Year: 1980
Publisher: Editrice Giochi
Author: Claude Duvernay
Components: a board, 108 tiles, 4 bags, 4 reading-desks, 1 score pad

RED SEVEN is a masterpiece of more than 20 years ago: an original crossover between SCRABBLE and BRIDGE, it has probably in this contradictory origin the first root of the diffidence of the players, who avoid it like plague.
« How is it possible that an entertaining game was born from two such parents? » the persons ask themselves, thinking at the concentration needed by one of them, and at the noble aura of the other one. It is possible indeed, believe me.
First of all, in order not to explain too many rules, I refer to the rules of SCRABBLE: briefly, everybody places words made with her letters (each of them showing a value) on a board where there are spaces giving a bonus (a bonus score is added to the score a word is worth; there are no “multiplication” spaces). With the constraint that our word has to cross or to be placed side by side to at least one letter already on the board, creating always words with meaning (no proper nouns, etc.).
In RED SEVEN the tiles with the letters (those of SCRABBLE) show a value that is similar to those of the aforementioned games, but they also show one of the four suits of the poker cards.
The table below shows for each letter the value and the number of cards for each suit.
The four players (two vs. two: variants for two or three players are not interesting) pick tiles from a set composed by mixing the same number of tiles per suit, so that every player starts with 9 tiles. At this point there is the declaration, clearly inspired to the phase of BRIDGE. Beginning with the dealer, each player can declare a suit that will be the atout/trump that she proposes, and the number of tricks she thinks she can take. Each player can pass or raise the bid (by raising the number of tricks or the value of the atout, in this order clubs < diamonds < hearts < spades < no atout, i.e. without trump), until all the players have passed but one: her proposal determines the atout of the round and the number of tricks her team must take to win. This declaration can even be “countered”: the opponents of the declarer can double the points at stake, if they believe that the other team will not reach the proposed number of tricks.
The atout of the round is the suit whose letter benefit, when played, of a bonus of 10 points each; this bonus -no more applied when a letter that was already on the board is included by the word of another player- is less determinant than you could think. The “trick” is a victory in the challenge between the word just played, and that of the previous player, and at the same time the word again and the one that the following player will play. That is, every word is compared with the last played, and the author of the more remunerative one wins the trick. With their initial 9 letters players play a whole round, corresponding to two words per player: the player to the right of the declarer begins and, after two rounds in clockwise order, the fellow player of the declarer ends. In this manner, during each round there are seven “tricks”: if A is the dealer, C her fellow player, D the opponent to her right and B the one to her left, we have D-A, C-D, B-C, A-B, D-A, C-D, B-

	A rare advertising photo of RED SEVEN, in the brilliance of the monochromatic graphic of a magazine of the time

So, each player will play more than one trick with each of her words, and so she will need to organize their resources to avoid that after a strong first word, she will have to do a weak second word against an opponent that has almost all the good letters still in hand.
At the end of each of the three rounds the tricks are counted, and points are awarded to the team that has honoured the declaration, or to the opponents that have avoided that goal. In the former case, the higher the declaration, the more the points gained: 3 tricks/1 point, 4/5 points, 5/15, 6/30, 7/50; each trick over the declaration gives 1 additional point. In the latter case the measure of the victory are the tricks not obtained by the declarer: 1 trick short/5 points, 2/1o points, 3/20, 4/35, 5/55, 6/80, 7/110. Once scores are tallied, the letters remained on the reading-desks are put back in the bags, the players pick tiles from another set of 9 tiles per suit, and the game goes on by leaving on the board the words already composed.
Compared to other word games, RED SEVEN is mainly based on team working: in one of the very rare games played during these years, I have seen the Italian champion of SCRABBLE undergo a severe defeat from weaker (but more in tune) opponents. This is an unconceivable outcome in solitary game, but it puts away the purists of the word games.
On the other hand, as the chances to have such a continuity of game – like in BRIDGE – to create strong and close pairs, it is necessary to form the two teams when the box of the game is open, balancing strong and weak word players, to give a chance to everybody, and so to allow even who is less versed to contribute to the victory.

As you may have guessed, the obsession for RED SEVEN of our editorial director Domenico Di Giorgio can be compared only with the collective mania of the redactors of GiocAreA for LOOPING LOUIE.
For this reason each year, during the convention of games “Mucca Games”, it takes place an eagerly awaited game of RED SEVEN among our director and three acolytes.
We accept with pleasure the opinion of one of the above mentioned acolytes on the first (and maybe his unique) game of RED SEVEN of his life.
If you want to play with us, come to Mucca Games, or... look for a copy on E-Bay!

“And what do we do now?” I say to Domenico, as he makes a contagious smile and puts the RED SEVEN box on the table.
“I always bring it with me, hoping to co-opt other persons” he declares, crafty.
He succeeded.
That was enough to call Eddy (Edgardo Bellini, multi awards winner of word games and puzzle creator – redactor’s note), another estimator of the game, and Roberto (Levi, another puzzle creator and GiòCondoRer ad honorem – redactor’s note), false novice, and a game of RED SEVEN, the most elegant word game, was born from nothing.

When you see the game, you think of an unsold stock of a game seller that dyed out for scarce belief; one round of game is enough, though, to appreciate the elegance of the system and to become keen on the game itself. RED SEVEN is a game that has more that meets the eye, and that is more competitive than SCRABBLE or its variants. In my opinion, it creates addiction: its existence should be hidden with care to the feeble minds. In my case I have lost (and I dragged Eddy in the chasm – forgive me, Eddy!) betrayed by ARSENIC. A long word, with a good score; unfortunately, the initial declaration obliged us to renounce at the atout.