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Luz
IELLO新澤 大樹 (Taiki Shinzawa)2024
- players
- 3–5
- minutes
- 30
- years
- 10+
In the box
60 cards: five colours of 12, numbered 1 to 12 · 5 "+" cards · 15 Bet marbles (yellow) and 5 Safety marbles (blue) · 1 score booklet
Official rules (PDF, publisher's site)
Box details
- Designer
- 新澤 大樹 (Taiki Shinzawa)
- Artwork
- Crocotame
- Publisher
- IELLO
- Mechanics
- DeductionTrick-taking
Where to buy it
Near you and online
In a shop
Within 50 km.
Online
Affiliate link: Marquoir may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
The basics
A trick-taking game where you hold your cards backwards: everyone sorts their hand, passes it face down to their left-hand neighbour, then plays cards whose value only the opponents can see. Before the 10 tricks of each hand, you bid with Bid marbles on how many tricks you will win, adding a Safety marble if you like, which tolerates one extra trick; you must follow the colour led and yellow is trumps. A successful bid scores 10, 20, 30 then 40 points depending on the hand, half that with the Safety marble; a failed bid costs 5 points per trick of difference. After four hands, the highest total wins.
Checked against the official rules · October 2026
The rules, step by step
Setup
Cards 1 to 8, 10 or 12, 1 “+” card each, Yellow is trumps
- 65 cards: 12 cards numbered 1 to 12 in each of the five colours, plus 5 “+” cards. The colour shows on both sides, the value on one side only.
- 15 Bid marbles (yellow), 5 Safety marbles (blue), a score pad.
- With 3 players, keep values 1 to 8; with 4 players, 1 to 10; with 5 players, 1 to 12.
- Yellow is the trump colour. A first player is chosen at random and receives the marked “+” card; the others receive one each.
- Three to five players.
How to play
Hand passed left, Bid your tricks, Not seeing your values
- The game is played over 4 hands of 10 tricks. Whoever holds the marked “+” card shuffles and deals.
- Deal: 10 cards each, face down; the 10 remaining cards are not used. Each player looks at their hand and sorts it by colour, then in ascending order within each colour, and places their “+” card at the high-value end.
- Each player then passes their hand, face down, to their left-hand neighbour: you take your right-hand neighbour’s hand without seeing the faces. The value of your own cards is visible only to the others, and the marked “+” card has passed to the dealer’s left-hand neighbour.
- Bid: starting with whoever holds the marked “+” card, then clockwise, each player takes as many Bid marbles as the tricks they hope to win. They may add a Safety marble, which allows one extra trick; you may also take no Bid marbles at all, with or without a Safety marble.
- Tricks: whoever holds the marked “+” card leads first, then the winner of each trick leads the next. Play a card without checking its value; you must follow the colour led if you have it, otherwise play whatever you like.
- The highest yellow trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the colour led. The hand ends when only the “+” card is left in hand, and the first player of that hand deals the next one.
- With three players, in the fourth hand only, the player leading on points bids and leads first. If several share the lead, it is the first player if they are among them, otherwise whoever follows the first player most closely in turn order.
Scoring
Successful bid: 10 to 40, Safety: half, Failed: −5 per trick
- Successful bid without a Safety marble: 10 points in the first hand, 20 in the second, 30 in the third, 40 in the fourth.
- Successful bid with a Safety marble: half that, i.e. 5, 10, 15 then 20 points.
- With a Safety marble, the bid succeeds if you win exactly as many tricks as your Bid marbles, or one more.
- Failed bid: 5 points off for each trick of difference from your Bid marbles, Safety marble or not.
- In Marquoir, enter the points each player won or lost after every hand; the counter stops on its own after the fourth hand.
End of the game
After the 4th hand, Highest total
- The game ends after the fourth hand: the highest total wins.
- In a tie for first, the tied player with the best score in the last hand wins. If the tie remains, victory goes to the first player if they are among the tied players, otherwise to whichever of them follows the first player most closely in turn order.
House rules and pitfalls
The Safety marble can also be used to attack: the extra trick it allows lets you take one an opponent was…
- The Safety marble can also be used to attack: the extra trick it allows lets you take one an opponent was counting on, at the cost of half your own points.
- No looking at the tricks collected or at the cards left aside during the deal; on the other hand, everyone must be able to count at any time how many tricks the others have (the rulebook suggests placing a marble on each trick won).
Going further
Variants · Frequently asked questions · Rules on video · In the same family
Variants
Number of players
3 players
Keep only values 1 to 8.
4 players
Values 1 to 10.
With 5 players
Values 1 to 12.
choose them when you start a game: the scorer adapts
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t you see your own cards?
Because you are playing your neighbour’s hand: you receive it with the faces turned towards the others. You see the colour of your cards, never their value — and since everyone sorted their hand before passing it, you at least know where your high cards are.
What is the “+” card for?
It shows which end of each colour group holds the highest values. It stays in hand until the end: the hand finishes when it is the only card left. The marked “+” card also shows who the first player is.
What exactly does the Safety marble do?
It allows one trick more than you bid. The bid then succeeds with the exact count or with one extra trick, but it only scores half the points.
How much does a failed bid cost?
Five points per trick of difference from your number of Bid marbles — under or over. With three Bid marbles and a Safety marble, winning six tricks costs 15 points, and winning only two costs 5.
Must you follow the colour led?
Yes, whenever you have one. Since you do not know the value of your cards, the obligation is based on colour alone, which is visible on the back.
What is the trump colour?
Yellow, always. A trump, even a low one, beats any card of the colour led.
Rules on video
Videos in French, hosted on YouTube.