How to play Kronions

Overview

Kronions is a trick-taking card game for 2 to 6 players. A game is a series of rounds — round 1 everyone gets 1 card, round 2 everyone gets 2, and so on up to a cap set by the player count. Each round you bid how many tricks you'll win, then try to hit that number exactly. Too many or too few — zero points.

The deck has 52 standard cards (four suits, ranks 1–13) plus 6 paradox cards. The suits are: Chrono ⏳, Nova ✦, Void ◈, and Flux ⚡. Ranks run 1 (lowest) to 13 (highest).

Setup

Deal each player the same number of cards. Flip one more card face-up to set the trump suit for the round (on the last round nothing is flipped — that round has no trump). The player to the dealer's left bids first; the dealer leads the first trick.

Bidding

Each player bids a whole number from 0 to the hand size. Bids are binding. There's one catch: the dealer's bid cannot make the sum of everybody's bids equal to the hand size. Someone has to be wrong — bids are always over or under.

Four-card round, three players bid 1 + 1 + 1 = 3. The dealer cannot bid 1. Pick 0, 2, 3, or 4.

Playing tricks

The trick leader plays first. The others play in order. If you have a card of the led suit, you must play one. Otherwise play anything — trump, off-suit, paradox.

The winner of the trick is determined in this order:

1. If any paradox Future was played, the first Future played wins.
2. If any trump was played, the highest trump wins.
3. Otherwise, the highest card of the led suit wins.
4. Paradox Past counts as the lowest card — it never wins.

The trick winner leads the next trick.

Paradox cards

There are six paradox cards in the deck. They don't belong to a suit and they don't have a rank — until you play one. When you do, you declare it as Future or Past:

• 🔮 Future — an unbeatable super-trump. If multiple Futures are played in one trick, the first one wins.
• 🕳️ Past — the lowest card. Loses to any other card. Good for dumping a trick you don't want.

Paradox cards never have to follow suit, and they don't establish the led suit if led. They're the game's pressure valve — and its weapon.

Scoring

At the end of each round, each player scores based on whether they hit their bid exactly:

• Tricks won = bid: 10 + bid points.
• Otherwise: 0 points. No partial credit.

Bidding 0 and making it is worth 10. Bidding 5 and making it is worth 15. Missing a 5-bid by a single trick is still 0. It's savage.

When the last round wraps, the highest total wins. Ties go to whoever bid 0 the most times, because 0 bids are underrated.