Rules Overview
Game design: David McDougal
A Trick-Taking Game of Signing, Silence, and Ratification
Objective
Scotland, 1638. Across the lowlands, the Kirk asks its people to sign the National Covenant. Some sign publicly, adding their name — and a card — to a suit's permanent record on the Covenant Table. Others quietly abstain, avoiding commitment but wearing the mark of it. By game's end, one suit will be Ratified — the cause history remembers as having carried the day. Score points by capturing cards of the suit in power each round, and earn a bonus if the cause you personally believed in from the very start turns out to be the one that wins.
Players: Best at 4 (rules below are written for 4; scaling notes included) Playing Time: 30–45 minutes Age: 10+
Components
- 1 standard 52-card deck
- 16 Signer Cards (4 suits × 4 players — each player's set of four is marked on the back with their player number, so sets never mix)
- A supply of at least 16 Marked cubes/tokens (or simply tally marks on the score sheet)
- Score sheet, paper, or preferred tracker
- 1 Dealer marker, optional
Card Ranking
Cards rank high to low: A > K > Q > J > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7 > 6 > 5 > 4 > 3 > 2
When suits must be ranked against each other (ties, Ratification ties, Trump ties):
Hearts > Spades > Diamonds > Clubs
Setup
- Choose the first Dealer (randomly, or by whatever house method you like).
- Each player takes their personal set of 4 Signer Cards (one per suit, numbered on the back to their own set).
- Before looking at their hand for Round 1, each player secretly chooses 1 Signer Card representing the suit they personally believe in, and places it face-down in their own private Signers area. This choice is locked for the entire game — it is not revisited or changed in later Rounds.
- Set the four Covenant Table piles (one per suit) empty, in the center of the play area. These piles are permanent — they are never cleared or reshuffled for the rest of the game.
- Shuffle the full 52-card deck.
Round Structure
The game is played across 4 Rounds. Each Round has four phases: Deal → The Covenant Table → Trump Determination → Trick Play → Cleanup.
1. Deal
Deal the current deck as evenly as possible among all players.
If the deck does not divide evenly, the leftover cards are placed face-down, unseen, as the Table Seal for this Round.
(Round 1 always deals the full 52-card deck. In later Rounds, the deck has permanently shrunk — see Cleanup below.)
2. The Covenant Table
Each player privately decides: Subscribe or Abstain.
- Subscribe: Choose 1 card from your hand. Place it face-up, permanently, on the Covenant Table pile matching its suit. This card is gone from the game for good — it will never return to the deck.
- Abstain: Take 1 Marked cube (or mark a tally on your score sheet). Your hand does not shrink from this choice alone.
All players reveal their choice simultaneously.
Hand Seal: Any player who Abstained must now place exactly 1 card from their hand face-down, privately, off to the side, so that every player's hand is the same size heading into Trick Play. This card is not removed from the game — it returns to the shared pool at Cleanup.
3. Trump Determination
Compare only the new cards Subscribed this Round (not the pile's full historical total):
- The suit with the most new Subscriptions this Round becomes Trump for this Round.
- Tie: compare the top card (the newest card, naturally on top) of each tied pile — highest rank wins.
- Still tied: use the fixed suit order — Hearts > Spades > Diamonds > Clubs.
- Nobody Subscribed: the Round is Unsettled — there is no Trump this Round. Simply play by highest card of the led suit.
4. Trick Play
The player to the left of the Dealer leads the first trick of Round 1. In later Rounds, the player to the left of the current Dealer leads the first trick.
Leading: A player may lead any card, with one restriction — a Trump-rank card may not be led unless every card remaining in that player's hand is also Trump.
Following: Each other player, in turn, must follow the led suit if able. If unable to follow suit, a player may play any card, including Trump.
Winning the trick: - If any Trump was played, the highest Trump card wins. Ties among equal-rank Trump are broken by the fixed suit order. - If no Trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins. - Cards that are neither Trump nor the led suit can never win.
Leading the next trick — the Discontent Rule: - Normally, the trick's winner leads the next trick, as usual. - However: find the single lowest-ranked card in the entire trick, using the same hierarchy that determines the winner (Trump ranks highest as a tier, then the led suit, then off-suit cards; ties within a tier broken by the fixed suit order). Whoever played that lowest card leads the next trick instead of the winner. - The winner still scores normally either way (see Scoring). Only who leads next changes.
Continue until every card dealt this Round has been played. This ends the Round.
5. Cleanup
- Record each player's Trump Capture points for the Round, by suit (see Scoring).
- Gather all cards that were played in tricks this Round, plus this Round's Hand-Sealed cards and Table-Sealed cards. Shuffle these together — this is the deck for next Round.
- Subscribed cards on the Covenant Table are never touched. They remain, permanently, exactly where they are.
- Pass the Dealer marker to the left.
- Begin the next Round: Deal the (now smaller) shuffled deck evenly; any remainder becomes the new Table Seal.
Marked cubes are not returned — they stay with the players who hold them for the rest of the game.
Scoring
During each Round: Every time you win a trick, score +1 point for each Trump card in that trick (whether you or an opponent played it — you captured all cards in a trick you won). Track these points by suit on your score sheet.
- A trick with no Trump in it scores 0 points, even if you won it. (Winning a non-Trump trick is still useful — it removes cards from opponents' hands and controls the board — it simply isn't scored directly.)
At the end of the game (after 4 Rounds):
- Ratification: Look at the Covenant Table. Whichever suit has the most cards, cumulatively, across all four Rounds is Ratified. - Tie: compare the top card of tied piles, highest rank wins; still tied, use the fixed suit order.
- Final score = the sum of your Trump Capture points across all four suits, added together (no suit is worth more than another — Ratification does not multiply capture points).
- Reveal all Signer Cards simultaneously. If your Signer Card's suit matches the Ratified suit, add +2 points.
- Subtract 2 points for each Marked cube you are still holding.
The highest total score wins.
Tiebreaker: the tied player with more cards physically Subscribed to the Ratified suit's pile wins. Still tied — share the victory.
Worked Examples: Trump vs. Ratification
These two systems are tracked completely independently and are easy to blur together at first. Trump Determination only ever looks at new Subscriptions in the current Round. Ratification only ever looks at the cumulative total across all four Rounds, checked exactly once, at game end. A suit's fate in one system tells you nothing for certain about the other.
Example 1 — a suit can win Ratification without ever winning Trump.
| Round | New Subs: Hearts | New Subs: Spades | New Subs: Diamonds | New Subs: Clubs | Trump this Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Hearts |
| 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Spades |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Hearts |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | Diamonds |
| Cumulative | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | — |
Clubs never wins a single Round's Trump comparison — it always has fewer new Subscriptions than whichever suit is surging that Round. But because it picks up exactly 1 Subscription every Round without fail, while Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds each split their strength into different, separate Rounds, Clubs ends the game close behind the leaders. Shift only one or two Subscriptions and Clubs could easily finish with the highest cumulative total and be Ratified — despite never once holding visible power during play.
Important consequence: if this happens, Clubs contributed zero Trump Capture points to anyone all game, since it was never Trump. A player whose Signer card was Clubs still earns the flat +2 for correctly calling Ratification — but nothing more. That's an intentional, if rare, outcome: a quiet, unglamorous cause can still be the one history ultimately ratifies, even if nobody profited from it directly during play.
Example 2 — the common case, where the two systems mostly agree.
| Round | New Subs: Hearts | New Subs: Spades | New Subs: Diamonds | New Subs: Clubs | Trump this Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Hearts |
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Hearts |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Hearts (suit order tiebreak) |
| 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Hearts |
| Cumulative | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | — |
Here Hearts dominates both systems — it wins Trump every Round and ends with the largest cumulative pile, so it's also Ratified. Players who captured Hearts tricks scored real points all game, and a player with a Hearts Signer card gets the +2 on top of whatever they already earned. This is the more typical shape of a game — a suit that clearly wins the political fight tends to also be the one that pays out during play.
Scaling Notes (3 or 5 players)
- 3 players: Use 12 Signer Cards (4 suits × 3). Deal as evenly as possible each Round; Table Seal absorbs any remainder.
- 5 players: Use 20 Signer Cards (4 suits × 5). Same deal/seal procedure. Games run slightly longer per Round due to more players following each trick.
Quick Reference / Player Aid
Card rank: A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 Suit order (tiebreaks only): Hearts > Spades > Diamonds > Clubs
Each Round: 1. Deal evenly; leftover = Table Seal 2. Subscribe (place 1 card on your suit's permanent pile) OR Abstain (take a Marked cube + Hand-Seal 1 card) 3. Trump = suit with most new Subscriptions this Round (ties: top card, then suit order) 4. Play tricks: must follow suit; if void, play anything - Trick winner: highest Trump, else highest of led suit - Next leader = lowest card in the WHOLE trick, not the winner 5. Score +1 per Trump card in tricks you win (0 if no Trump in the trick)
Game End (after 4 Rounds): - Ratified suit = most cards ever Subscribed to it, cumulative across all Rounds - Total your Trump Capture points, all suits, no bonus multiplier - +2 if your secret Signer Card matches the Ratified suit - −2 per Marked cube you're holding - Highest total wins
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change my Signer Card choice later in the game?
No. It's chosen once, before you even see your Round 1 hand, and locked for the whole game.
What happens to Subscribed cards — do they ever come back into the deck?
Never. Once a card is Subscribed to the Covenant Table, it is permanently out of the game. Only cards played in tricks, Hand-Sealed, or Table-Sealed return to the pool for reshuffling.
I abstained — do I have to Hand-Seal a card even if I don't want to?
Yes. It's mandatory, and it's what keeps every player's hand the same size heading into Trick Play. You choose which card to seal, and no one else sees it.
What if nobody Subscribes in a Round?
The Round is Unsettled — there's no Trump. Tricks are simply won by the highest card of the led suit.
How do I find the "lowest card in the trick" when it includes cards of different suits?
Use the same hierarchy you already use to find the winner: Trump cards outrank everything, then cards of the led suit, then all other off-suit cards (which never win, and are always the lowest tier). Within a tier, compare by rank; ties broken by the fixed suit order.
Does the player who leads next via the Discontent Rule get any points for it?
No. Leading the next trick is pure positional influence — it does not score anything by itself. The trick winner still scores their Trump Capture points normally.
Can the trick winner and the "lowest card" player be the same person?
Only in a 2-player edge case, which doesn't come up at the standard 3–5 player count. At normal player counts, the winner and the lowest-card player are always different, since the winner necessarily played a high-tier card.
If a suit never wins Trump, can it still win Ratification?
Yes. Trump Determination only ever compares new Subscriptions within a single Round. Ratification only ever compares the cumulative total across all four Rounds, checked once at game end. A suit can lose the Trump race every single Round — always having fewer new Subscriptions than whatever suit is surging that Round — while still steadily accumulating a large cumulative pile through consistent, unremarkable Subscriptions. See Worked Example 1 above.
If my Signer suit is Ratified but never won Trump, do I get anything besides the +2?
No — and this is intentional, not an oversight. A suit that's never Trump contributes zero Trump Capture points to anyone at the table, not just its Signer. Correctly calling that suit's eventual Ratification is still worth the flat +2, but it won't be padded by capture points that were never available to earn in the first place. This is the rare "hollow victory" case: the cause that won the history books without ever visibly holding power during play.
What stops a suit from running away with Trump every single Round once its pile is huge?
Trump is determined by cards Subscribed this Round only, not the pile's all-time total. A suit with a massive historical pile can easily lose Trump in a later Round if nobody adds to it that Round.
Why doesn't a bigger Ratified pile earn a bigger bonus?
We considered scaling the bonus to pile size (for example, more points for a suit that dominated the whole game vs. one that barely scraped by), but decided to keep it a flat +2 for simplicity and to keep the scoring scale consistent with the rest of the game's small numbers. If your group finds the flat bonus feels too small when a suit wins Ratification by a landslide, try this optional variant: +1 point for every 2 cards in the Ratified pile (round down), minimum +1.
Historical Inspiration
In 1638, Scots across the Lowlands were asked to sign the National Covenant — a public, physical act of commitment against royal religious policy. Some signed eagerly and repeatedly, reinforcing the cause with every name added. Others attended the gatherings, felt the pressure of the room, and quietly went home without signing — neither fully resisting nor fully joining. The organizing committees that coordinated this movement were known, historically, as The Tables.
The Covenant Table turns that tension into its central mechanic: a permanent, growing, visible record of who committed to what, alongside the private question of what people actually believed before any of it began. History remembers who signed. It rarely remembers who agreed with the cause but never picked up the pen — this game gives that person one quiet, final say.
