Key Party!
A game designed with the constraint that it must inspire jealousy among its players. Key Party is a trick-taking card game for four players using a standard deck and shared scorecards. The shared scoring mechanism requires players to shift alliances mid game in pursuit a victory.
Players are dealt eight cards each and draw their remaining 5 in turn from a face-up community dummy. This is followed by a round of standard no trump turn-based play. Score card are shared by adjacent players and track tricks won in their indicated suits. Bring a node to 20 tricks, and the two players attached to the node win. A “Go It Alone†option — and the fact that spade tricks count toward whichever node the trick-winner chooses — often lead to shifting partnerships and tacit betrayals. Download a PDF of the full rules of the game.
KeyParty was designed in collaboration with Neilson Abeel Jr., Scott Hoffer, Justin Donato, under the guidance of Frank Lantz.
