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Beggars And Thieves box art
1984 Ranked #16,642

Beggars And Thieves

A variable-partnership trick-taking game has players navigate unequal suits, collect points from beggar cards, and use a thief suit as trump. The partnership can change with a key trump play, reshaping each hand’s alliances.

Card Game Trick-taking Hand Management

Players

2-5

Play time

15-30 min

Age

10+

Complexity

1.5/5

Rating

6.25

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.8/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.1/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.7/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

A trick-taking game of unequal suits - there are three beggar suits (where most of the points are) and one thief suit (which is the trump suit).

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

A trick-taking game of unequal suits - there are three beggar suits (where most of the points are) and one thief suit (which is the trump suit). The game also features variable partnerships from hand to hand (determined by the play of one of the thief cards.) The game came packaged with two identical decks with different backs, with the exception of the Swedish edition which instead sported a plastic card tray. Beggars & Thieves is not a perfect game, but was definitely ahead of it's time, fitting in nicely with the plethora of "tweaked" trick-taking games we see today.

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–5
Best with
4–5
Play time
15–30 min
Age
10+
Complexity
1.5/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
(Uncredited)

Publishers

1
Parker Brothers

Linked items

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