Getaway
Getaway is a unique trick-taking game for three to eight players. In most trick-taking games, players have to follow suit, but if they can’t, they simply can’t win the trick. Also, after the trick is finished, it’s discarded to a won-tricks pile and the cards are out of play. Getaway turns all that on its head—a player being unable to follow suit ends that trick, and the player that was winning the trick takes the cards into their hand!
Getaway is popular in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
Object of Getaway
The object of Getaway is to avoid being the last player with any cards.
Setup
To play Getaway, you’ll need a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. Treat your players to the best game you can give them by playing with a deck of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards.
Shuffle and deal out the entire deck as far as it will go. Some players may receive more cards than others; this is fine.
Game play
The player that holds the A♠ leads it to the first trick. Each player then plays a card to the trick, in order proceeding to the left. All players must follow suit if able. After all players have played, the person playing the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. Cards rank in their usual order, with aces high, so the person holding the A♠ will always win the first trick. The cards are placed face down in a discard pile after the trick is played, and the winner of the trick leads to the next trick.
When a player cannot follow suit, they may play any card. Beginning on the second trick, play to a trick stops whenever a player cannot follow suit. Players later on in turn order do not contribute to the trick. The player who, at that point, had played the highest card of the suit led takes the cards from the incomplete trick into their hand. That player then leads to the next trick.
Between tricks, a player may choose to take the entire hand of the player to their left. Since that player is then left with no cards, they instantly get away (see below). Exercising this option is sometimes in a player’s best interest, because the player to the left does not have any cards in the suits the player holds. Thus, the trick will always end prematurely by the player to the left failing to follow suit, and the player will never be able to play their cards. In such a situation, it makes sense to take that player out of the game in hopes of being able to pass control to another player.
Getting away
Unlike most trick-taking games, not all players are going to play cards to every trick, and players will be bringing new cards into their hand. Because of this, players will run out of cards at different rates. A player that runs out of cards is said to have gotten away. When a player has gotten away, they are out of the game and are not at risk of losing. If a player who was supposed to lead gets away, the player to their left leads instead.
Ending the hand
The number of players will gradually shrink as more and more players get away. Special rules apply when only two players are left and one of them runs out of cards. If the other player plays a higher card of the suit led, as usual, that player wins the trick, and the player who depleted their hand gets away. The player with cards remaining loses the game. However, if the player with more cards can play a lower card of the suit led, that forces a special situation called a shootout.
The discard pile is shuffled, excluding the two cards from the trick just concluded. The player with no cards randomly draws a card from the deck and exposes it. This card serves as their lead. If the other player can again play a lower card of the suit led, the game continues with the player with no cards drawing a new lead from the shuffled discard pile. If the player with cards is forced to play a card of a higher rank than the card drawn from the deck, the player with no cards gets away and the player with cards remaining loses. Should the player with cards have no cards of the suit drawn, however, the player with cards gets away, and the player with no cards loses.
