Tycoon, a card game

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A fun added aspect of Persona 5 Royal edition is the card game "Tycoon", which you can play against the AI. It's also a perfectly reasonable real-life card game, playable with a 52 or 54 card deck. The precise rules aren't very well written anywhere, tho, and I'm regularly forgetting small details, so I'll compile here the complete Tycoon rules as I know them.

(Note: As she is played in P5R, Tycoon uses the card ordering 3...KA2, which is kinda weird. In these rules I've reverted to the more standard 2...KA order, and adjusted things accordingly.)

Setup

Tycoon is a card game for 4 players, played with a standard 52 or 54 (2 jokers) card deck, with capitalist and revolutionary themes. It is a simple trick-taking game with a few fun twists, most notably a cross-round mechanic that depends on how well you did the previous round. It can be played for score across a finite number of rounds, or indefinitely for fun.

To start, deal out all cards equally to players, so everyone has a 13-card hand. (If using jokers, two random players will start with a 14-card hand; it doesn't matter which.)

On the first round, whoever has the 2 of Hearts reveals it, and starts the first hand. (They do not need to play the 2 of Hearts in that starting hand.)

Play

A round of Tycoon is played for a variable number of hands, until all but one player is out of cards.

Whoever starts the hand lays down 1-4 cards of a single value (for example, 555, a triple) in the center of the table. The next player in clockwise order either lays down the same number of cards with higher value (for example, QQQ, another triple), or passes for the rest of the hand. (Value is standard 2-KA order.) Play continues until three players have passed, at which point the last person to have laid down cards wins the hand, and starts the next. If the winner of the hand is no longer in the game (because they played all their cards), the next player in clockwise order starts the next hand.

Special card rules:

  • If jokers are being used, they can be treated as "wild" to increase the size of a hand (99X for a triple 9, for example), or played by themselves as a single or double (if the hand is currently a single or double). If played by themselves, jokers beat all other hands. The 2 of Spades, however, can be played to beat a single joker. When played in this way, nothing else can beat the 2 of Spades.
  • 7s are "lucky" - playing 7s immediately wins the hand and lets you start the next.
  • Four-of-a-kind triggers a Revolution. For the rest of the round, card values are inverted, so low beats high. (Jokers still beat everything, and 2 of Spades still beats a single Joker.) A second four-of-a-kind triggers a Counter-Revolution, restoring card values to their original value; further revolutions continue flip-flopping values.

End of Round

The round ends when only one player has cards left. Whoever played all their cards first is the Tycoon of the round; second place is the Rich Man, third is the Poor Man, and the final player is the Beggar. If playing for points, players score 3/2/1/0 depending on position.

On subsequent rounds, your position in the previous round matters.

  • If using Jokers, the Tycoon and Rich Man get 14 cards.
  • After dealing, the Tycoon and Beggar trade 2 cards, and the Rich Man and Poor Man trade a single card. The Beggar and Poor Man must give their highest value cards, with Jokers being the highest value. (This is taken on faith, but can be verified during the round.) The Tycoon and Rich Man can give cards of their choice (usually their lowest cards, unless they're a useful set).
  • The Beggar starts the first hand of the round.
  • The Tycoon, with all their advantages, must continue to empty their hand first to maintain their position. If someone else empties their hand before them, the Tycoon "goes bankrupt", immediately losing the round, discarding their remaining cards, and becoming the Beggar; the remaining two players continue playing to determine who is Rich and who is Poor.

End of Game

You can play for a predetermined number of rounds and declare a winner based on points, or just play without points until you're tired of it.

Three-player Variant?

I've never tried this, but I think the game would work as a 3p variant as well. I'd be interested to hear people's experiences with this.

  • You still deal out the entire deck (either 18/17/17 for 52, or 18/18/18 for 54).
  • The three positions are Tycoon, Beggar, and Bourgeoisie. The Tycoon and Beggar continue to trade two cards between rounds; the Bourgeoisie does nothing.
  • When a Tycoon goes bankrupt (someone else empties their hand first), they don't immediately discard their hand and become the Beggar. Instead, the remaining player gives them a card of their choice, and play continues to determine second place.

Otherwise the game plays as normal.

(a limited set of Markdown is supported)