Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
The trick-taking game Black Spy is a film noir take on Hearts as you want to enlist the best spies you can while avoiding the black spies, who will always turn against you. Black Spy lasts a number of rounds, with players scoring points each round.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
The trick-taking game Black Spy is a film noir take on Hearts as you want to enlist the best spies you can while avoiding the black spies, who will always turn against you. Black Spy lasts a number of rounds, with players scoring points each round. The game is played using mostly standard trick-taking rules: Each turn, someone plays a card to the center of the table, then in turn each player lays down (if possible) a card matching the suit or rank of the card led, throwing out any other card otherwise. The highest card in the color led wins the trick, and that player leads the next trick. Points come only from the black cards, with the black spies (yes, "spies", with six black #7 cards) being worth ten points each and all other black cards worth 1-5 points. When someone reaches 200 or more points at the end of a round, the game ends and the player with the lowest score wins.