How to play the Quartet Game: Game Rules

Basic principle of the game
The basic principle of the game is very simple: the better car(d) wins! This simple concept is easily and clearly understood and already explains the main aspect of the game rules.
Each player plays with his own cards, i.e. the NFTs he owns – regardless of whether he is playing against the AI or against other players. This basic principle is always the same.

How to Play
Each player can select the cards he wants to play with from his deck. For example, he can also exclude cards from the games that he only wants to collect but not use for playing.

Games are usually played with 3, 5 or 10 cards per player (exceptions: see below under “Game Variations”). Even if a player can choose which cards he wants to play with, he cannot determine the order of his cards! This means his deck will be shuffled and returned to him face down. Then the cards are played one time through in the order in which they are now on hand.

The lot decides which player starts. When playing against the AI in “Play for fun” mode, the human player always starts first. Whoever starts the game is on the offensive and has the advantage. The starting player turns over their top card and chooses the property they wish to play (see below for properties).

After the player has selected the desired property, his opponent (AI or human player) indirectly takes his turn. Indirect means he (or his card) can only react to the other player’s offense. If the value of the property on his card is lower (exceptions see below), he has lost the round. If the value is higher, he has won the round.

What the win or loss of a round means depends on the game variant being played (see below for game variants). In any case, the winner of the round takes the turn and has the offense in the next round.

Properties
The features on the cards are the actual features of the cars shown and have been extensively and carefully researched and determined (and presumed to be largely accurate).
Properties that are relevant in this game are the following:

1. Top Speed (displayed in miles and kilometers per hour)
2. Horsepower
3. Acceleration (0-60 mph) in seconds
4. Cylinders
5. Engine Size (displayed in cui for cubic inch and ccm for cubic centimeters)
6. Weight (displayed in lbs for pounds and kgs for kilograms)
7. Price (displayed as approximate in number of bitcoins)

For all properties, the numerically highest value wins. This applies indisputably to Top Speed, Horsepower, Cylinders, Engine Size and Price.

By its very nature, for acceleration, the fastest value is numerically the smallest (e.g., acceleration from 0 to 60 mph of 3 seconds is faster and therefore better than 6 seconds). Thus, in Acceleration, the lowest number wins.

The only property where the actual lowest value always wins is weight. So the lighter automobile wins against the heavier one. This aspect provides an important balance in the game, as it allows a slow and underpowered car to actually win against the fastest and most powerful supercar – as long as it has a lower weight.

Exceptions: Cylinder Engines vs. Rotary Engines
Most of the automobiles in the game and depicted on the NFTs are cars with a cylinder engine, a very common type of piston engine. Nevertheless, we have some cars in the game that have a rather rare rotary piston engine. In such an engine, the combustion energy is converted directly into a rotary motion without the detour of a reciprocating motion, as is the case with piston engines.

Due to the different construction and functionality of these engines, the values cannot be compared exactly. Since only a handful of cars in our game have rotary engines, we decided to only allow cylinder engines to compete in this property.

For this reason, a player cannot select cylinders as a property if the opponent has a rotary engine car. On the other hand, a player with a rotary engine cannot choose the cylinder property. So we have technically excluded this from the start in the game.

Special Rule: Tie
If two players have the same numeric value in the selected property, the game is theoretically tied – we call it “a tie”. In case of a tie in one round, the winner will be decided in the following round. The offensive remains with the player from the previous round. The player who wins the following round thus wins both rounds at once.

Winning and Losing
We have previously learned how to win or lose a game round. But what winning and losing means depends on the respective game variant.

Depending on the game variant, the game card (i.e. the NFT) can be won or a previously defined amount of PETROL can be won if a round is won. There is also a variant of the game where the game is played for fun and a winner can only rejoice in having won without receiving any prize.

The question of what winning or losing means in each case cannot therefore be answered clearly and we refer to the “Game Variants” chapter in our Whitepaper (see link below) at this point.

Read more in our Whitepaper.