The origin · Wellington, Aotearoa
The games kept getting predictable.
So we designed one that couldn’t be. And we wanted to play with 3 people. That's where it started. We wanted an entertaining, unpredictable, quick game where 3 could enjoy playing as well as 2, 4 or more. So we began designing one: pair your cards to thirteen, and once a turn, you're allowed to lie.
Angus was eleven at the time, and together we built the mechanics — what the lie can do, when it refreshes, how you knock yourself out and how you claw your way back in.
Four years and more than a thousand rounds later, we confirmed how it plays and decided it was too much fun to keep to ourselves.
Read the table. Play the hand you are dealt.
Strategy and luck both get a say in Thirteen, which is exactly why it stays unpredictable. Being the sharpest player at the table doesn't hand you the win — you still have to play the hand you were dealt.
So everyone can get their turn at winning, especially if you learn to read the table. And if you are behind on pairs you can even up the score. But try not to get fixated on pairing that last card in your hand, otherwise you might pair yourself out of the game. A thousand games later and it still happens.
So what's the lie for?
This is the question that unlocks the game and the answers build your strategies.
First, use it to fish. Test the table to see who is holding what.
Then, to hide. Your hand is getting thin and everybody's watching it. Ask for a Single you don't have the pair of in your hand to hide what you do have.
Strip a card. Your fellow player missed, so ask for the Single you think they have to start building your next pair.
And survive. When your hand is down to the wrong card, the lie is what keeps you from pairing yourself out.
Nobody can knock you out
Only you can do that. Every exit from a game of Thirteen is self-inflicted by pairing yourself out.
There are also two scoreboards running at once, so you can be knocked out three-quarters of the way through and still win on pairs. The ending is different every time.
Deceptively simple. Delightfully cunning.
Co-designed by Angus & Caroline Rennie · Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
Printed in Greymouth, New Zealand
