Bottle Imp (engl.)

Description

Bottle Imp is a strategy game for 2 to 5 players aged 14+ with a playing time of 20 minutes. This trick-taking game features a unique trump mechanic where cards below the current bottle price win tricks. Players compete to score points by winning tricks while managing the decreasing bottle price, aiming to avoid holding the bottle at the end of each hand.

In this trick-taking game inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story, players compete to score the most points over a series of hands, typically aiming for 200 points. The deck consists of 37 cards in three colors—red, blue, and yellow—which function similarly to suits in a standard deck. Red cards mostly have the highest numbers, blue cards occupy the middle range, and yellow cards feature the lowest numbers. A single neutral card, the 19, sets the starting "price of the bottle." The entire deck is dealt to the players at the start. Then, as in hearts, cards are exchanged before play begins. Each trick starts with a card played to the bottle. Players must follow suit if possible, and normally the highest card wins the trick regardless of suit. What makes Bottle Imp unique is its trump mechanic: any card with a value lower than the current bottle price (which starts at 19) acts as trump and wins the trick. Among these trump cards, the one closest to the bottle price (the highest card below the bottle) takes both the trick and the bottle. When a player wins a trick with a trump card, they adjust the bottle price by replacing the current bottle card with the card they played. This causes the bottle price to decrease steadily, making it increasingly difficult to claim it. Ownership of the bottle passes from player to player as the price falls, while the number of possible trump cards diminishes because of both cards played and cards skipped. At the end of each hand, when all cards have been played, one player will still hold the bottle. Players score points based on the values of cards won in their tricks, which range from 1 to 6 points and do not directly correspond to the card numbers. The player left with the bottle scores negative points equal to the value of the cards initially played to the bottle and earns no points from tricks. The game continues until a player reaches the agreed-upon point goal.

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