Overview:
FOURBID™ is a game of chance and skill for 4 players. It’s easy to learn, as it has a style of play similar to many other card games. As with games like poker, the cards a player is dealt and draws, count a great deal toward their chance of winning, but success also depends on good tactics. When to bid, what to discard, and anticipating an opponent’s actions can all significantly steer the course of how a hand and the game plays out. Refer to the Tactics & Examples Booklet for more insight.
FOURBID™ is ultimately a game of points, where points are Spent and points are Earned. Finding the best balance is key to ending up with most Net Points and winning the game.
Inside the Box: (Refer to Figures 1-4 in the Tactics & Examples booklet)
• 51 OceanLife Cards (8 sets of 6, plus 3 wild cards)
• 16 colored sets of Indicator Cards (4 sets of 4, each numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 (FOURBID™))
• 1 Game Hub with rotating draw/discard tray
• 4 colored Game Boards, each consisting of 3 Score Tracking areas and 1 Indicator Card discard tray
• 16 colored Score Markers (4 sets of 4)
• 1 Official Rules Sheet
• 1 Tactics & Examples Booklet
• 1 Player Position Map
Game Setup and Deal:
Each player chooses a color to represent themselves, and gathers the corresponding Game Board, Score Markers, and Indicator Cards.
On the Game Board, players place their Score Markers on each of the 4 zeros.
The Game Hub is placed in the center of a playing area (ideally a card table) where it’s easy to identify each player sitting across from one of the 4 marked positions.
Each player draws from any one set of Indicator Cards. Players then position themselves at the Game Hub according to their number as it corresponds to Game 1 on the Player Position Map.
All OceanLife Cards are shuffled.
The player sitting at position A deals the first hand. The order of play moves in a clockwise direction. Each new hand will be dealt by the player to the left of the person who dealt last.
With each subsequent new game (of tournament play), players will reposition themselves and their Game Boards at the Game Hub, according to the Player Position Map. The person sitting at position A always deals the first hand of every new game.
4 OceanLife Cards are dealt face down to each player. These in addition to the 4 Indicator Cards that were distributed earlier, means each player starts with a hand consisting of 8 cards.
Undealt OceanLife cards are placed face down in the side of the rotating tray marked “Deck”. During the course of play, discards will be placed face up in the side marked “Discards”.
Two Options for Play
FOURBID™ is best played as a tournament, with the championship awarded to the first player to win 3 games (each game up to 72 points). The pace of play, and the mixing of player positions during a tournament maximizes the fun, and often keeps all players alive and involved to the very end.
A single game is another option. Players can declare any point total as the amount needed to win the game. Games to either 100 or 200 are the most common choices.
General Description of Play
Several hands are played during the course of a game. Typically, it takes 3 hands before any one player surpasses the threshold of 72 Net Points to win the game. Each player’s goal is to acquire 4 or more of any of the 8 sets of OceanLife Cards. When this is achieved, a player is eligible to Go Out. OceanLife Cards and Indicator Cards are strategically discarded in the quest to earn the most possible, and to be the player to Go Out.
OceanLife Cards
Each OceanLife Card has a point value. Refer to the Tactics & Examples Booklet to examine the OceanLife Card sets and their individual point values.
Wild Cards
There are 3 OceanLife Cards that are wild, which means they can count as belonging to any set, but they have no point value.
Playing a Hand
The initial turn begins with the player sitting to the left of the dealer. Subsequent turns always begin with the player to the left of the player that completed the last turn by discarding. A player that begins a turn is not always the same player that completes it.
OceanLife Cards are acquired by drawing from either the top of the deck, or the top of the discard pile. All turns include the actions of one player acquiring a card, followed by discarding a card of their choice. Therefore, players always begin and end a turn with 8 cards in their hand.
Discarding is defined as a player either placing an OceanLife Card of their choice face up in the discard tray, or by placing an Indicator Card in the Indicator Card tray of their Game Board. Indicator Cards must be discarded in order (from 1 to 4) and are placed face up on top of one another.
As turns are taken, each player’s intent is to strengthening their hand by gathering cards of similar sets and high point values.
At the first point in the hand where a player discards an Indicator Card instead of an OceanLife Card, a process of bidding becomes part of each turn.
Bidding
Bidding becomes part of every turn once an Indicator Card has been played. As always, the player to the left of the player that discarded, starts the turn. Rather than drawing, that person must start a bidding process by bidding “1”. They have no other choice.
The player who completed the previously turn is NOT eligible to bid, only the other 3 players will participate.
Each bidder (next player to the left) must either raise the bid by 1, or “Pass”.
As soon as a player passes, the previous bid becomes the winning bid, and that player gets to complete the turn.
Bids cannot go higher than 4, meaning that if every eligible player raised the bid, the first bidder gets the final decision to either raise the bid to the maximum “4”, or pass. Examples are provided in the Tactics & Examples Booklet.
The Cost of Winning a Bid (the right to complete a turn)
The cost of any player’s bid is defined as the number that they bid (1, 2, 3, or 4) multiplied by the number of the Indicator Card that is currently showing in the tray of their Game Board.
Players will be considering the cost and weighing the advantage of being able to complete the turn against other factors.
Players without an Indicator Card showing are in a No Cost situation, since any number multiplied by 0 is always 0.
As a hand move along, the cost of winning a bid increases. For example, if a player’s bid is “4” and the Indicator card in front of them is “2”, then they will have to spend 4 x 2 = 8 points. Refer to the Tactics & Examples Booklet to learn more about bidding tactics.
When a bidding process is complete, the player that wins the right to complete the turn must track any points they have just spent on their Points Spent Tracker.
Earned Points
Earned Points are calculated at the end of a hand. They are defined as the highest point total from any one set of OceanLife Cards in their hand.
Going Out/Bonus Points
The first player to discard their 4 (FOURBID™) Indicator Card has Gone Out, and this ends the hand immediately. As a reminder, in order to do this, they must be eligible (have a hand containing 4 or more OceanLife Cards of the same set), and have already discarded their previous 3 Indicator Cards. The player that Goes Out gets to add 24 Bonus Points to their Earned Points.
The other 3 players can earn Bonus Points at the end of that hand too, as explained below in the Bid-Four Challenge. A player that wins a Bid-Four Challenge gets to add 12 Bonus Points to their Earned Points, and if they tie their Bid-Four Challenge, they get to add 8 Bonus Points.
The Bid-Four Challenge
When a hand has ended and before any cards are shown, the player that Went Out asks if any other players (starting with the player to their left) would like to spend 4 points in order to challenge the earned point total of their hand. Each player either challenges (moves their Points Spent Tracker ahead by 4 points) or declines.
Hands are then shown, and Earned Point totals are compared. If any of the challengers have more Earned Points than the player that Went Out, they win the challenge (worth 12 Bonus Points). If the point totals are the same, they tie the challenge (worth 8 Bonus Points). It should be noted that the Bid-Four challengers are only comparing their hand against the player that Went Out, not any other player.
The Score Tracking Process
At the end of each hand, Net Points are calculated. Net Points = Earned Points + Bonus Points –Points Spent.
After a player Goes Out, the following steps take place:
1) Bid Four Challenges are declared or declined
2) Earned Points are totaled (and compared)
3) Net Points are calculated
4) Players move their Net Points Tracker ahead to their accumulated score of the game
5) Players reset their Points Spent Tracker to 0
Important Special Rule #1
The player that discards the first Indicator Card of the hand, does so at a cost of 4 points.
The Tactics & Examples Booklet provides insight into the cost and reward of this tactic.
Important Special Rule #2
The first time any player discards the Indicator Card numbered “2”, means that any players that have not yet played an Indicator Card, must do so the next time they complete a turn.
This rule is in place to make sure players don’t have the option of bidding in a No Cost situation lasting the entire duration of a hand.
Rule for Deck Running Out
If the deck runs out before the hand is concluded, all the cards in the discard tray except the top card shall be removed, shuffled and placed face down in the deck tray, and the hand proceeds.
Rule for Negative Points
On rare occasions a player may have a particularly bad hand that earned less points than they spent. In that situation the player will not have to subtract, their Net Points Tracker will simply remain in place.
Rule for Tie Score
Scores above the winning threshold that are tied, dictate that another hand must be played, with all players remaining in the game.