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Rook is a trump-based trick-taking game played with a deck of Rook playing cards. It was first sold in 1906 by Parker Brothers. The Rook deck is similar to a standard deck of cards, but has only numbers from 1-14 in four colors (no face cards or card suits (spades, etc.)).
The standard game is a 4-player partnership game with the 1's, 2's, 3's, and 4's removed for a deck of 41 cards (with the Rook card). Each hand, players bid for Trump, and then the partnership that won the bid must make the amount of points bid in the hand. Play of each trick is similar to Whist games like Bridge. The card led must be followed by a card of the same color. A player may play a trump color if they have none of the color led. The highest card of the color led wins the trick, unless the trick is trumped, and then the highest trump wins the trick. The Rook card can be played at any time, and always wins the trick. Unlike Whist or Bridge, the amount of tricks is not important, but certain count cards (5's, 10's, 14's, and the Rook card) taken in tricks are worth points, which is how the game is scored.
The standard game is 4-player, but there are variants for 2-player and 3-player in the rules, and there also are many variations and house rules used in play.
Rook has also been referred to as Missionary Poker. The Rook deck, with no-face cards or suits from a standard deck of cards, has often been a card game played by religious groups who object to using a standard deck of cards.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- bidding — Players participate in a bidding process to determine the trump suit and potentially the number of tricks needed.
- set collection — The game involves collecting sets of cards, with specific cards like the rook and aces having scoring value.
- Trick-taking — The game is described as a trick-taking game, with discussion about the rules of leading and following suit.
- Trump suit — A trump suit is determined, and the rules for playing cards of that suit are discussed.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This game's a lot about tempo. I'll talk about it more at the end, but seems to be the word of the year for me at least.
- We play stealing points for blood. When we take the train going down to packs unplugged, me, Joey, and our other friend Tom, this is the first game of the year every year.
- There is always a cribage mini board in a deck in my bag. Always. Always.
- My issue with Lay Miz is that the best song over Discard. It's like 45 minutes in and it's like a 4 hour thing.
- This is our hold hand. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That that's kind of where I'm at.
- I know it's really cruel. I didn't say anything. I know that I know they haven't been broken.
- The greatest thing about getting older in my family is I was allowed passing right to join the table of the adults playing card games.
- The beatings will continue until funny cuz the breaking thing is is common in so many modern and classic trick takers I've played.
- My brain's wired that way. Yeah. Same. And because we've been playing we've been playing them for so many decades. That's really what it comes down to.
- My sister, dominoes with my brother. And then my other brother though loves to play games. Magic the gathering.
- The only classic game I included for reasons.