§A Introduction. Introduced here is the playing-card game Scioto, named for a river in Ohio whose southern portion is notably scenic, and is rendered on the Ohio state seal.
Scioto falls into the point-trick category of trick-taking games, and is suitable for two or more more players. Rules for a basic two-player version are given first.
§B Cards. The game uses 28 cards extracted from a standard pack.
The cards are divided into the usual four suits: clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds.
Each suit contains seven ranks, which Scioto places into a circular sequence:
| ← lower ... higher → |
| ... Five-Six-Seven-Ace-Two-Three-Four-Five-Six-Seven-Ace-Two-Three ... |
| ... 5-6-7-A-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-A-1-2-3 ... |
Eights, Nines, Tens, Jacks, Queens, and Kings are omitted.
Throughout the text, the heart and diamond pips, along with the ranks of cards in those suits, will generally be rendered in red; this is unsurprising. On the other hand, clubs and spades will generally be displayed not in the expected black but rather in green, an arbitrary color chosen to distinguish the suit and rank symbols from surrounding text. Hence ♥5 ♦2 ♣7 ♠3 .
Players choose the first dealer randomly; then the deal alternates. Dealer shuffles the cards; nondealer cuts the pack. The dealer then distributes fourteen cards to each player, exhausting the pack.
The hand is played out in tricks. Nondealer leads to the first trick, and after that the winner of one trick leads to the next.
Leader may choose any card for the lead, and leader's opponent (the follower) may respond with any card. Follower wins a trick if any of these rules of dismissal apply:
Here are examples of which cards from follower dismiss which cards from leader:
| leader's card | follower's dismissive cards |
|---|---|
| ♣6 | ♣7 ♠7 ♥7 ♦7 ♣A ♠A ♣2 |
| ♥2 | ♥3 ♦3 ♣3 ♠3 ♥4 ♦4 ♥5 |
| ♠6 | ♠6 ♣6 ♥6 ♦6 ♠7 ♣7 ♠A |
| ♦A | ♦2 ♦2 ♣2 ♠2 ♦3 ♠3 ♦4 |
Any card can be dismissed by exactly seven other cards, so no card is intrinsically more powerful to win tricks than another. However, some cards will earn more points than others.
The trickwinner collects both cards of the trick and places them face down in his winnings pile. The trickwinner then leads to the next trick. This continues until all the cards have been played to tricks. Then each player figures his score, as explained in §D below.
There are many cases when neither of two cards dismisses the other, for example ♣6 and ♥3. Never, however, are there two cards that can dismiss to each other.
Below are some arrows that provide a compact dismissal notation:
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Some fonts might not implement these arrow characters fully or consistently.
§D Scoring. Each player examines the cards in his winnings pile to figure his score. Each card's point value is based on its rank, specifically the number of pips it contains: Ace = 1, Two = 2, Three = 3, etc. There are 28 points in each suit, making the pack total 112. A tie is possible.
Each player's total score is the sum of the point value of the cards won in tricks. Scores can be recorded with pencil and paper, or with an electronic device.
§E Compounding. This rule is recommended for non-beginners. A trick might contain any even number of cards, supplied alternately by the two players.
A trick begins ordinarily, with leader's card (c1) and follower's card (c2):
Excitement builds when compounding continues, as one player will eventually win six, eight, or more cards.
If c4 ⇒ c3, leader can now re-re-lead with c5 if c5 would dismiss c4. Then follower re-re-follows with c6:
It helps to remember that once c3 is played, c1 and c2 have no bearing on who wins the trick; once c5 is played, c3 and c4 have no bearing; and so forth. Still, the trickwinner earns the point values of all the cards.
§F Variants. There are countless possibilities. Among them:
1 Trick-and-draw. As presented above, Scioto is two-player game where all the cards are dealt, with the result that each player can figure out what cards his opponent has. That makes it a game of perfect information, like chess. However, Scioto can also be played as a trick-and-draw game, a famous member of that family being Bezique.
To do this, deal seven cards to each player, and place the remaining fourteen cards (the stock) face down on the table. After each trick, trickwinner draws one card from the stock, and then trickloser draws one. They continue to the next trick. Hands will remain at seven cards until the stock is exhausted, at which point players continue tricks without drawing, and their hands shrink. There will still be fourteen tricks, consuming all the cards. Score normally.
Trick-and-draw does not become a game of perfect information until the stock is exhausted.
2 Number of ranks. The pack can be made larger or smaller. For instance, with nine ranks the Ace ranks immediately above the Nine. There will be 36 points per suit, making a total of 144. With a large number of ranks, a simplified scoring method might be preferred, such as this twelve-rank schedule, which totals 120 points:
With a large number of ranks, the rule for dismissal may need to be broadened so that leader does not win tricks excessively often. For comparison, this is the original from above:
Broader:
Very broad:
If instead there are fewer ranks, the dismissal rule might be narrowed as follows:
3 Double pack. Scioto can be played with the 48-card Pinochle pack of six ranks, four suits, each card appearing twice. From low to high, the cards rank and score Nine-1, Jack-2, Queen-3, King-4, Ten-5, and Ace-6. Because of circularity, the Nine would be just above the Ace. Because of Pinochle tradition, the Ten is above the King, not below the Jack.
With the large number of cards, two players would probably choose the trick-and-draw procedure, dealing 12 each and leaving a stock of 24, as in two-handed Pinochle.
If two identical cards are played to the same trick, the second of them dismisses the first. With only six ranks, a narrow dismissal rule will be necessary for the other cases.
4 More players. Adjust the size of the pack so that all players receive an equal number. Winning a trick depends on playing a card dismissing the best card so far. Example with four players named W, X, Y, and Z:
The last major wins the trick. If compounding is allowed, W in order to re-lead would need a card that dismisses whatever the major has become. With one re-lead, the trick will total 8 cards; with two re-leads, 12 cards.
5 Mandatory dismissal. Require that follower play a card that will win the trick if he has it. Otherwise, he may play anything. If compounding is allowed, require that leader re-lead whenever holding a suitable card. However, this is difficult to enforce in a trick-and-draw version before the stock is exhausted.
1. Scioto differs from many trick-taking games in that there is no requirement to "follow suit", "head the trick", and the like.
2. HTML for the special arrows:
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