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?
Hidden somewhere along the tropical coastline, you'll find a charming little beach town called Twin Palms. Here you'll see dolphins jumping, lovers holding hands, and children playing in the sand...always in pairs.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Hidden somewhere along the tropical coastline, you'll find a charming little beach town called Twin Palms. Here you'll see dolphins jumping, lovers holding hands, and children playing in the sand...always in pairs. Twin Palms is a beach-themed escape from your traditional trick-taking card game. At the start of each of the game's 5-8 rounds, you bid the number of tricks (0-5) you think you'll claim with the ten cards in your hand. Wait, ten cards = five tricks? Yes, because each time you play to a trick, you play two cards at once! You play the game with 1-3 suits of cards depending on your desired level of difficulty and the number of players at the table; each suit has cards numbered 0-10 and a wild, with each card appearing twice. The strongest play is a pair of cards that are the same number, with high numbers beating low ones, and with palm trees beating dolphins, which beat sunglasses, which beat pairs that are of different suits. If no one plays a pair, then whoever played the highest single card wins the trick. After five tricks, you score points if you've met your bid exactly. (If you bid a non-zero number of tricks but missed, you still score 1 point per trick taken.) What's more, if you want to play risky, you can place bets on your bids, giving you an additional way to win (or lose) points. Whoever has the most points after the designated number of rounds wins!