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The popular German version of this game has a completely different design, with a fantasy-themed character on each card. Each character has a title such as der krieger (the warrior) or die priesterin (the priestess) printed at the top of the card. There are 2 male and 2 female versions of each character. The German decks contain four non-standard suits with values from 1 to 13, four Z cards labelled either der zauberer (the sorcerer) or die zauberin (the sorceress) and four N cards labelled der narr or die närrin (the fool).
The object of the game is to bid correctly on the number of tricks that will be taken in the subsequent round of play. Points are awarded for a correct bid and subtracted for an incorrect bid. The person with the most points after all rounds have been played is the winner.
Each round consists of three stages: Dealing, Bidding, and Playing.
A dealer is chosen by dealing one card to each player. The highest card deals. On the first round of play, each player is dealt a single card. Two cards are dealt on the second round, three on the third, and so forth. After each round of play, the deal passes to the left. The next card in the deck is turned up after the deal to indicate the trump suit. A Jester indicates no trump and a Wizard is dealer's choice. The final round will be no trump and will always use all the cards since 60 is evenly divisible by 3, 4, 5, and 6.
After looking at their cards, starting with the player to the dealer's left, each player states how many tricks he or she will take, from zero to the number of cards dealt. This is recorded on a score pad. If the dealer, who is the last to bid, has more points than any other player, she may not bid a number of tricks that would make the total number of tricks bid equivalent to the number of cards in hand.
Play is started by the person to the left of the dealer. Any card may be led from the hand by placing it face up for all the players to see. Play continues clockwise, with each player laying a single card face-up from their hand. The card laid must follow the suit of the card led if possible, with 2 exceptions. A Wizard or a Jester can be played anytime, even if the player's hand contains a card of the suit led. Once each player has played one card, the winner of the trick is determined by
The winner of the trick leads the next trick until all cards in hand are played, signifying the end of the round.
If a Wizard is led, it will win the trick and other players may play any card they wish, without need to follow suit. If a Jester is led, the suit to be followed is chosen by the next card played. Jesters will always lose, with one exception. If all the players play a Jester, then the first one played will win the trick.
At the end of each round, each player is given a score based on his performance. For predicting the number of tricks taken correctly, a player receives 20 points plus 10 points for each trick taken. For predicting the number of tricks taken incorrectly, a player loses 10 points for each trick over or under the bid.