Spike
A hard spike with a strength of 1-8.
Rules
The idea
Time to play Beachvolleyball! Just like in real beach volleyball, each rally has three touches:
DEFENSE, SET, and ATTACK.The player who uses their energy well, stays calm under pressure, and reads the opponent well will have the advantage. Because one thing is clear: beach volleyball is a mental game!
Short description
You play a short beach volleyball set as a card game for 2 players.
Each rally always follows the same order: serve → defense → set → attack → …
Can you defend the attack? Then the rally continues! The twist: attacks are played face down, so you have to guess what your opponent is planning. You score a point with attacks that cannot be defended. This could be a very hard spike or a soft cut shot!
Both teams start with 6 POWER CARDS.
Each rally is played with 10 cards in hand: before every rally, draw up to 10 cards (ATTACK and/or DEFENSE) – how you split them is your tactical choice.
Think about which cards you want to save for the crucial moments, and which cards your opponent might still have.
End of the game
You play a best-of-five set. The first player to score 3 points wins the set. If you run out of draw cards, simply shuffle all played cards to make a new deck.
The game is won by the player who wins 2 sets first. And if you still want more, you can of course keep playing!Game setup
Each player receives 6 POWER CARDS (3x defense, 3x attack) and takes them into their hand. The draw cards are sorted by type, shuffled, and placed face down in three piles: ATTACK, DEFENSE, SET.
Then, each player draws 4 additional ATTACK and/or DEFENSE cards of their choice, so that they have a total of 10 cards in hand before each rally.
The cards
Attack cards
Cut
A soft, places short shot. It can only be defndes with cut DEFENSE cards (1-5).
Set cards
Set (-2 to +3)
Set cards increase or reduce the attack strength by the shown value.
Special case - SET FAIL: The set goes over the net. Then the opponent may attack (value 0).
Defense cards
Defense (1-5)
Can defend an ATTACK with strength 1-5 and a CUT.
Defense (6-10)
You can defend strong spikes, but you cannot defend a CUT.
Block
Blocks every hard attack, but cannot defend a CUT.
Note: A successful BLOCK scores a point immediately! The BLOCK cannot be played after a serve.
Power cards
Power
The best cards in the game!
They include: ATTACK: 8 | 7 | 6 DEFENSE: 10 | 5 | BLOCK
Game flow
A single rally moves like a conversation: one side initiates, the other answers, and the point closes when someone manages to overpower the opponent.
On narrow screens, scroll horizontally to see the full three-column layout.
PLAYER A
Draw up to 10 cards in hand (ATTACK and/or DEFENSE).
1 SERVE
The player who most recently played beach volleyball starts set 1 with the serve. After each point, the player who won the point serves. Set 2 starts with the player who lost set 1.
For the serve, choose an ATTACK card and play it face down. A point is scored if the attack value is higher than the receive (DEFENSE) value.
Note: You cannot play a cut shot on the serve.
5 DEFENSE
Choose a DEFENSE card and play it face down.
Then the ATTACK card and DEFENSE card are revealed at the same time.
The attack is defended if the DEFENSE value is at least as high as the ATTACK value. If the defense is successful, the rally continues: draw a SET card and choose a new ATTACK card.
The rally only ends when an attack cannot be defended!
Note: If you run out of ATTACK or DEFENSE cards during a rally, you lose the rally (no energy left).
PLAYER B
Draw up to 10 cards in hand (ATTACK and/or DEFENSE).
2 RECEIVE
Choose a DEFENSE card and play it face down (note: you cannot use a block after a serve).
The receive is successful if the defense value is at least as high as the serves attack value.
3 SET
Draw a set card from the pile and place it face up next to it.
The set card shows a value between +3 and -2, which tells you how good the set is.
This value increases or reduces the strength of your attack, because a good set allows for a strong attack!
4 ATTACK
Play an ATTACK card face down.
The strength of the attack is determined by the SET card + the ATTACK card.
Can your opponent defend your attack?
6 POINT
When you win a point, take all played cards and place them in a pile in front of you to keep score. Each pile counts as one point.
Examples of special cards
Point for player 2 (DEFENSE)
Point for Player 2 (offense):
The block cannot stop a cut shot.
Point for player 1 (OFFENSE):
Note: For a cut shot, the quality of the set does not matter.
Successfully defended!
A CUT has no ATTACK POWER, BUT can only be defended with Defense cards 1-5.
And the rally continues…
Downloads
Click here to download printable rule PDFs by language. At the moment, only English and German are available.
