Originally planned to be entitled Valhalla, Odin is a tiny, deceptively simple card game designed to be like sending your Viking warriors off into battle. Each numbered card has its own caricature of a Viking, standing tall in an outfit of that suit’s colour. They have a certain charm about them that welcomes you into the game, and makes you stick with it through the initial confusion I’ve seen from everyone I’ve tried to teach it to so far. Look out specifically for some of the fantastic fur boots and the Viking sneakily dressed as a tree.
It starts out as a familiar concept to those who play card games. Take turns to lay cards, you must play a card higher than the previous one. What seems to consistently blow minds is that the two 9s someone has laid on your 6 aren’t two 9s or even 18, but 99 and in the space of three moves you find yourself trying to beat the 3 card play of 932. This game escalates quickly. Each round you are dealt 9 cards. Your aim is to get rid of your hand. You’ll score points (points are bad) for any cards left in your hand when another player is out. After playing your number, you pick up one of the cards from the previously player number.