BASICS

REQUIREMENTS

• 4 players. (Supports 2 - 5 players with minor modifications - see Player variations.)
• A normal deck of 52 playing cards, and optionally 1 joker (as a marker).
• 1 dice (with numbers 1 - 6).

BASIC IDEA

Jugglers is a game between 3 poker hands (each for its own cause) that are commonly built by the players.

• The face cards and aces (J, Q, K, A) constitute the policy deck, while the rest of the deck (2 - 10) forms the influence deck that is used for poker hands.
• The players represent heads of clans, and each gets one card from the policy deck (face down) as his secret sigil card.
  • Their goal is to get policies passed (to the Village Order) that match the ideology (rank) or lineage (suit) of their sigil.
• Each round is played in 6 gatherings, and during each the heads build 3 poker hands together using the influence cards.
  • Each gathering involves 2 policy cards and 1 reference (joker), each with its own poker hand. The policy is passed if its hand beats the joker's hand.
• After the round the heads reveal their sigils, and the matches (in rank / suit) with the Village Order are counted. The one(s) with the most matches wins.

LAYOUT & START-UP

• RING OF PLAYERS: The players form a ring around the center. The ring consists of 4 (or 5) players - see Player variations for adjustments.
• 3 POLICY DRAFTS: The joker (or other marker) is placed in the center, and on its left and right are spots for the two active policy cards.
• 3 POKER HANDS: A column of influence cards gets added below each policy draft during the gathering, which then functions as a poker hand.
• ROUND START-UP: One player shuffles the policy deck and deals each player one sigil card face down and becomes the first chairman.

PLAYING

ONE GATHERING

The current chairman prepares the setup for the gathering.

• POLICY DRAFTS: The chairman draws 2 policy cards from the policy deck and places them next to the joker - one on the left, the other on the right.
• HAND CARDS: He shuffles the influence deck and deals cards (face down) to each player until each has 5 hand cards.
• SECRET INFLUENCE: He then either discards the top card of the deck or places it face down on a draft as a secret influence (that affects the last cycle).
  • If included, the chairman rolls a dice to decide the spot. Numbers 1 and 4 refer to the 1st draft, 2 and 5 to the 2nd (with the joker), and 3 and 6 to the 3rd.
• POKER HANDS: Finally, the chairman initializes the poker hands by dealing 1 influence card face up below each of the 3 policy drafts.
  • The poker hands are then built up in 4 cycles. In a cycle, each player plays 1 influence card face down, while each poker hand gains 1 card or none.
• NEW CHAIRMAN: After the gathering, the player who had the last turn becomes the chairman for the next gathering (the role moves clockwise).
  • The players keep their remaining hand cards, while the new chairman shuffles the played (and discarded) influence cards to a new deck.

ONE CYCLE

Each cycle is played in clockwise order. The player on the chairman's left starts the first cycle.

• CHOOSE A CARD: Each player plays one hand card face down on one of the poker hands, or alternatively a random card from the deck (if available).
  • After playing a hand card, the player draws a new one, so that each always has 5 cards - except when the deck has just run out (= before the last cycle).
• CHOOSE A TARGET: The players may freely choose which poker hand to contribute to. After all have placed a card, the contributions are settled.
  • At the start of the last (4th) cycle the chairman moves any secret influence cards into the respective hands (face down). They'll participate in the settling.
• SETTLING: If a hand only has 1 card face down, it's simply turned face up. With more than one card (face down), the chairman rolls a dice to pick one.
  • If the dice number is 1, the first played card (bottommost) is picked; if 2, then the 2nd card; if 3, then the 3rd (or 1st if there were only 2 cards), and so on.
  • The picked card is then turned face up and becomes part of the poker hand, while the other card(s) are discarded without showing what they were.
• NEXT CYCLE: After the cycle, the player who had the last turn starts the next cycle - so he gets a double turn. (After 4 cycles, each has started a cycle once.)

POKER HANDS

EVALUATING POKER HANDS

After 4 cycles, there are 3 poker hands in the center, each with 5 influence cards or fewer.

• The hand of each policy draft is then compared against the joker's poker hand, and if it's higher (by poker scoring), the policy is passed: the card is moved face up next to the policy deck - if equal or worse, it's discarded (face down behind).
• The valid hands include all the traditional poker hands (and scoring hierarchy), but also 3 special hands: straight, flush and straight-flush with 4 cards.
• As normally, between two similar hands the hand with the highest (valid) card wins, or then 2nd highest, and so on. (If all equal, then the hands are equal.)

ALL POKER HANDS

Below are all the valid hands in winning order. Each hand is the best it can be - falling back to High card if nothing else fits.

• Straight-Flush (= 5 cards all same suit and with adjacent ranks: ♥5 + ♥6 + ♥7 + ♥8 + ♥9).
• Straight-Flush with 4 cards (= 4 cards all same suit and with adjacent ranks: ♤2 + ♤3 + ♤4 + ♤5).
• Four of a kind (= 4 cards with matching rank: ♥2 + ♦2 + ♧2 + ♤2).
• Full House (= 2 cards + 3 cards with matching rank: ♧10 + ♥10 + ♤6 + ♦6 + ♧6).
  • Between two Full Houses the one with the higher 3 of a kind wins.
• Flush (= 5 cards all same suit: ♤2 + ♤3 + ♤6 + ♤7 + ♤9).
• Straight (= 5 cards with adjacent ranks: ♧4 + ♥5 + ♦6 + ♤7 + ♥8).
• Flush with 4 cards (= 4 cards all same suit: ♦2 + ♦4 + ♦5 + ♦10).
• Three of a kind (= 3 cards with matching rank: ♦7 + ♧7 + ♥7).
• Two Pairs (= 2 + 2 cards with matching rank: ♧3 + ♥3 + ♧9 + ♦9).
• Straight with 4 cards (= 4 cards with adjacent ranks: ♥7 + ♦8 + ♤9 + ♤10).
• Pair (= 2 cards with matching rank: ♧4 + ♥4).
• High card (= 1 single highest card: ♧10).

ENDING

ROUND ENDS

After the policy deck runs out (= after 6 gatherings), it's time to reveal the sigils and count who won the round - usually played until 2 or 3 wins.

• VILLAGE ORDER: The players count the rank / suit matches between their sigil and the Village Order (= face up policy cards), and get 1 p. for each match.
  • For example, if your sigil is ♥K, then you would get 1 p. for each K and for each ♥ in the Village Order - at max. 6 points.
• ALLY BONUS: The players also count the rank / suit matches against other players' sigils and get 0.5 p. for each (to compensate for lower max. matches).
• WINNER(S): The player(s) with the most points wins the round. For the next round, players get new sigil cards but keep their remaining hand cards.

PLAYER VARIATIONS

5 players: CROWDED VILLAGE

The layout includes 5 players in a ring, and the game is played normally with the following exceptions:

• 5 CYCLES: The chairman does not place the 1st influence cards into the poker hands, but instead the gathering contains 5 cycles.
  • However (to make the deck fit nicely) the chairman still places 1 secret influence card on a draft (affecting the last cycle), or discards 1 from the deck.
• HAND CARDS: Each player is dealt 7 hand cards (= the whole deck) and won't receive more. After the 5 cycles the remaining 2 hand cards are discarded.

3 players: DUMMY HEAD

The layout is still for 4 players, but the missing player is replaced by a simple dummy player.

• DUMMY'S CARDS: The dummy gets a sigil card (that marks its location), but gets no hand cards and instead just always plays a random card.
• DUMMY'S TARGET: On the dummy's turn, the chairman rolls a dice to decide on which hand the influence is placed, and draws a card there face down.
• DUMMY'S LOCATION: The dummy is no chairman, and should be moved after each gathering so that he's always on the dealer's left (= starts the 1st cycle).
• 2 SECRET INFLUENCES: Exceptionally, with 3 players the chairman can include up to 2 initial secret influences (to make the deck fit nicely).
  • For each secret included, he rolls a dice to determine where it's placed. If chooses 1 influence, discards 1 card - if 0, discards 2.

2 players: DUMMY HEADS

Likewise the layout is for 4 players: the humans are positioned on opposite ends, having 1 dummy on each side. Only humans get hand cards.

• DUMMIES' SIGILS: Each dummy can be dealt a sigil card (= 6 gatherings), or they can be left in the policy deck and instead play for 7 gatherings.
• CONTROLLED DUMMY: Each player has his own dummy (on the left) and decides where the dummy plays a random card (and plays it for him).
• 3 SECRET INFLUENCES: The chairman may include up to 3 initial secret influences - rolls a dice for each included. (No need to discard cards for unincluded.)

STRATEGY

BASIC WISDOMS

• Obviously, for each gathering, you want any policy cards matching your rank or suit to beat the joker's hand. This gives the basic orientation.
  • NONE: If you want neither to pass, the objective is to enhance the joker's hand, while hindering the progress on the other two hands.
  • BOTH: If you want both to pass, it's the opposite: working on both policy card hands, while trying to hinder the progress of the joker's hand.
  • ONE: If you only want one of the policy cards to pass, the goal is to get the 3 poker hands in a specific order, where the joker is in the middle.
• If you can't play a fitting and strategically sound hand card, play an unfitting card to another hand that is likely to have / get a fitting face down card.
  • Especially use this for the crucial moments, where it's obvious that a fitting face card has or will be played, and it would benefit the hand too much.
• Remember that the worst option for a poker hand is to gain no card at all. Even an unfitting card is better (for future progress) than having 1 card fewer.
• In the large scale, pay attention to which ranks and suits other players tend to promote or avoid promoting.
  • As the round progresses, you'll figure out who they are (rank & suit) and can thus read their intentions in relation to the progress on the hands.
  • This in turn allows you to avoid wasting resources (when intentions are aligned) and divert them to the moments of conflict (when intentions are not aligned).
  • If the players' sigil roles have become very clear, it's common for openly known temporary alliances to emerge (lasting 1 gathering at a time).
• On the other hand, as the players evolve, they'll try to conceal their intentions better by small misleading moves - tiny casual bluffs.
  • One very telling intent is to play for the joker's hand, as it (most often) implies you want neither policy to pass - excluding away most of the possible roles.
  • Of course, there are also benefits in showing your intentions to some extent (at least during a single gathering), since cooperation can be very beneficial.
  • If one could somehow (paradoxically) make everyone think (on every cycle and gathering) that their intentions are aligned, one could play with little interference.

HISTORY

v1.0 - Jugglers (2025-05-07)

• v1.0 (2024-05-07): The first version of the game, with main play for 4 players and slight adjustments for 2-5 players.

THANKS

INSPIRATION

The original inspiration comes from Troyes board game (and partly from Balatro computer card game).