Most trick-taking games reward you for slapping down the strongest card. Schadenfreude, the wickedly contrary card game that Office Dog Games has just put up for pre-order, flips that on its head: the player who plays the second-highest card of the led suit takes the trick, and coming second is exactly where you want to be.
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Set up your group for freeSet in Castle Schadenfreude, where ambition is a blood sport, you play a conniving resident clawing for status, and each trick you "win" lets you enlist corruptible castle staff, the Cook, the Guard, the Cultist, the Jester and the Executioner, to help your rivals take a sudden tumble from a high ledge. The trick is knowing when to stop. You are racing up a score track toward 40, but overshoot and you come crashing back down, so every hand is a tug-of-war between grabbing points and dodging them.
It is a tense little game for 3-5 players that plays in around 20 minutes. The come-second hook scrambles every instinct you have built up playing normal trick-takers, which is exactly what makes it sing once it clicks. It has already built a quiet cult following among trick-taking fans who tracked down earlier copies.
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Start organising for freeOffice Dog Games, an Asmodee North America label, is giving it a proper retail run later in 2026, so you will not need to hunt down an import to play it. Pre-orders are open now. If your group has worn out The Crew and fancies something nastier, round up your usual suspects and get ready to revel in everyone else's misfortune.
Sources: Office Dog Games | ICv2 | Don't Eat the Meeples
