A partnership bidding card game played with a 45-card colour deck: bid for the hand's 200 points, take the Den, name trump and hunt down the Fox.
Tallyho is played by four players in two partnerships; you partner North, who sits opposite you, against West and East. The deck has four colours (red, yellow, green and black) numbered 1 and 5 to 14, plus one special card, the Fox. Each player gets ten cards and five go face down to the Den.
Players then bid for the right to name trump, starting at 120 and rising in steps of 5, up to 200. Passing takes you out of the auction for that hand. The high bidder picks up the Den, buries any five cards (never the Fox) and names a trump colour, then leads the first trick.
Follow the colour led if you can; otherwise play anything. The highest trump wins the trick, or else the highest card of the colour led. Within a colour the 1 is the highest card, above the 14. The Fox always counts as a trump, and it is the lowest trump of all.
Tallyho is an original PlayPendium game, but it comes from a real American card-game family. Its closest relative is Rook. Parker Brothers introduced Rook playing cards in 1906, with numbered cards in four colours instead of the usual suits and face cards.
The unusual deck had a purpose. It was made for players in the Puritan tradition and in Mennonite communities who thought face cards inappropriate, because of their association with gambling and fortune-telling. Rook decks were sometimes called "Christian cards" or "missionary cards". Its 56 numbered cards were designed so that whist and most other common card games could still be played faithfully.
The best-known way to play is Tournament Rook, also called Kentucky Discard, and Tallyho keeps its outline. Four players form two partnerships, sitting opposite each other. The high bidder adds the five-card nest to their hand, lays five cards aside and names trump. Points come from counting cards: each 5 is worth 5, each 10 and 14 is worth 10, and the bird card is worth 20.
Tallyho then makes its own changes. It uses a shorter 45-card deck, and the 1 counts as the highest card and is worth 15. The Fox takes the bird card's place, but where Tournament Rook makes the bird the highest trump, the Fox is deliberately the lowest, so the side holding it has to protect it. All of this belongs to the wider trick-taking tradition that whist comes from.
Tallyho is a free browser card game with capable CPU players and a new daily deal every day. There's nothing to download and no sign-up. Rook is a trademark of its owner, and Tallyho is not affiliated with it or endorsed by it.