Twinkle Starship

About this board game

Twinkle Starship is a 3–4 player trick-taking game that takes about 50 minutes, combining a spaceship race theme with digital-number puzzles and an unusual bidding system.

Each card displays a rank in a seven-segment style, like the numbers on a digital clock. During play, wooden segment sticks can be added to cards to change their values, creating clever matchstick-style transformations. For example, placing one segment horizontally across a 0 can turn it into an 8, while more unusual arrangements can produce surprising results.

Before the trick-taking phase, the number of unused segments you hold determines your bid for the round. You then play a must-follow trick-taking game with a fixed trump suit, carefully balancing the segments you spend against the tricks you expect to win.

• Transform digital card values with wooden segment pieces.
• Use your remaining segments to determine your bid.
• Play a must-follow trick-taking game with a fixed trump suit.
• Score when your tricks exactly match your unused segments.

At the end of a hand, success depends on precision. You score points only when the number of tricks you took exactly equals the number of segments you have left, earning points for both those tricks and the segment pieces played on their cards.

Twinkle Starship also offers a misère scoring option: a player who takes no tricks while using all of their segments may score points. With racers from across the universe competing in a high-speed spaceship contest, every numerical adjustment and every trick can determine who reaches victory.