On our Road to Gen Con, we’re thrilled to reveal Tricky Kids — a clever and chaotic trick-taking game where players write their own numbers on their cards.
Whether you’re a trick-taking pro or just learning the ropes, Tricky Kids—designed by Danielle Reynolds and Steven Ungaro—tosses out the rulebook and replaces it with dry-erase markers, unpredictable twists, and pure playground mischief.
🧠 How It Works
At its core, Tricky Kids is a three-round, must-follow trick-taking game. Each player starts by receiving 9 cards, and here’s where it gets… well, tricky.
Players choose 2 cards to discard and write numbers on the remaining 7 cards, so the total adds up to exactly 21. No decimals, no negatives — but 0s are allowed (and hilariously bad at winning tricks).
For example, writing 7, 5, 4, 3, 1, 1, and 0 on your cards would create a valid hand because 7+5+4+3+1+1+0=21.
Then, the round begins. One player leads a trick, and everyone else must follow suit if possible. The highest number in the lead suit wins the trick and earns the leftmost point token from a row of 7. Sounds simple, right?
Well, not exactly.
🎯 Timing Is Everything
Those point tokens? They have different values based on the suit of the winning card. Win with a Soccer Ball card? You get the points listed next to the Soccer Ball icon. But the point tokens are taken from left to right, meaning you want to win tricks when the best tokens are still on the table.
Every trick is a balancing act: do you burn your high card now for a guaranteed win? Or save it for a more valuable moment?
Now imagine doing all of that while trying not to go over 21… because if your played cards add up to more than 21 at the end of the round, you lose all your points for that round. And maybe even some from previous rounds.
🎲 Make It Extra Tricky
Each game is played over 3 rounds of 7 tricks. The tension ramps up with every round, especially if you decide to add the Tricky Rules — an optional deck of wild modifiers that change the game each round.
And if you’re feeling brave, you can play with Super Extra Mega Tricky Rules: one new rule is added each round, stacking the chaos until you're juggling three conflicting conditions and somehow still trying to take the right trick at the right time.
ℹ️ Game Info
Tricky Kids is releasing in September with limited copies available to purchase and demo at Gen Con.
- 2–6 players
- 20-30 minutes
- Ages 12+
- MSRP: $24.95
- Illustration by Parla Creative
- Development by Alex Cutler
- Rulebook Editing by Eric Slauson
Not going to Gen Con? No worries! Preorders are also now open on our website and come with a free pack of Tricky Rules promo cards!
