Solar Eclipse — Rules Manual

Overview
Solar Eclipse is a trick-taking game of
cunning combinations with the goal of
predicting the amount of tricks you’ll take
each round.
Players play two cards into every trick,
adding their ranks together to form a
stronger total, or trumping with an eclipse
when the ranks of their cards match.
However, when a moon card is led, players
must skillfully deceive their rivals in order
to meet their prediction & achieve victory.

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and orients all of them to the end with
an icon matching the player count.
Place the 7 bonus cards in a pile within
reach of all players.
Players choose the 1st dealer randomly.
The dealer shuffles the deck of playing
cards and deals 14 cards to each player.
In a 2 player game, the extra 14 cards are
put aside face down until the next hand,
when they're shuffled back into the deck.
18 Bid cards
Setup
7 Bonus cards
(ranks 1-21 sun, 1-21 moon)
(3 sets of 6 cards)
42 Playing cards
Components

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The dealer leads the first trick of a round.
The lead player of a trick plays any card
from their hand face up. In clockwise order,
other players also play a face up card,
following the suit of the lead player’s card
if possible.
If a player is unable to follow the suit of
the lead player’s card, they may play any
card from their hand.
Before the first trick, players examine their
hand of playing cards and then select any
one of their bid cards, placing it face down
in front of them. This is their goal for the
round. The unselected bid cards are set
aside separately face down.
Trick Play: First Cards
Selecting a Bid Card

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If a Sun card was the first card played by the lead player, all players' second cards are played face up.
If a Moon card was the first card played by the lead player, all players' second cards are played face down. Players simultaneously flip their cards face up once all players have played their second card.
The trick continues with the lead player playing another card followed by all other players in clockwise order.
Trick Play: Second Cards
Lead
Lead
Lead
Lead

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The second card a player chooses to play into a trick must follow the suit of the lead player’s first card if possible. This applies to the lead player as well.
However, a player may optionally choose to play a card with a rank that matches their first card played, even if they were able to follow the lead suit.
Playing cards with matching ranks creates an Eclipse, which is always a stronger combination than any two cards with different ranks.
Eclipse
If a player is unable to follow the lead suit with their second card, they may play any card.
Trick Play: Eclipse

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15 Strength 0 Strength 20 Strength
Once each player has played two cards, the trick is resolved.
The player who played the highest eclipse wins the trick.
If no eclipses were played, the player who played the cards with the highest total strength wins the trick. To calculate total strength, add together the ranks of both cards played.
Important! Any cards that do not match the suit of the lead player’s first card are treated as having zero (0) rank.
Example: No eclipses were played. A Sun card was led, so all Moon cards count as 0.
Resolving Tricks

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The winner of a trick places all cards from the trick in a face down pile in front of them, making sure to keep piles from each trick won separate from each other.
If a player wins a trick without using an eclipse, they also take one Bonus card and place it on top of the face down trick pile.
25 Strength
Example: The combination on the right wins the trick because the rank 20 is the highest card of the lead suit played.
Ties for strength are won by the player with the highest card in the lead suit.
The winner of a trick leads the next trick.
Proceed to scoring after playing 7 tricks.
Resolving Tricks Cont’d

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Players score the points shown on their bid card if their amount of tricks taken this round matches the bid amount. Regardless of whether a player matched their bid, all players also score 1 additional point per Bonus card acquired. The player clockwise of the dealer becomes the dealer for the next round. The player with the most points after four rounds is the winner! If tied, the player with more Bonus cards in the final round wins! If still tied, share victory.

Art: Jon Barron, Shreesh Bhat, Christopher Lloyd, Alex Borman, Taylor Reiner, Jacob, Cam, Max, Ryan Campbell, Conrad Ratchford
Game Design: David Spalinski, Matthew LaBrake
Playtesters:

In tribute to Einar Egilsson, whose website got me hooked on trick-taking games.

Scoring

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