that player 2 points.

Four is called Hearts. The goal is to either avoid winning any hearts or to win them all. Each heart won scores that player 1 point. If a player wins all the hearts, however, that player scores negative 8 points.

Five is called Jack of clubs. The goal is to not win the jack of clubs. The player to win the jack of clubs scores 8 points.

Six is called King of Hearts and Last trick. The goal is to avoid winning either the king of hearts or the last trick. The player to win the king of hearts scores 4 points, and the player to win the last trick scores 4 points.

Seven is called Lora. The goal is different from the other rounds. Players are not playing a trick-taking game and instead play a round similar to Fan Tan. Players will be trying to play out cards from their hands in order. The first person to play will start the ranking order for all four suits. For example, if player A plays a 10 of clubs as the first card of the round the ranking cards must be played in for this round is 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, 7, 8, and 9.

Once the first player sets the ranking players will then either need to start another suit or play the next card in ranking order of one of the other suits. All cards are played into their respective piles and must follow the order set. If a player cannot play a card they will pass their turn. once a player has emptied their hand the round is finished. That player scores negative 8 points, and all other players score 1 point for each card remaining in their hand.

SCORING

After each round is finished players will tally their scores and keep them cumulatively through each round of the game. after the end of the 28th round, the game is over.

END OF GAME

The game ends after the 28th round. the player with the lowest score wins the game.

Amber Crook
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