The Bottle Imp

About this board game

The Bottle Imp is a trick-taking game for 2–4 players that takes about 30 minutes to play. Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story, it challenges players to collect points while avoiding ownership of a bottle that can turn valuable tricks into penalties.

The deck contains cards numbered 1–37 in three colors, functioning like suits: red cards are largely the highest numbers, blue cards are mostly in the middle, and yellow cards are mostly the lowest. The neutral 19 sets the bottle’s starting price. Cards also carry point values from 1–6, which are not directly based on their numerical values.

At the beginning of a hand, the cards are dealt, players exchange cards, and each plays a card to the bottle. Players must follow suit when possible. The distinctive twist is that every card below the current bottle price is trump, and the highest card below that price wins the trick. If multiple trump cards are played, the one closest to the current price takes the trick and the bottle, replacing the bottle’s price card with the winning card.

• The bottle price decreases whenever a trump card takes it.
• As the price falls, fewer cards can serve as trump.
• One player will hold the bottle when the hand ends.

Players score the point values of cards in their tricks, but the bottle holder scores negative points for the cards placed in the bottle and scores nothing for cards won during the hand. Play continues across hands until the agreed target is reached, usually 200 points. The 2003 edition of The Bottle Imp includes Stevenson’s complete story in English and German, along with a wooden bottle; earlier editions used a cardboard stand-up bottle.