About this site
A free, faithful, browser version of Somerset, built for the pleasure of it: three players whenever you want them, or a table for you and three friends, the arithmetic handled, and the rules exactly as the sources state them. No account, no ads and nothing to download.
Getting the rules right
Somerset has been printed by several publishers across a century and they do not agree with each other. Rather than pick one quietly, every primary source was transcribed word for word: Hodges 1913, Parker Brothers 1934 and 1947, Minden Hardware, somersetcards.com, BoardGameGeek, the Minden Nebraska Senior Center, and somersetgame.com itself.
They disagree in five places: what happens to the two spare cards, whether the bidder must lead trump, when the 0/0 may be played, the minimum bid, and whether a side that did not win the bid still scores. All five are settings, so you can play the version your table plays. 4 rulesets are offered: House Blend, somersetgame.com, Parker Brothers 1947, Minden Senior Center. House Blend is the default.
Every worked example printed in those sources is a test in the code, quoting the line it came from. The game also checks itself continuously: a deal must always contain exactly 24 points across exactly 12 tricks, no card may be duplicated or lost, and there must always be a legal play available.
The one number nobody wrote down
Every rulebook says the seven red count cards total twelve points, and not one of them says what each card is worth. They all just say the value is “shown in the circle to the right of the numerals”, which is no help at all without a deck in your hand.
So the values were worked out from the card artwork and checked twice more, against the print-your-own deck and against the arithmetic of Triple Somerset, which only adds up if the same scheme is used. All three agree: 1/2, 2/4 and 3/6 score one; 4/8, 5/10 and 6/12 score two; the S/S scores three.
Privacy
The game runs in your browser. There is no account and no database, and your game in progress, your settings and your scoresheet are stored on your own device. Clear your browser data and they are gone.
A game against the computer is never sent anywhere at all. In a private room the cards played and the name you chose pass through a messaging service so the other three screens can follow along, because there is no server here to do it. Nobody's hand is ever sent: every screen works out its own from the same shuffle. The Privacy Policy says exactly what that involves.
The site does use Google Analytics to count visits, which sets a cookie. Nothing about your game is measured: no cards, no bids, no scores. The privacy policy says how to opt out.
Credits and corrections
The game is Arthur J. Hodges’s. The rules, history, card artwork and the survey of competing rulesets are published at somersetgame.com, maintained by the Childs and Wiersma families; the rules survey was compiled by Jerry Childs of Ludington, Michigan. This is an unofficial fan project with no affiliation to Parker Brothers.