Threed Rules
Last updated July, 2025
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Overview
- Designed by Brooks Barber
- Developed by Jamie Sabriel
- Edited by David Kessler
- 3-4 players
- 40 minutes
- 12+
In Threed, players manipulate a slide puzzle through trick taking. Your goal is to complete a 3-panel image (a Threed) either within the shared 4×4 grid or in your own personal collection of cards won through tricks. The first player or team to do so wins the game!
Components
- 27 Art cards
- 9 images made up of three cards each
- 45 Trick cards
- 5 suits rank 1 through 9
- 1 rulebook
Setup
Shuffle the Art cards together and place sixteen face-up in the middle of the table in a 4×4 grid, working from top left to bottom right, making sure each card is oriented properly by using the color-coded symbols marking the top of each image. Place the remaining stack of Art cards face up near the grid.
The Art cards set up in the 4×4 grid. If during setup a Threed is completed within the grid, reshuffle the Art cards and rebuild the grid.
Shuffle and deal the Trick cards based on player count.
- 4-player: use all 5 suits, and deal each player 11 cards
(there will be one card remaining – set it out of the game face down) - 3-player: remove one suit from the deck, and deal each player 12 cards
Players each select one side of the 4×4 grid into which they will play their cards. In a 4-player game, after selecting your sides, split into two teams of two.
Whoever last made art, no matter how small or insignificant, will be first player.
Playing Tricks
The first player leads the first trick by playing any card they choose to their side of the Threed grid, chosen at the start of the game. They select one column or row and align their card along the outside of it when played.
Moving clockwise around the table, players continue playing cards in this way to their designated side of the Threed grid, following suit if able, until a trick is resolved.
Only suits currently face up on the table may be followed. If at any time a player cannot follow suit, they may play any card from hand. This adds a new suit to the table that other players may now follow.
The player on the bottom must play a purple Trick card here if able because there are only purple Trick cards face up on the table and they must follow suit.
Here, the player on the right was out of purple Trick cards and chose to play a yellow Trick card instead. The bottom player could play either a purple or yellow Trick card on their turn.
In this game, when you play a card to a row or column, you are playing that card into one of four possible tricks, but you won’t know which one until an intersection of Trick cards has been created. Then, you must resolve a trick using those intersecting Trick cards.
Resolving Tricks
Once a number of Trick cards equal to the number of players intersect at one of the Art cards, that Art card is under review and the trick must be resolved, using only the cards that intersect. All other Trick cards in play are ignored. If multiple Art cards could be resolved, the player creating the intersection chooses which trick to resolve.
Determining the Winner of a Trick
Of the intersecting cards in the trick, the highest card of the most common suit wins. If there is a tie for the most common suit, the suit of the final card played into the trick is considered the trump, and the highest card of that suit wins instead. The winner then collects the Art card, placing it face up in front of them, and all intersecting cards involved in the trick are removed from play.
The right side player is playing the yellow 7 and has a choice of playing in the top or middle row. They choose to play into the top row. The four cards intersect at the top left Art card marked with a star, so purple is the most common suit, and the bottom player wins the trick because they played the highest purple Trick card.
The right side player could instead decide to play to the second row, going after the Art card in the left column. In this case, there is a tie for the most common suit, making yellow the trump suit, and the right side player wins the trick with the seven as the highest yellow Trick card involved in the trick.
The winner of the trick now activates the slide puzzle.
The Slide Puzzle
The trick winner moves cards within the 4×4 grid. The number of moves the winner gets depends on the value of the winning card – the lower the card, the more moves you get! Then, they refill the remaining hole in the grid, either with the face up card on top of the Art card draw pile or with any card they have previously won in a trick.
Winning a trick with the 9 allows that player two movements in the slide puzzle, while winning with a 1 gives them six moves!
After the trick and slide puzzle are resolved, the player to the left of the one who won the trick continues play.
Ending the Game
A player or team wins immediately when they form a Threed in the shared grid after winning a trick.
A completed flower Threed!
The Art Cards
All art used in this prototype is, to the best understanding of the designer, made by humans and fully available in the public domain.