Dalrymple: Cursed Diamonds

Rules overview

Dalrymple: Cursed Diamonds

A Scottish Trick-Taking Game — Playtesting Package v0.22

THE RULES

Background In 1692, Sir John Dalrymple — Master of Stair and Secretary of State for Scotland — ordered the Massacre of Glencoe. History remembers him through the card that bears his curse: the Nine of Diamonds. In Dalrymple, that card haunts every round. You know it is coming. You will never know when.

Players & Duration

4–5 players | Approximately 35–55 minutes

Components

One standard 52-card deck — the Scottish Thistle deck or any standard deck where the diamond suit is clearly identifiable. Pencil and paper for scoring.

Object

Score the most points across a series of trick-taking rounds. The game ends the moment the Nine of Diamonds is revealed. In the final round, the diamonds you capture cost you points — the blood price of Glencoe.

Suits

All suits rank equally for trick-following purposes. Suit rank is used only to break ties within the Top-Tier Trump: Spades > Hearts > Diamonds > Clubs

Card Rank

Within any suit, cards rank from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 This rank determines which card wins when multiple cards of the led suit are played to a trick and no trump has been played. It does not apply within trump — trump tier and suit rank govern those outcomes.

Setup

1. Find the 9♦ and remove it from the deck. Set it aside face-down.
2. Shuffle the remaining 51 cards thoroughly.
3. Deal face-down to each player — 4 players receive 10 cards each, 5 players receive 8 cards each.
4. Deal 4 cards face-down in a stack to the center of the table. Set this stack aside momentarily.
5. Take 4 more cards from the remaining deck and add the 9♦ to them — 5 cards total. Shuffle these 5 cards face-down together, then place them face-down beneath the stack of 4. This is the Tableau: a 9-card face-down stack with the 9♦ guaranteed somewhere within the bottom 5 positions.
6. Place the remaining 3 cards face-down out of play for this round. They are not revealed to any player but return to the deck at the end of the round.
7. The Tableau remains in the center of the table, face-down, for the duration of the game.

Determining the First Dealer

The last player to have eaten haggis deals first. If this cannot be determined, players agree amongst themselves.

Round Structure

Each round follows these steps in order. The game continues until the 9♦ is revealed — which may happen anywhere between round 5 and round 9.

Step 1 — The Flip

The player to the right of the dealer flips the top card of the Tableau face-up. This is the Flip Card for this round. If the Flip Card is the 9♦, this is the Curse Round — the final round of the game. Skip to The Curse Round section. Otherwise proceed to Step 2.

Step 2 — Establish Trump

The Flip Card is placed face-up beside the Tableau as a visible reference and is not in play. Trump for the round is determined by the Flip Card as follows: Flip Card

Top-Tier ties are broken by suit rank: ♠ > ♥ > ♦ > ♣. The Mid and Low Tiers each contain one card — no tie is possible within those tiers. Example: The 8♥ is flipped. The 8♠, 8♦, and 8♣ are Top-Tier Trump. The J♥ is Mid-Tier Trump. The 5♥ is Low-Tier Trump. All other Jacks and Fives are plain cards this round. For any Jack or Five flip: the suited minor trump tiers do not apply. Only the Top-Tier Trump exists — the three cards sharing the Flip Card's rank in the other three suits. 3 trump cards this round.

Step 3 — Play Tricks

The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick by playing any card face-up.

Following Rules

Following is always by suit, never by trump status. You must follow the suit of the led card if you hold any card of that suit. If you hold no cards of the led suit, you must play a trump card if you hold one. Only if you hold neither the led suit nor any trump may you play any card freely. Important: A trump card is still a member of its own suit. If J♥ is led, players follow Hearts — not trump. If you have no Hearts you must play a trump. If you have Hearts you must play a Heart, even if you also hold trump.

Winning a Trick

If any trump cards were played, the highest trump wins — Top-Tier beats Mid-Tier beats Low-Tier, with ties within the Top Tier broken by suit rank. If no trump cards were played, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner of each trick collects the cards and leads the next trick.

Step 4 — Score the Round

After all tricks are played, each player scores trick points and card points. Trick Points: 1 point per trick won. Card Points: For each card captured in won tricks, check against the Flip Card's rank first.

• If the captured card shares the Flip Card's rank (Top-Tier Trump): 3 points
• Otherwise, if the captured card is an Ace, King, Queen, or Jack: 2 points
• All other captured cards: 1 point

Example: If 7♥ is flipped, the 7♠, 7♦, and 7♣ score 3 points each when captured. An A♣ is not Top-Tier Trump and scores 2 points. Example: If A♥ is flipped, the A♠, A♦, and A♣ are Top-Tier Trump and score 3 points each. Record each player's round score and add it to their cumulative total.

Step 5 — Collect and Redeal

Collect all played cards along with the 3 burn cards from this round — 43 cards total. Reshuffle all 43 and deal fresh hands for the next round. The deal passes to the left. The Tableau is never reshuffled — it remains exactly as placed at setup.

The Curse Round

When the 9♦ is flipped, the Curse has fallen. This is the final round of the game. There is no trump this round. Jacks and Fives are plain cards. No Top-Tier Trump is established. Play all tricks normally under the standard must-follow rules. If void in the led suit, you may play any card freely — there is no trump obligation. Scoring in the Curse Round is entirely different from all other rounds. There are no trick points and no card bonus points. The only scoring is negative: every diamond card captured in your won tricks costs you 1 point. Non-diamond cards score nothing. Every player is trying to push diamonds onto their opponents. The player who ends the Curse Round with the fewest diamonds — or none — suffers least. The maximum any player can lose in the Curse Round is 12 points. In practice, with burned cards and distribution across players, typical exposure is 2–4 points. After the Curse Round is scored, the game ends. Do not redeal.

End of Game

The game ends at the conclusion of the Curse Round. The number of rounds played will have been between 5 and 9, with the average falling around 6–7. The player with the highest cumulative score wins. Tied scores are a shared victory with no tiebreaker.