Introducing Overtake: an F1-inspired trick taker

I know what you’re thinking, “oh no, not another trick taker.” And you know what? Fair. This particular genre of card game for better or worse seems saturated. We’re avid trick takers ourselves here at FinalFinal Games so your potential fatigue doesn’t go unacknowledged. 

Wondering what a trick-taking game is? It’s a type of card game like Spades or Hearts. Typically, a "trick" involves one player playing a numbered card and the rest of the players playing a card on their turn that matches the same suit as the first card if they can. The highest card in the same suit as the first card played takes or wins “the trick.” It's a simple yet deeply nuanced way to play cards. 

Why then are we making yet another trick taking game with a twist? Mainly, because trick taking acts as a pretty strong metaphor for the competitive spirit of Formula 1 we want to express. 

As games, auto racing and trick taking are both about calculated risk taking under imperfectly predictable circumstances.

Formula 1 racing generally involves a variety of challenges that must be overcome to maximize speed: the track, driving skill, the car, and other racers. Each of these elements are somewhat known quantities, but winning will always require balancing the unexpected and pushing for more speed. 

In a loosely similar way, trick taking provides a semi-predictable, almost deterministic resolution for winning or losing a trick that gets shaken up through the smart sluff, a trump draw, or the  hard-earned promotion of a low card. 

Or a better reason still: higher number goes vroom better than lower number makes a lot of sense. 

Tyres are The Thing

FIA photo. Not graphics from the game. 

Most racing board games reasonably tend to focus on abstracting speed, slipstreams, and maybe corners if we’re lucky. This approach taps into what is immediately understandable about the sport. Trick-taking games in the racing genre smartly stick to the tricks and avoid the chrome. 

Both these approaches have left a central game of auto racing, especially F1, on the track: Tyres (not a typo just British).

Yes, I’m about to argue that tyres are the reason you should get hyped about Overtake, our second game that is currently in active development and testing.  

Tyres are one of the main games whole race teams are playing all season. A key strategic decision that teams make is whether to use fast tyres (soft) that wear down quicker or a slower compound (mediums and hards) that keeps them on the track longer. Overtake is all about the tension and strategy involved in this seemingly simple choice. 

A Trick-taking Racing Hybrid

Before we talk about rubber, let's speed through an overview of the game. Overtake is a must-follow trick-taking game where players play tricks to race around iconic but legally distinct circuits. Depending on your final position in a trick, you’ll move different spaces on the track. The game is more of a hybrid than a pure trick-taker (sorry, The Trick-Taking Guild), but smart and classic trick-taking heuristics are still at the core of mastery. However, as an F1-inspired game there were some non-negotiables that forced us from the pure trick-taking light: circuits (the track), corners, battling, and ofc, tyres. 

Each circuit is made up of spaces that car pieces race along on. In the prototype pic below, you’ll notice red spaces with numbers. These are corners—annoyingly made to slow down racers! If a player exceeds this number, the speed limit, when moving through that space they are forced to discard their highest card (choose if tied). This discard mechanic is our key means of simulating tyre wear. 

Prototype art above

At the beginning of and throughout a race, you’ll choose what tyres to use. Tyres determine the number of cards in hand, boost speed, and a special bonus. Yes, this means there are variable hand sizes in a trick taker (we already hear the cries from BGG). 

Prototype art above

The idea is that the three tyre types act as a sort of soft bid for players. Each type has a fresh side and a worn side. Whenever a player runs out of cards, their tyres are flipped to the worn side, forcing them to skip a turn to draw up to a newly reduced hand size. The tyres then heighten tensions around your chosen strategy as you attempt to better use this dwindling resource than your rivals. Players are left with the question of do you risk taking fast tyres that wear out faster or play it safe with slower tyres? 

The circuits, tyre (hand) management, and corners cohere into a puzzly challenge for players to strategize around as they battle other racers for position. There’s certainly some chrome from adhering to theme, but Overtake stays focused on snappy card play. Speed, the tyre bids, upgrades (more on those in the next update) all come back to the trick taking as the means to experience the strategic thrills of the world’s highest class of racing. 

If Overtake sounds exciting, intriguing, or like something you’d like to argue about, sign up for the FinalFinal Games newsletter for exclusive (and not spammy!) invites to playtests and Overtake updates.