The Bottle Imp (French/English)

In this trick-taking game, based on the Robert Louis Stevenson short story of the same name, the objective is to win the most points in a series of hands (usually 200 points). The cards are numbered 1 to 37 and come in three colors: red (mainly the higher numbers), blue (mainly the middle), and yellow (mainly the lower numbers). The colors are analogous to the suit in a standard deck of cards. There is a neutral card, 19, which establishes the "price of the bottle." The entire deck is dealt to the three or four players, and, as with hearts, cards are exchanged, and a card is played to the bottle. As is usual in a trick-taking game, players must follow suit, if possible, and the highest card takes the trick (regardless of suit). However, the unique feature of this game is how the trump is determined. Any card of value lower than the current price of the bottle (starting at 19) is considered a "trump" and wins the trick. If multiple cards are lower than the current price of the bottle, the card with the closest value to the current price (i.e., the highest card below the bottle) takes the trick AND THE BOTTLE. The price of the bottle is adjusted when the player takes the card representing the current price of the bottle and replaces it with the card they used to win the trick. Therefore, the price of the bottle will decrease with each trump card played, and the bottle is increasingly difficult to win/buy. Ownership of the bottle will pass from player to player, and the number of possible trump cards will decrease by both the factor of cards played and cards omitted as the price of the bottle decreases. One player will keep the bottle at the end of a hand (when players have played all the cards in their hands). The 2003 edition includes the full story by R.L. Stevenson (in both English and German), and the bottle is a beautiful wooden piece. Previous versions had a vertical cardboard cutout.