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St Patrick, first released as Salvage, is a simple trick-taking game that combines the fun of Hearts with the assessment of Oh Hell and the fairness of duplicate Bridge. Everyone starts at 20 points and takes damage over the course of play. The game ends when one player reaches 0, at which time the player with the most points wins.
In the original Salvage game, an oil tanker is on fire, and you are part of a rescue team sent to deal with it. You will take damage as you put out the fires, but before the operation begins you can salvage oil as an insurance against the costs you expect to suffer.
The key dynamic of the game is that before playing a hand you assess the strength of your cards and make a bid of how many points you are prepared to lose not to play the hand. That bid acts as an insurance, and you will be penalized only for points you lose above that bid. However, if everyone's combined bids equal the total amount of damage that can be taken, then everyone loses the amount they bid, and the hands get passed around the table so that other players have a chance to do better with the same hand.
In St Patrick, you now compete to retain the most life points by using relics to avoid snake bites.
- interesting push-your-luck/relic mechanic
- thematic humor with relics and snakes
- competition to retain life points via relics while avoiding curses
- trick-taking with relics and snake bites
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- life-point management — retaining the most life points across rounds via relics
- relics and snake bites — relics grant points but snake bite curses can penalize players
- Trick-Taking — rounds involve taking tricks with relic-based scoring
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's more of a shelf really
- I can't wait to give it a go even if a lumineer makes me think I'm playing specifically as a Candlestick
- snake bite is the name of a drink
References (from this video)
- Combines elements from Hearts, Oh Hell, and Duplicate Bridge.
- Bid acts as an insurance policy.
- Appeals to fans of trick-taking games.
- If everyone's combined bids equal the total damage that can be taken, everyone loses the amount they bid.
- St. Patrick's Day (implied by name and color)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- bidding — Players predict how many tricks they will win for the hand, which acts as an insurance policy.
- Set Collection — Players take damage over the course of play, and the last player remaining with points wins.
- Trick-Taking — A trick-taking card game where players predict how many tricks they will win.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a game that you know came out over 50 years ago at this point and so uh you know it's it's been around for a long time
- negotiation game if you want negotiation game if you want negotiation in your games well diplomacy is like the negotiation game
- if this is another one if you've if you've always wanted to try diplomacy well this is your new starting point here
- well gourmet popcorn dice adds in these colored dice to the game the first game that was all just these yellow dice well now they are different color Dice and so if you roll the same two colors if they have the same faces on the die well now you can get a bonus so there are bonus points for Rolling pairs of dice in the game