Three players, four contracts, one scoresheet — and only the declarer’s tricks ever count
Stepping Stones is a compendium trick-taking game for exactly three players: a game made of several small games, called contracts, that every player must play once. Each hand, one player declares a contract and tries to do well at it while the other two try to make them do badly — and at the end of the hand only the declarer’s tricks are written down. When all three players have declared the same contract, their three results are compared and turned into points. Twelve hands, twelve entries on the sheet, and the timing of when you declare each contract is most of the game.
A deck of 36 cards in four suits — Cherry Blossoms, Koi, Stone Lanterns and Bridges — each running from 1 to 9. Three players. A game takes twelve hands, about 40 minutes.
There is no fixed ranking of the cards. Every hand, the declarer announces whether 9 is high or 1 is high. With 9 high the order is the obvious one; with 1 high it is reversed, and the 1 beats the 2 beats the 3. The same choice applies to the trump suit when there is one.
The sheet has a column for each contract and a row for each player. Standard play uses four contracts:
The advanced set keeps Pick Trump and replaces the other three:
The two sets are never mixed. A game uses one or the other.
Twelve cards are dealt to each player. The forehand — the player who holds the forehand card — bids first, and bidding goes clockwise. A bid is simply naming a contract you have not yet played, with the ranking (9 or 1 high) and, for a trump contract, the suit. The first player to bid is the declarer; there is no outbidding, and bidding ends at once.
Each player may instead pass. If all three pass, the forehand is pushed in the puddle: they must declare one of their open contracts after all. A player who has completed every contract cannot bid and always passes; if the forehand has nothing left to declare, the puddle moves to the next player who has.
The forehand card passes clockwise after every hand, skipping players with nothing left to declare.
The declarer leads the first trick; the winner of a trick leads the next. You must follow the led suit if you can, but you need not beat what is already on the table. A player with none of the led suit may play anything.
The highest trump wins the trick, if any was played; otherwise the highest card of the led suit, always under the ranking the declarer announced. In May Trump a trump may be played over a led suit you still hold, but when trump itself is led you must follow it. In Must Beat, a follower who holds a card of the led suit higher than the best one so far must play one; a follower who cannot beat it plays any card of the led suit, and a player void in it plays anything. Off-suit cards never win.
The declarer keeps each won trick as its own pile so everyone can count them. The defenders’ tricks are never scored, so they may stack theirs together.
After the twelfth trick the declarer’s trick count goes into their cell on the sheet — for Win Last 6, only tricks seven to twelve. Nothing is written for the defenders.
A contract is scored once all three players have recorded it. Their three counts are ranked — most tricks first, or fewest first for a Lose contract — and pay +3, +1 and −1 game points. Ties split the places: two players tied for first take 2 each and the third loses 1; two tied for last take 0 each and the leader takes 3; a three-way tie pays 1 each. Every contract therefore pays out exactly 3 points between the three of you.
The game ends when the twelfth contract hand has been played. Highest total wins; a tie goes to whoever placed first in more contracts (a shared first counts), and if that is level the win is shared.
Redo tokens. Each player gets one token. At any of your own bid turns you may spend it to declare a contract you have already played. The hand is played normally and the sheet keeps your better result — more tricks for a Win contract, fewer for a Lose contract. A redo can change the points of a contract that was already scored. It is never forced: a player left with only a redo token is skipped by the puddle. The game can run up to fifteen hands.
Shorter game. Leave one contract out and play nine hands. The recommended cut is Win Tricks (No Trump) in the standard set and Win Tricks (Pick Trump) in the advanced set.
Exactly three. The deck of 36 cards deals out as twelve each, and the scoring compares three results per contract.
The first player who bids instead of passing. There is no auction: naming a contract ends the bidding immediately. If everybody passes, the forehand is pushed in the puddle and has to declare anyway.
The declarer chooses the ranking every hand. With 1 high, the 1 is the best card of each suit and the 9 the worst, so a 3 beats a 5. The same order applies inside the trump suit.
No. Only the declarer’s tricks are written on the sheet. The defenders play to make the declarer’s result bad — taking tricks from them in a Win contract, feeding them tricks in a Lose contract — because their own turn at that contract will be compared against it.
Once all three players have played a contract, their trick counts are ranked and pay +3, +1 and −1, with ties splitting the places: 2/2/−1 for a shared first, 3/0/0 for a shared last, 1 each for a three-way tie.
Yes. It runs in your browser with no download, no signup and no payment, against two computer opponents.