109 - Spades

Players: exactly 4 players and 1 referee are needed.  The 4 players may
be already divided into 2 teams of 2 players each; if not, teams will be
assigned.

Equipment: 1 legacy deck

Beginning the game:
The referee sends a message to the Gamesmaster, indicating the players
in the game and their chosen teams, if any.  The Gamesmaster starts the
game by randomly assigning the players into a playing order, but ensuring
that members of the same team do not occupy adjacent positions if teams
are already chosen.  Players 1 and 3 shall be team 1; players 2 and 4
shall be team 2.  Throughout the game, play will rotate through this
sequence, returning to player 1 after player 4.
Rules:
1. Dealing
At the beginning of each round, the referee collects and shuffles into
a random order all of the cards in the deck (except the Jokers, which
are not used), and deals 13 cards to each player (sending each player
eir cards by private email).

2. Bidding
In the first round, player 1 has the first bid; in each later round,
the next player in the sequence has the first bid.  After the deal, the
first bidder (and each other bidder after him) makes a bid.  The valid
bids are 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

3. Trick Play
The main part of a round consists of 13 tricks. In each trick each
player shall play one card from his hand; these cards are then
removed from play for the rest of that round.  The player who made
the highest bid (the first player who made it, in case of a tie) leads
to the first trick; for later tricks, the player who won the previous
trick leads.  The player who leads a trick begins it by playing any
card from eir hand (called the card led).  The other players follow
in order; each player must play a card from eir hand of the same suit
as the card led, if e has one; if not, e may play any card from eir
hand.  The player who played the highest Spade played to a trick wins
the trick, if any Spade was played; otherwise the player who played the
highest card of the suit led wins the trick.

4. Scoring
For the purposes of Spades, each team has a Spadescore, which has no
effect outside an instance of Spades, and whenever the spades rules say
a team scores, eir spadescore is increased or decreased as appropriate.

After the 13th trick in a round is completed, each team scores as follows:

The bids the two players won are added together, as are the number of
tricks taken by the two players. If they took fewer tricks than their
bid, they score -10 times the bid (-20 times the bid if the bid was 10
or more); otherwise they score 10 times the bid (20 times the bid if it
was 10 or more), and in addition, they score 1 and get one sandbag for
each trick in excess of their bid.

For each player on the team who bid 0, the team scores 100 if e took no
tricks, or -100 if e took at least one trick.

When a team receives their 10th, 20th, 30th, etc. sandbag, they score
-100.

5. Winning the Game
After the scoring for a round, if at least one team has a Spadescore of
greater than or equal to 500, and the teams aren't tied, the team with
the greater score wins; otherwise, the referee shall begin another round.
If both players on a team post a concession publicly, the other team wins
the game.  If either team forfeits their opponents win.  There are no
other ways to win the game.

6. Miscellaneous
Bids are made and cards are played by announcing them publicly.

Nobody is allowed to reveal to anybody what cards any player has except
as explicitly stated in these rules.

If a player misplays (plays a card not matching the suit of the card led
when e has a card in eir hand matching the suit of the card led, or
attempts
to play a card not in eir hand), the referee should intervene as quickly
as
possible, voiding all plays since (and including) the misplay, and the
misplaying player's team scores -100.  If players on one team misplay
twice
in one hand or three times in a game, that team forfeits.  Any misplays
voided due to an earlier misplay do not count and are not penalized.

7. Time Limit
Whenever action is expected of any player and they fail to act for 3 days,
the referee shall intervene by choosing a valid action for that player,
as follows:

If it occurs during the bidding, a bid of 2 is made.

If it occurs during the trick play, the referee chooses a card at random
from among the cards the player could legally play, and it is played.