Introduction
Euchre is a trick-taking card game where players use a combination of high suit cards and trumps to capture tricks. The trump suit changes with each round and the onus is on the player who declared the trump suit to capture more than half of the tricks played. If they fail to capture more than half of the tricks played, then they forfeit their points to the other players. Euchre can be played in teams of 2 players each or in cut-throat mode where everyone is against each other.
House Rules
Most K.R. Engineering games have a variety of options or “house rules” that can be turned on and off by the game owner to change how the game plays. These options can include changing the winning criteria for a game, adding new rules or disabling other rules, or just placing time limits on how long you can be away before the game skips you. It is often helpful to know what house rules you are playing with when you sit down at a game. You can touch the game logo on any K.R. Engineering game to see a list of which options are enabled and which are not.
For owners/administrators wishing to change these options, please see the Administration section of this article.
Getting Started
If you are new to owning a K.R. Engineering game or have upgraded from an older game version, then you may have questions about your new table. Please see this FAQ for answers to some of our most common beginner questions.
Bug Fixes and Upgrades
Most owners of K.R. Engineering games are entitled to free upgrades to newer versions of the game. If a new update is available, then following the updating instructions for your game will result in a new copy of the most recent version being sent to you by the update server. This process is not automatic. You must request an update manually.
If you are having problems with your game, please search this knowledge base or contact us for product support. If the problem you are having has not previously been encountered, a new game version will be released with a fix as soon as possible, and you may qualify for a bug bounty.
DISCLAIMER: The appearance and feature set of games are subject to revision between versions as the capabilities of Second Life change over time. Please see the detailed ChangeLog for your particular game before upgrading. By upgrading. you are agreeing to accept any and all changes that have been imposed on the updated version of the game.
Joining the Game
Most K.R. Engineering games can be played simply by right-clicking on a chair and choosing “Play.”
K.R. Engineering games can be played on a variety of themed furniture objects, and the “chairs” may not always look like chairs. For example, on the Chess theme, the “chairs” are the giant chess pieces. If you are unsure what is a chair and what isn’t on a particular theme, that’s okay! You can right-click and select “Play” on any part of a theme and it will automatically place you in an available chair, even if you didn’t click on a chair specifically.
Important: K.R. Engineering games use a rezzing system. This means that the game (buttons, dice, cards, game boards, etc) is a separate object from the furniture/rezzer/theme. You must right-click on the theme to play, not the game itself, as you cannot sit on the game pieces (such as dice, game boards, cards, etc). You must sit on the furniture around the game to play, not the game pieces.
While most game themes include furniture that you can sit on, there may be some exceptions. The Pocket theme, for example, cannot be sat on, as it has no chairs. Instead, you can join a game on a Pocket theme by clicking the MENU button on the game.
Game Play
Important: To play Euchre, you must be wearing the Euchre HUD. To get a HUD, press the ‘HUD’ button on the table. You will be given an object called Euchre Game HUD. Find this under your Objects folder and wear it.
Setup
Euchre can be played in teams of 2 players per team, or in solo “cut-throat” mode where all players are for themselves. To play in teams, there must be an even number of players before the game starts. You can not have teams with less than 4 players playing.
Once all players are seated, any player may press the Start button to begin the game. If there are less than 4 players playing, or if there are an odd number of players, the game will automatically enter solo mode where there are no teams. If there are 4, 6 or 8 players, the game will ask whether you want to use teams or not.
The game will deal 5 cards (or 7 cards when using a 32-card deck) to each player, leaving 4 cards in the discard pile. One player will be designated the “Dealer” of the current round, but this is a title only and the game will still handle all dealing operations automatically on their behalf. On subsequent rounds, players will take turn being the Dealer, as this impacts game play (discussed more below).
Declaring Trump
After the cards are dealt, the top card of the discard pile is turned up. This is traditionally referred to as the “kitty.” Starting with the player to the right of the dealer (or left, if clockwise play is enabled), each player in turn is offered a chance to declare the kitty as the trump suit. If they do not want that suit to be the trump for this round, they can pass, but another player may decide they do want it as trump. If all players, including the dealer, pass on the kitty, then each player in turn is given the opportunity to name the suit of their choice as trump.
- In all cases, you must touch the area above the “TOUCH TO DECLARE TRUMP” label on the board whether you are passing or declaring. Touching this spot will present you with a menu of actions from which you can choose from.
- If the “Advance Kitty” option is enabled, then the top card on the kitty will be discarded and the next one turned up each time the kitty is passed upon.
If the trump is declared on the kitty, then the dealer must pick up the kitty regardless of who called it, and then discard 1 card of their choosing from their own hand. If the trump is declared arbitrarily, then no discard takes place.
If all players pass on naming a trump suit the second time, including the dealer, then the round is declared a misdeal and all cards are re-dealt.
It’s not a good strategy to declare a trump card in all cases. Remember, there’s a PASS option because it is often the best choice. If you declare a trump suit, but you lack enough cards of the same suit in your hand to win MORE THAN HALF of the tricks played in the round, then you are hurting yourself rather than helping yourself by taking the initiative.
- If the “Force Dealer” option is enabled in the game settings, then the dealer will be forced to declare a trump card at the end of the second round, thus making a misdeal impossible.
Playing a Round
Once a trump has been declared, the person the right of the dealer (or left, if clockwise play is enabled) starts by picking any card from their hand to play. Play then proceeds around the table with each player playing a card in turn.
When playing a card on your turn, there are 2 basic rules:
- You must follow the suit of the lead card if you can. For example, if the first card played is the 5 of Clubs, then you must also play a Club from your hand unless you have no Clubs.
- If you can’t follow suit, you may play any card of your choosing, including trump cards.
Once all players have played their cards, the game decides who won the trick in the following way:
- If any cards of the trump suit are played, even if the trump suit did not lead, then the highest card of the trump suit wins.
- If no trump cards are played, then the highest card that matches the suit of the first card played wins.
- Any cards played that are not the lead suit and are not trump cards are ignored.
For non-trump suits, the card order is as follows:
- Ace (highest)
- King
- Queen
- Jack
- Ten
- Nine (lowest card in 24-card deck)
- Eight (Eight and Seven are only in 32-card decks)
- Seven (lowest card in 32-card decks)
For the trump suit, the card order is slightly different. This is very important:
- Jack of trump suit (highest)
- Jack of same color as trump suit
- Ace
- King
- Queen
- Ten
- Nine (lowest card in 24-card deck)
- Eight (Eight and Seven are only in 32-card decks)
- Seven (lowest card in 32-card decks)
Note that the trump suit borrows the Jack from the suit of the same color (e.g. if trump is Spades, it borrows the Jack of Clubs). The Jack from the trump suit is known as the Right Bower, and is the most powerful card in the round. The borrowed jack from the suit of the same color is known as the Left Bower, and is the second-most powerful card in the round, including trumping all of remaining cards in the trump suit.
- Important Note: The borrowed Jack is not required to be played when following the lead suit in a trick. If, for example, the Jack of Clubs is the Left Bower, and someone leads with the 5 of Clubs, you are not required to play the Jack of Clubs to follow suit. You are considered out of Clubs if that is your only remaining Club and you may play whatever you like, since the Jack of Clubs is considered an honorary member of the trump suit for the round.
Scoring
When all tricks have been caught, the game looks at how many tricks were caught by the player (or both players together, if on a team) that declared the trump suit. Known as the Maker, if this player (or team) managed to catch MORE THAN HALF of the tricks, they get awarded points. If they failed to catch more than half of the tricks, then everyone else gets points instead.
- If the Maker collected ALL of the tricks, they get 2 points.
- If the Maker collected MORE THAN HALF of the tricks, but not all of them, they get 1 point.
- If the Maker collected less than half of the tricks, everyone else gets 2 points.
Winning the Game
The game is won when a player (or team) goes over 10 points. (The game can optionally be played to 7 or 15 points instead if you wish to have a shorter or longer game.)
- If the “By Two” setting is enabled, then the winning team must not only reach the target point amount, but they must also be at least 2 points ahead of their nearest competitor to win. If they reach 10 points and are less than 2 points ahead, the game will continue.
Customization
For information on switching out tables and themes, please see this FAQ entry. For an overview of the theme/table administrative menu, please check out our Game Rezzer Administration article. For detailed information on customizing animations and camera views, please see our Player Experience Customization article.
Euchre supports Card Design add-ons! Click here for more information.
Custom Cards
K.R. Engineering card games that use a standard playing card deck (and some that use non-standard decks) will allow you to change the cards to be anything that you want if you’re willing to make your own textures for them. You can find more information and instructions by visiting our Custom Cards article.
Gaming.SL Live Integration
Gaming.SL Live (also known as Gaming.SL or G.SL) is gaming platform and services system developed by K.R. Engineering, which brings a variety of enhanced features to games in Second Life that are not possible with Second Life alone. In addition to the features described in this article, G.SL can integrate with your table in the following ways.
Leaderboards
Gaming.SL connected games have a grid-wide top score database that allows players to compete and have a pervasive record of their high scores. These high scores can be viewed by using a Top Scores display board in Second Life or by accessing the Top Scores page on the Gaming.SL website. Scores can be filtered down by region, specific game tables, dates, and other criteria.
In addition to recording high scores, games keep a running tally of the total number of times players have won on a game. This information can be viewed on a Top Winners display board in Second Life or by accessing the Top Winners page on the Gaming.SL website. Winners can likewise be filtered by region and other criteria to see a more specific list of winners.
On supported games, players will also be assigned a rank that compares their performance to other players who have played the same game. Players can improve this rank by playing well against other players. Rank information can be viewed on a Top Ranked display board in Second Life or by accessing the Top Ranked page on the Gaming.SL website.
Achievements
Gaming.SL includes support for Achievements in participating games, where-in you can unlock trophies by performing miraculous or mundane feats of gameplay. Achievements are awarded automatically and announced in Second Life when they are unlocked. Players can check their own achievements by visiting the Achievements page on the Gaming.SL website.
Jackpots
Gaming.SL supports the option to have ongoing recurring Jackpots where players can win cash prizes just for playing, no purchase necessary! Visit the Jackpots page on the Gaming.SL website to see the current jackpot standings, and who you need to defeat to win a prize. Prizes are based on ranking on a leaderboard that is erased during each jackpot period. Players must play during each period to be eligible to win during that period.
Licensing
Gaming.SL connected games utilize a licensing system that allows scores, ranks, winners, and other attributes to persist between rezzes of the same game, regardless of location in Second Life. This licensing system also allows games to have COPY permissions while still offering instancing control.
Public Games
Games that use Gaming.SL Live can also optionally be specified as a PUBLIC game by the game’s owner. This will display the game on the Gaming.SL Live Games page, including game status, options, and location, and a button to let a user teleport straight to the game to play. All games default to PRIVATE unless explicitly changed by the owner of the game.
Privacy
See the Gaming.SL Live page for more details on the Gaming.SL Live system, as well as our comprehensive Privacy Policy detailing the information we collect and how we use it.
Administration
To access the game’s administrative menu, simply click and hold your mouse button down on any part of it for two seconds. A menu will pop up on your screen displaying current settings and providing options to change them. (In slow simulators, this may take slighter longer than two seconds, just hold the mouse button down until you see a menu.)
On certain rezzer versions, depending on where you click, you may open the REZZER’S administrative menu instead of the GAME’S administrative menu. This is okay! If you are in the rezzer admin menu, you can switch directly over to the game admin menu by pressing the “Game ↗” button. Likewise if you open the game menu by mistake, and wish to switch over to the rezzer menu, you can simply press the “↙ Rezzer” button.
Some elements of the administration menu are accessible only by the owner, while others can be accessed by anyone who is considered an administrative user, either explicitly added or implicitly through the Group Admin feature.
There are too many options to fit in a standard dialog window, so the window has been divided into pages. You can use the <<< and >>> buttons at the bottom of the admin menu to change which page of options you are currently viewing. If you don’t see the option you want, it’s on another page!
Rezzer Options
Many options that were formerly in the game admin menu have been moved to the table/theme/rezzer admin menu. These are options that are game-independent, such as admin users, branding, sound volume, and updating. These options are now set on the table/theme/rezzer and apply automatically to whatever game is being played on that table or theme. For details on accessing the rezzer admin menu and what options are in it, please see the Game Rezzer Administration article.
Owner-Only Options
- Indicators: A menu for changing the color of the turn indicator lights on the game board.
- Color: An alternate way to access the color/theme menu for the table. This is the same as pressing the Color button on the table top.
- Cards: Access the card customization menu. See the ‘CUSTOM CARDS’ section below for more information.
Administrative User Options
- ↙ Rezzer: This button will directly open the rezzer’s administrative menu instead of the game’s menu.
- Players: Access the player management menu to skip or evict players from the game.
- Abandoned: Select this button to change the number of seconds the table waits to reset an abandoned game after all players have left.
- Timeout: Select this button to change the number of seconds the table waits for idle players to begin their turn. If they don’t roll before the timeout occurs, the game will skip them for this round.
- Quiet: Enable quiet mode, reducing the amount of chatter that the game will send to local chat.
- Chatty: Disable quiet mode.
- Long: Play a long game of Euchre. Players must play until 15 points.
- Normal: Play a normal game of Euchre. Players must play until 10 points.
- Short: Play a short game of Euchre. Players must play until 7 points.
- By 2 On: Enable the By 2 rule. Requires players to exceed their nearest rival by a minimum of 2 points to win.
- By 2 Off: Disable the By 2 rule. Players can win merely by reaching the required point amount. This may result in ties.
- Force On: Enable Force Dealer. The dealer MUST choose a trump suit if no-one else does.
- Force Off: Disable Force Dealer. The dealer may elect not to choose a trump suit, in which case the game is declared a misdeal and new cards are dealt.
- 32 Cards: Use a 32 card deck. Players will be dealt 7 cards and there will be 7 tricks.
- 24 Cards: Use a 24 card deck. Players will be dealt 5 cards and there will be 5 tricks.
- Advance On: Enable the Advance Kitty option. The top kitty card will be replaced each time it is passed upon.
- Advance Off: Disable the Advance Kitty option. The top kitty card will be kept and offered as-is to each player.
- Play Left: Game play passes to your left (clockwise) around the table.
- Play Right: Game play passes to your right (counter-clockwise) around the table.
- Text On: Enable hover text for player scores.
- Text Off: Disable hover text for player scores.
Additional Questions
If you have more questions, please use the search tool on our main page to browse our many helpful articles and FAQ entries. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, you can contact us for assistance.
ChangeLog
You can find the ChangeLog for Euchre by visiting this article.