Rook

Rook is a popular trick-taking card game that utilizes a unique deck consisting of cards numbered from 5 to 14 (with an optional 1) in four different suit colors, along with a special Rook card. In this application, the Rook card is represented by a castle chess piece, and the cards are designed to be color-blind friendly.

Dealing: The dealer distributes the cards clockwise around the table for each hand, starting to their left. Each player receives 9 cards, while 5 cards are placed in the widow at the center of the table.

Bidding: Players compete to secure the right to declare the trump suit. Bidding commences with the player to the left of the dealer, starting at 70 (or passing), and continues clockwise, typically in increments of 5 points. Any player who passes is no longer eligible to bid for that particular hand.

Widow, Naming Trump: The player with the highest bid collects the 5 widow cards (which are revealed to all players) and designates a trump suit for the hand. Additionally, this player discards 5 cards from their hand (these discards are not shown to others). Depending on your chosen settings, these discards may consist of point cards that will be awarded to either the highest bidder or the winner of the previous trick.

Tricks: The dealer (or alternatively, the highest bidder if configured) leads the first trick. Subsequently, gameplay proceeds clockwise as each player plays one card. Players are obliged to follow suit if possible unless they do not possess any cards of that suit. In such cases or when using the Rook card to secure a trick with significant points, any card can be played. On tricks where no trump cards have been played, victory is determined by the highest-ranking card in the lead suit. Conversely, if trump cards have been played, the highest-ranking trump card prevails. The winner of each trick collects the cards and adds them to their won tricks pile before leading the subsequent trick. It is noteworthy that the Rook card maintains the highest rank within the trump suit. The card hierarchy from highest to lowest is as follows: Rook-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5.

Hand results: Following each hand, both teams calculate the points accumulated from their won tricks piles. Points are assigned as follows: Rook card (20 points), 14 and 10 cards (10 points each), and 5 cards (5 points). All other cards are without point value. In the event that the bidding team fails to acquire enough points to fulfill their bid, their score decreases by the full amount of the bid.

Winning: The game concludes when the first team reaches a total of 300 points (or holds a lead of 300 points over their opponents).

A paid version of Rook called Rook Gold, which provides an ad-free experience, is also available for purchase on the App Store.