Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Taking Tricks!
Some readers may know that I wasn’t into trick-taking games at all a couple of years back. Since then, though, trick-taking has become the trend for small-box games, and somewhere along the way I developed a love for them. Whether or not I’m actually good at them is a different story.
The downside is that the seemingly endless wave of releases has started to oversaturate the genre, making it rarer to find one that brings something unique to the table. But when games like Rowdy Partners, Tricky Kids, and Rebel Princess offer something different, my head turns.
I had a chance to demo Crits & Tricks at Gen Con this year, and at first glance, I thought it was an RPG card game. Laid out in front of me were full sets of dice, from d4s to d20s and everything in between. Move over to the cards, and they stand out with fantasy artwork featuring bards, barbarians, and other adventuring types.
Wait a minute, these cards don’t have any values? Are you sure this is a trick-taking game?
Just wait and see.
Dice & Quests
Crits & Tricks plays over three rounds, and whoever collects the most loot wins. The deck is made up of different hero classes, such as wizards and rogues, that represent different suits and dictate how each trick is won. Tricks led with rogues, for example, are won by the lowest value, while wizard tricks are won by the value closest to five.
Those values are determined by dice rolled at the beginning of the round, which can optionally be rerolled before being placed on a card. Players also draft quests that earn loot during the round or at the end if they accomplish the listed task, while everyone is eligible to complete the round’s barkeep, or public, goal.
Each class also has a special “crit” ability that can be played alongside the card, altering the trick in some way.
Avant-garde Trick-Taking
Crits & Tricks caught me off guard in a positive way. The more I played, the more I realized it’s less about simply winning and more about manipulating each trick to suit your needs.
Loot primarily comes from completing quests, and most of the time, those tasks require you to win or lose in a particular way, such as winning with a d20 or avoiding some specific scenario. Then there’s the excitement of completing a quest simply because another player happened to play or do something that worked in your favor. One of my fellow players even likened the questing system to Gloomhaven, where you’re quietly working toward a personal objective while everyone else at the table may unknowingly help or ruin your plans.
The “crit” abilities on the cards add another nice wrinkle and can tilt things in your favor. Because you only have two crit abilities per round, with a hand of eight cards across six tricks, deciding when to use them adds another layer of hand management to the puzzle.
All of this is hidden behind a player screen, masking both your dice values and quests, which keeps everyone on their toes.
That said, there is a fair bit of randomness with the dice values and card distribution. If those don’t line up with your quest objectives, you might just be outta luck, as there aren’t many ways to mitigate it. Because of that, hardcore trick-takers will likely bounce off this one since pure skill isn’t necessarily going to win you the most loot.
The game also plays at a slower pace, as each trick comes with a good amount of analysis while you try to achieve your quests and still adhere to standard must-follow card play. Each led suit also has a different win condition—thankfully, the player aid printed on your screen helps keep things moving.
It’s also a game that plays well at all player counts and offers a slightly different experience depending on how many people are at the table. Solo has a nice puzzle feel, two players becomes more of a battle over quests, and three or four players turns into a chaotic joust. I actually like that the game doesn’t feel locked into one ideal player count, because each setup highlights a different part of the design rather than simply feeling like a compromised version of the “real” game.
Roll for Inspiration
Overall, I felt like this was a unique and creative take on the genre. The quests, shifting win conditions, hidden dice values, and crit abilities constantly give you little problems to solve, and I found myself thinking less like a traditional trick-taker and more like someone trying to manipulate a messy tactical puzzle.
That messiness is also where some of the rough edges show. There are moments where the randomness can undercut a clever plan, and the amount of information you’re juggling can make a hand feel more cumbersome than elegant. I don’t think that will bother everyone, but players who want trick-taking to feel clean, precise, and skill-forward may walk away frustrated. For me, though, the unpredictability fits the theme and gives the game personality, even if it occasionally gets in its own way.
So while I wouldn’t recommend it as the game to teach someone the fundamentals of trick-taking, I would absolutely point it toward players who already know the genre and want something stranger, more chaotic, and more puzzle-driven. With the interchangeability of the unique suits and a massive stack of quests, there’s plenty to explore. Crits & Tricks has enough personality and clever ideas that I’m more than willing to embrace the chaos and keep the crits and tricks coming.
