NORWEGIAN

OBJECTIVE OF NORWEGIAN: The objective of Norwegian 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 NORWEGIAN

Norwegian is a trick-taking game for 2 to 7 players. It is closely related to the game Cucumber. The goal of the game is to be the last player remaining.

SETUP

To set up a player will be the dealer for the round. After the first round, the dealer will be the previous round’s loser.

They will shuffle the deck and deal each player 5 cards facedown. This is for the first round, in future rounds the dealer will deal cards equal to the value of the loser’s card with a maximum of 7.

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.

After the cards are dealt the dealer has the option to discard some cards from hand, they must keep at least 2 from their original hand, and draw back up to hand size for the round. if the dealer does this then all players in turn order will have the option to discard the same number of cards as the dealer and draw back up or pass.

GAMEPLAY

Norwegian is played over a series of rounds and in these rounds, you will play tricks. To start the game the dealer 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 Norwegian 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. All face cards Aces through Jacks are worth 11 points, and the remaining cards are worth face value. 

When a player receives a score of 21 or more, they are eliminated from the game.

When 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. They are the winner.

Amber Crook
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