The Dwarf King

About this board game

The Dwarf King is a trick-taking game for 3–5 players, with sessions lasting about 40 minutes. Across seven rounds, players compete to score the most points while adapting to a changing special card and contract.

The game includes a 53-card deck: thirteen cards each in the Dwarves, Goblins, and Knights suits, plus fourteen special cards. It also contains twenty contract tiles, each offering two scoring rules from which one is selected for the current round.

At the start of each round, the dealer draws a special card, reads it aloud, shuffles it into the deck, and deals the cards. The player who receives the 5 of Knights draws a contract tile, reads it, and chooses one of its two scoring rules. The player holding the 5 of Goblins leads the first trick.

Players must follow suit whenever possible, and there are no trumps. The highest card in the suit led wins the trick and leads the next one. Once every card has been played, players total their points, which may be positive or negative.

• Seven rounds of trick-taking play
• Changing scoring rules through contract tiles
• Special cards that alter each round
• Dwarves, Goblins, and Knights suits with no trump suit

After scoring, the special card and contract tile are removed from the game before the next round is prepared. The dealer for the first round is the game’s owner; afterward, the player who took the 5 of Dwarves becomes the dealer.

With its shifting objectives and potentially negative scores, The Dwarf King puts careful trick play and flexible planning at the heart of every round. The player with the highest total after seven rounds wins. The game has roots in Barbu.