Fourbid is a game of low cunning wherein you must outbid your opponents to claim spaces on half a chessboard and be the first to get four in a row.
Setup
Divide the cards by suit; each resulting deck is distributed to a player. The players choose 8 black/red checkers, or white/black pawns, to mark their position. The white queen is used to mark the space the players are currently bidding on. Half of the chessboard is used, 4x8 spaces.
32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Gameplay
Any player rolls the die; the queen starts from space one, and continues on through space 32; space 32 wraps around to space 1.
After the queen is moved, if the space is unoccupied, a bidding war begins. After a player has claimed ownership of the square, they roll the die and the queen moves that many spaces and the process is repeated. The queen skips claimed spaces unless all spaces are occupied.
If all spaces are occupied, the player winning the bid may swap any one of his pieces on the board with the piece in that square. If they win a space he already occupied in this fashion, nothing changes and play continues.
Bidding War
Each player chooses 1 or 2 cards, worth 15 or less (aces are worth 14) and lays them face down. After all players simultaneously reveal their bid, the high player gets the space; the low player gets to take one of the cards bid and put it into their hand. If there is a tie for highest, no player gets a space; if there is a tie for lowest, neither gets a card. After the low player selects a card, discard the rest.
If a player’s hand is empty after bidding, after the bid resolves players count the cards in their hands. If the player who has the highest number of cards in hand has 5 or more cards than any other player, they must claim any space on the board (swapping one of their claims for an opponent’s if the board is full); if they have 1-4 more cards than anyone else, they roll the die and must claim the space the queen lands on without regard to any current ownership; if this player is out of pieces, he must swap one of their claims into the space. Players get back their starting hands, and play continues.
Winning
The game ends when any player claims 4 in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. If two players can claim a 4 in the row at the end of the same turn, no players win and the game is over.
