Mulatschak — also known as Murln or Muli — is an Austrian trick-taking game for two to five players, best with four. Everyone starts with 15 points; the first player to reach 0 wins — if several get there in the same round, they win together. Choose the player count, starting points and house rules before the game.
Mulatschak supports two to five players and works best with four. With five, the dealer sits out: they receive no cards and pay nothing that round. This leaves enough cards for exchanging. Starting points adjust to keep games roughly the same length: 31 for two players, 21 for three and 15 for four or five.
Below each name are the same three figures: points (counting down), that player's bid, and their tricks this round, one ● per trick. M means Mulatschak, ✕ means sitting out and · means no bid. The star ★ marks the bidder.
During bidding, the same place shows what has happened so far: ↓ means outbid, – means passed or “no Mulatschak”, and · means not asked yet. While the table is being asked, the bidding order is shown under the question as well — the same marks, with → on whoever is being asked right now. These details can be turned off under Hints.
Top right is the round's stake once it is above 1 — ×2 or ×4. The reasons stand beside it: ○ a Weiße, – nobody bid, and the suit sign for a hearts round. Reasons can add up, because a redeal carries the stake forward.
The pack has 36 cards. Acorns, leaves and hearts each run from 6 to Sow (double-German pack) or Ace (French pack). In bells, the Weli takes the place of the ordinary six: eight regular bells plus the Weli. It is always trump and ranks directly below the trump Sow or Ace.
Everyone receives five cards. First, in turn, each player may announce a Mulatschak: all five tricks. If nobody does, players bid how many tricks they will take. Each bid must beat the current one; only the dealer may match it. A player may pass or sit the round out. If everybody passes, the hand is redealt and the next round counts double.
The highest bidder chooses trump. Hearts as trump doubles the whole round. Each player may then exchange zero to five cards, except during a Mulatschak. Exchange exactly one or all five and you are offered a face-up card: take it and discard one of your own, or leave it. If you take a trump card, another card is revealed, continuing until a non-trump appears.
Two things happen before the bidding. Weiße: a hand dealt with no Sow/Ace, King, Ober or Unter is shown, the cards are thrown in and dealt again, and the next round counts double. The Weli on the cut: after the shuffle, the player to the dealer’s right cuts. If the Weli is the bottom card of the portion they cut off, they show it, take it into hand, and are then dealt only four more cards. The table is told: that player reads “it is in your hand”, everybody else reads who took it.
The bidder leads. You must follow suit, must play trump if you cannot follow, and must beat the card currently winning the trick if you are able to. Trump beats any other suit; otherwise the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads the next trick.
Anyone climbing above 100 points is out of the game.
The rules and terminology were checked against these sources:
The app is based on Remigius Geiser's rules, with these differences:
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