How to play Spar Dame like a Viking
Be a Viking! - In true Viking style: rush into the store, grab all your favorite snacks, make your mom pay a bounty to the cashier and bring home your treasures to share with your family. Play some traditional games to celebrate the successful raid.
The Norse word Vikingr is similar in meaning to the English word pirate. It originally only referred to those who went out to sea, but today is used in reference to an entire culture and it includes not only Norway, but all of Scandinavia.
Spar Dame (Queen of Hearts) is a game similar to Hearts. You need a 52-card deck of regular playing cards and 4 players. Listed here are the basic, standard, common rules, BUT, we have learned from our Norwegian friends that, like any game played for generations, Spar Dame has a wide variety of house rules. So, feel free to add some of your own once you get the hang of the basic game.
Objective: Player with the lowest score wins. This is a trick-taking game, so the goal is to play in such a way that everyone else takes more points than you do.
Begin by dealing out the entire deck clockwise - one at a time to each player.
Rule:
To begin play, each player looks at their hand and chooses three cards to pass to another player. Which three cards a player passes will depend on the player's strategy and the following rules.
For the first hand, the player will choose his three cards and lay them face-down on the table to his left. Then, he will pick up the three cards on his right (he may NOT look at the cards he is receiving until after he has passed his three).
Second hand, pass to the right.
Third hand, pass across.
Fourth hand, no passing.
Fifth hand, pass to the left again.
Continue the pattern until the game is finished.
Rule
Gameplay begins with the player who has the two of clubs. Play continues clockwise and each player plays one card and must follow suit if able. If the player cannot follow suit, he may play any card in his hand that is NOT a point card.
The player with the highest card in the suit that was led takes the trick (wins those cards).
Card playing value is 2 (lowest) through Ace (highest). The player who takes the trick leads the next.
Rule
Point cards may not be played on the first trick.
Point Cards: Each heart card is worth 1 point, the Queen of Spades is worth 13 points.
All other cards are worth zero points.
REMINDER: The goal is to end up with the lowest score!
Rule
Second trick continues as the first, but now a player may play a point card if he cannot follow suit. Point cards cannot be led until after they have appeared in a previous trick.
Play continues until all the cards have been played. After the first trick, any cards may be played but the rule to follow suit always applies. Point cards may be led after they have been played in another trick.
Rule to end the game:
When all the cards have been played, the hand is over and the score is counted. Of all the cards that each player collected, heart cards are counted as 1 point each.
The Queen of Spades (the Spar Dame) is worth 13 points.
THE QUEEN'S TWIST
If a player is able to capture the queen and all of her pawns (every heart card) in one hand - that player receives a score of zero and every other player gets 26 points added to their score.
Play continues with another hand until a player reaches 100 points. At that time, the game ends and the player with the lowest score is declared the winner.
Now, be a good sport and don't stick your knife in the table if you lost. A hardy ARGH is perfectly acceptable though.
To learn more games that can be played with regular decks of playing cards, check out Hoyle's rules.
The Norse word Vikingr is similar in meaning to the English word pirate. It originally only referred to those who went out to sea, but today is used in reference to an entire culture and it includes not only Norway, but all of Scandinavia.
Objective: Player with the lowest score wins. This is a trick-taking game, so the goal is to play in such a way that everyone else takes more points than you do.
Begin by dealing out the entire deck clockwise - one at a time to each player.
Rule:
To begin play, each player looks at their hand and chooses three cards to pass to another player. Which three cards a player passes will depend on the player's strategy and the following rules.
For the first hand, the player will choose his three cards and lay them face-down on the table to his left. Then, he will pick up the three cards on his right (he may NOT look at the cards he is receiving until after he has passed his three).
Second hand, pass to the right.
Third hand, pass across.
Fourth hand, no passing.
Fifth hand, pass to the left again.
Continue the pattern until the game is finished.
Rule
Gameplay begins with the player who has the two of clubs. Play continues clockwise and each player plays one card and must follow suit if able. If the player cannot follow suit, he may play any card in his hand that is NOT a point card.
The player with the highest card in the suit that was led takes the trick (wins those cards).
Card playing value is 2 (lowest) through Ace (highest). The player who takes the trick leads the next.
Rule
Point cards may not be played on the first trick.
Point Cards: Each heart card is worth 1 point, the Queen of Spades is worth 13 points.
All other cards are worth zero points.
REMINDER: The goal is to end up with the lowest score!
Rule
Second trick continues as the first, but now a player may play a point card if he cannot follow suit. Point cards cannot be led until after they have appeared in a previous trick.
Play continues until all the cards have been played. After the first trick, any cards may be played but the rule to follow suit always applies. Point cards may be led after they have been played in another trick.
Rule to end the game:
When all the cards have been played, the hand is over and the score is counted. Of all the cards that each player collected, heart cards are counted as 1 point each.
The Queen of Spades (the Spar Dame) is worth 13 points.
THE QUEEN'S TWIST
If a player is able to capture the queen and all of her pawns (every heart card) in one hand - that player receives a score of zero and every other player gets 26 points added to their score.
Play continues with another hand until a player reaches 100 points. At that time, the game ends and the player with the lowest score is declared the winner.
Now, be a good sport and don't stick your knife in the table if you lost. A hardy ARGH is perfectly acceptable though.
To learn more games that can be played with regular decks of playing cards, check out Hoyle's rules.
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