I often feel like I could play nothing but card games for the rest of my life and be entirely satisfied. I haven't been forced to make that choice, but if it comes to pass, at least I'll have these two titles on my list of play potentials:
▪️ I missed out on Mario Šandor's card game Dess bassd! at SPIEL Essen 25, which isn't surprising given the number of games available at that show, but I've now read the rules of this title from German publisher Palatia Spiele — which has released a total of four(!) games since its debut in 2013 — and it's going on the wishlist for 2026 as it has the type of simple goal I enjoy: Get all your cards in sequence.
BoardGameGeek lists Dess bassd! (which translates as "That works!") as a trick-taking game, but it's trick taking in the sense of 2016's Honshū...which means it's not a trick-taking game at all.
From a deck of numbered cards, deal each player a hand of four cards and a face-down row of seven cards, then place 3-7 cards (the number of players +1) face up in a market. Each player takes a card from their row in hand, then places a card from hand face up in this space. All face-up cards in your row must go from low to high at all times.
Each round, each player reveals a card from their hand simultaneously, then in order from the highest number down you place a card from the market in your row, moving the face-down card it displaces into your hand. If you can't displace a face-down card, you swap a card in the market with a face-up card in your row. To end the round, place all played cards into the market.
Thus, you're cycling cards from hand to market to row, then possibly back again. All of the cards are in play — 1-25 with two players, 1-37 with three players, etc. — so you start with a smidgen of knowledge, then gain more as play progresses, making plays based on that info, with high and low cards getting locked into rows since they can't be replaced, thereby squeezing bids and making winning values less predictable...in theory. I've played only in my mind so far, but it sounds promising!
Dess bassd! also contains variant rules to add more variability, e.g., once per game, play two cards and sum them for your bid, reducing your hand size by one and adding to the market. Multiples of 10 can serve as trump cards, beating out regular cards, and multiples of 11 can grab the card an opponent played.
"We developed the game specially for elder people but for families with kids, too," Palatia Spiele's Klaus Geis tells me. "A bank was so interested in the game that they ordered for themselves two thousand copies and gave me so much money that we could produce two thousand copies of Dess bassd! for free. We don't want to earn money with the game, so we give copies for free to retirement homes, youth centers, or hospitals, or give the copies away for a donation to our volunteer project 'Vorderpfalz spielt!', which tries to get in our region more people together for playing games."
Should you wish to purchase a copy of Dess bassd!, you can do so in the Palatia Spiele shop.
▪️ For another exclamatory game in which you need to place cards in order, we can turn to SWEEET!, a 2-5 player design from Gautier de Cottreau, Anthony Martin, and GRRRE Games that debuted in late 2025.
You start with 48 cards face down on the table, with those cards being five copies each of 1-8, one copy each of four bonus cards, and four honey cards. Each player receives a starting card from 2-7 to form the kernel of their row; whoever first completes a row of 1-8 wins.
On a turn, reveal a face-down card, then stop or reveal another, then stop or reveal another, etc. If you reveal a number that's already in your row or that you revealed earlier this turn, you must stop, flipping all revealed cards face down again.
However, if you choose to stop before being forced to, you can keep any bonus cards you reveal as well as any numbers that you can add to your row without gaps. If your row consists of a 2, for example, revealing 4, 5, and 6 is useless as you can't add them to your row without a 3. Do you keep flipping to find one? Or are you just revealing information for other players?
An alternate victory condition exists: Reveal all four honey cards without having revealed any other cards.
Bonus cards are little rule-breakers, allowing you to reveal three honey to win, or to peek at one card at the start of each turn before revealing anything, or to take one card when you bust.
