New Game Round-up: Schmidt Spiele - Taking Tricks, Stealing Assets & Lying Through Your Teeth

Skull King uses a 66-card deck that consists of five "escape" cards, four suits numbered 1-13, five pirate cards, 1 "Scary Mary" card, 1 "Skull King" card, and 2 mermaid cards. The game lasts ten rounds, and in each round, each player is dealt as many cards as the number of the round. All players simultaneously bid on the number of tricks they think they'll take by holding out a fist and on the count of three revealing a certain number of fingers (or possibly a closed fist for a bid of zero tricks).

Standard rules apply for the playing of cards, with one player leading off a card and other players following suit, if possible, and playing something else if not; however, a player may always choose to play one of the special, unnumbered cards — and the power of those cards might let you win a trick that otherwise would have gotten away. In more detail, the black skull-and-crossbones suit trumps the other three suits, a mermaid trumps the black cards, a pirate trumps the mermaid, and the Skull King trumps everything — except if he appears in the same trick with a mermaid, in which case she seduces him and wins instead. An escape card can't win a trick, and the "Scary Mary" card serves as either a pirate or escape card as desired by the player. Whoever wins a trick leads in the next trick.

If a player makes his bid exactly, he scores 20 points per trick; if he collects more or fewer tricks, he loses 10 points per trick he's off. If a player makes a bid of zero tricks, he wins points equal to ten times the current round number — but if he takes even a single trick, he loses this many points instead. If a player catches pirates with the Skull King, or the King with a mermaid, he scores bonus points. Whoever has the most points after ten rounds wins.

In Big Deal, players compete to collect items to become a millionaire. The game consists of 110 cards, with each card being either an asset (e.g., home, yacht, stamp collection) worth $5-20,000 or silver (worth $25k) or gold (worth $50k); silver and gold are jokers and can represent any other asset. Each player starts with 4-5 cards in hand, and on a turn a player takes one of four actions:

• Play a pair of asset cards (or an asset and a joker) from hand, placing it mostly on top of any other cards acquired earlier.
• Play a card from your hand that matches the top card of the discard pile, then place this pair on your other assets.
• Attempt to steal the top assets from another player's collection.
• Discard one card from your hand.

When trying to steal, point to the top assets you want to take, then place a matching card (or a joker) from your hand onto the table. The player who owns these assets can then do the same thing. Players go back and forth this way, and the last player to play such a card keeps all of the cards played and the original assets.

At the end of each turn, players refill their hands to 4-5 cards as needed. Once the draw pile runs out and one player has no cards left in hand, the round ends. All players tally the value of all cards in their collection and add this sum to their total score. If a player now has at least $1 million, she wins; otherwise, players shuffle the cards and start a new round.

Larry is a bluffing card game along the lines of Cheat and Bullshit in which players take turns laying cards into a central stack and making claims about what they played. As long as the next person in line doesn't call their bluff, they're off the hook!

To start a round, each player receives a hand of 5-12 cards, depending on the number of players; cards range in value from -2 to 7, with a handful of special cards also being present. A limit card shows a 7, with players playing clockwise. On a player's turn, he lays one card face-down on the table, adds the number on that card to the sum announced by the previous player (if any), then announces the new sum; the player can play any card and state any sum, as long as it's not higher than seven. The next player has the option of playing a card (under the same circumstances) or calling the previous player's claim. If he does this, reveal all of the cards and sum them, with action cards counting as zero. If the claimed sum is correct, the doubter draws two cards from the deck and starts the next round; if not, the previous player draws two cards — even if he played honestly on his turn. As soon as you make a claim, you're responsible for what everyone played before you!

Actions cards can be played face-up for their action, and they allow you to give one card from your hand to another player, force someone to draw two cards, force an opponent to play her next numbered card face-up, or change the direction of play while simultaneously flipping the limit card; when first flipped, the limit changes to 5 and players must now abide by that limit.

The deck also contains three gloating "Larry" cards, and if one or three Larrys are in the central stack, then a player's claim of a sum is always correct!

When a player runs out of cards, the next player can doubt the total or let it stand. the player who went out scores 2 points, while everyone else loses points equal to the number of little Larry symbols on cards still in their hand. After three rounds, the player with the highest score wins.