Vivaldi is a trick-taking game where players bit to become a leader.

Then, that leader chooses a season and by default, a secret friend.

Vivaldi is a restoration of the traditional Italian game “Briscola Chiamata“, or five-men briscola. It is a trick-taking game, starting with an auction that decides the strong set of each match. The winner of the auction will play allied with a hidden friend against the other three players.

Vivaldi Game Overview

Quick Rules Summary

Players bid an increasing number in order around the table, and the highest bidder wins. They get to choose the suit that is going to be worth points this round and is also the trump suit. The player with the 1 card in the opposite suit (Summer is opposite winter as we all know) will be their secret friend, basically their hidden companion.

Players play tricks with the winner taking the cards, but importantly you do not have to follow suit.

Once 8 tricks have been played the round ends.

How do you win?

Players score the total value of each trump card they won, minus the value of each opposite season card they have. To win, the 3 players must meet or exceed the total score of the 2 players but the 3 players also add to their total the number the lead player bid at the start.

After a certain number of rounds, the player with the most points is the winner.

Main Mechanisms

Trick-Taking! That’s it, this is pure trick-taking from top to bottom.

USP

Bidding to choose a trump suit and having a hidden partner are all new to me. I’m sure there are a lot of these regional card games that have similar rules.

Theme

Abstract to be sure. With the name of the game and the card art playing on the classical Vivaldi’s Four Seasons of course.

Setup

Shuffle and deal. Then do the weird auction thing.

Components & Artwork

Standard cards with OK artwork.

Although, the art for each season is a bit weird.

Ease of Teaching

If a player knows how to play a trick-taking game they’ll be OK with this.

But, that auction system and the point-scoring thing are a tad confusing. Also, the hidden role thing and the reason for it is a tough ask for a new player.

Similar Games

Pick a trick-taking game really.

Ebbes has the positive and negative points attribute with scoring that changes as you play. Not the same as a hidden role but still, it’s the closest I have. Chronicle is up there as one of my favourites too.

Vivaldi Review

Positives

The familiar core gameplay, just need to remember you don’t need to follow suit when playing a card

The hidden role and your ability to affect the points total of each trick to reward/penalise the assumed winner is good fun.

The idea that the leader is outnumbered but their ‘secret friend’ is clued in on who to help score points is pretty genius.

Negatives

The auction part is really confusing

I’m not sure tactically what I can do. If the hidden friend adds points to a trick for the leader, it’s a clue. But with only 8 tricks you don’t have much time to react.

You base your ‘hidden friend’ on one card without any knowledge of what the rest of their hand could be.

It’s 5 players and 5 players only. I’d rather play a heavier Terra Mystica type or a lighter Werewords type at that player count.

Summary

A very interesting game that I thought about a lot in the weeks after playing but it needs some plays to understand how it all comes together.

Jesta ThaRogue