Agency

About this board game

Agency is a 4-player-only partnership trick-taking game with an approximate 40-minute play time. You and your partner sit across from one another while working to infiltrate your opponents’ organization—but neither side is willing to make the mission easy.

Instead of holding an individual hand, each player shares hands with the opponents to their left and right. This unusual structure makes card access part of the challenge. Agency uses a must-follow, may-trump system: when a suit is led, you may follow suit, play a card from the red trump suit, or play a Wall card.

• Point tricks: only specific cards score, rather than every trick having a set value.
• Scoring cards: in the black suits, 3s and 7s are worth 2 points, while 5s are worth 4 points.
• Trump suit: red trump cards are not worth points.
• Walls: these unnumbered cards cannot win tricks, but are worth 2 points when scoring a trick.

Walls can be played at any time unless a Wall has already been played into the trick. They cannot normally be led unless you have no other cards available. If a Wall is led, the next player determines the lead suit, creating another important decision during play.

With its shared hands, partnership format, point-focused tricks, trump cards, and distinctive Wall rules, Agency offers a compact card game built around unusual information and control. Published in 2024, it is designed specifically for four players seeking a different kind of trick-taking experience.