Knaves
BGG rank
BGG #19,426
BGG rating
6.8

Knaves

Rules assistance for Knaves

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 3 players
  • 60 min
  • Complexity 1.4/5

Rules assistant for Knaves

For 3 players

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Knaves is a board game for 3 players and 60 minutes per game. Its main mechanics are Hand Management and Trick-taking.

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About the game

Each player tries to win tricks without taking any jacks. This uses a standard deck of 52 cards. In each suit, the cards rank: A (high), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The entire deck is dealt, except for the last card, which is revealed to determine the trump suit. The player on the dealer's left has the first lead. Each player must then follow the suit of the led card if he can; if a player does not have a card of the suit led, he may play any card he wishes. The trick is won by the highest trump card played, or by the highest card of the suit led if no trumps are present. The winner of the trick leads the next trick. At the end of each hand, each player scores one point for each trick taken, minus points for jacks: hearts = -1 point diamonds = -2 points spades = -3 points clubs = -4 point (Mnemonic: if you have to take a Jack, you would love to take the one which hurts the least. Getting hit with a club hurts the most; getting hit with a spade hurts too, but not as much.) A player may have a negative score. The winner is the first player to reach 20 points.

Categories

Publishers

  • (Public Domain)

Questions and answers

Knaves supports 3 players according to the catalogue. This is the publisher’s listed player count, so the game is designed for exactly that number of participants. Variants for other group sizes, if any, are described in the rulebook of your edition, so check it before setting up a different configuration.