the better he did) the higher the mock social rank he would earn. When card game historian David Parlett described climbing games in his 1990 book The Oxford Guide to Card Games, he called them “social climbers,” noting that in one popular Chinese game - Zheng Shàng Yóu - the earlier a player ran out of cards (i.e.

This mock social status, though not present in Tichu, is widely found in climbing games. There is generally a scoring bonus for getting rid of your cards early, and the earlier you go out, the higher your mock social status.Players are generally not required to play a card - they can pass - and the “trick” ends once all of the other players have passed or once no higher card can be played.This means that the games must generally be played with ranked cards. Each player must play a higher card (or combination of cards) than the previous player.Climbing games - which are arguably a subset of trick-taking games, and at a minimum appear to be derived from them - generally have a few common elements: Tichu is one of the earliest examples of “climbing” games to reach the West. What follows is my retrospective of Tichu, along with some Tichu tips by Mary Prasad and thoughts from the Opinionated Gamers. Fortunately, designer Urs Hostettler generously agreed to answer a few of our questions, and I interviewed him in November about the game’s history.

It has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has been in-print continuously for 25 years.ĭespite the game’s wide appeal, little is known about its origins. Tichu has more than 100,000 logged plays on BGG (the most of any trick-taking or climbing game), and most major conventions have dedicated events for it. It is the highest-ranked trick-taking or climbing game on BoardGameGeek, and it has long been in the BGG Top 100, a rare accomplishment among older games. In a hobby that is often defined by the “cult of the new,” Tichu is still a perennial favorite among gamers, and it is arguably the hobby’s favorite traditional-style card game. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Tichu’s publication. Game History by Chris Wray, Tichu Tips by Mary Prasad

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