Always a Bridesmaid
最佳伴娘
Shine at the wedding without outshining the bride. Second place earns the most Ranking Points each round — first place gets just 1.
- Year
- 2026
- Players
- 2-5
- Play time
- 20 min
- Age
- 10+
- Designer
- Jimic
- Artist
- Irene Liu
- Second place is the sweet spot: in a 3-player game 1st scores 1, 2nd scores 2, 3rd scores 0
- Everyone plays face down and reveals together — every single card re-ranks the table
- Only the earliest player to HOLD BACK may hide one last Accessory; hesitate and you lose the right
- Points are paid for in Accessories: the more you score, the thinner your hand becomes
- Playing or revealing a −2, −3 or −5 flips THE START to WILD, costing you 1 point at game end
- Includes a two-player variant where a Robot Bridesmaid joins the ranking
Always a Bridesmaid is a simultaneous card game for 2 to 5 players. You are a bridesmaid at the wedding, and your job is to look glamorous — but never more glamorous than the bride. In each round's Ranking Points, second place scores the most, first place scores only 1, and last place scores nothing at all.
Every turn, all active players choose 1 card from hand, play it face down, and reveal together. An Accessory joins the arm beside your THE START card and adds its printed value to your Round Total — so every reveal reshuffles the standings. When your position feels just right, play HOLD BACK and stop.
The real cost arrives at scoring: for every Ranking Point you earn, you must turn one of your Accessories face up as a Displayed Card. Each is worth 1 point forever, but can never be played again. The more you win, the less you have left to wear. After three rounds, the most Displayed Cards takes it.
Goal
Play 3 rounds. Each round you build a Round Total, score Ranking Points by place, and convert those points into Displayed Cards.
After Round 3, the highest final score wins. Final Score = number of Displayed Cards − WILD penalty. Count cards, not printed values.
Components
65 cards in total — one 13-card set in each of five colours:
- 55 Accessory cards (11 per player, printed −5, −3, −2, 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10)
- 5 HOLD BACK cards (1 per player)
- 5 THE START cards (1 per player, with WILD on the back)
- Rulebooks in English, Traditional Chinese and Japanese
Key terms
- Accessory: add its printed value to your Round Total this round.
- HOLD BACK: stop playing for the rest of this round.
- Displayed Card: a face-up card worth 1 point that can never be reused.
- WILD: the back of THE START — worth −1 point at game end.
Setup
- From your 11 Accessories, choose 5 as Reserve Cards and place them face down.
- Your other 6 Accessories plus HOLD BACK form your Round 1 hand.
- Place THE START face up in front of you; Accessories you play line up beside it.
- Hand growth: Round 1 uses your starting hand, Round 2 adds 3 Reserve Cards, Round 3 adds your last 2.
Round flow
Each turn, every active player resolves these four steps:
- ① Choose 1 card from hand and play it face down.
- ② Reveal together — everyone flips at the same time.
- ③ Resolve the card: an Accessory goes beside THE START and adds its value to your Round Total; HOLD BACK means you stop and play no more cards this round.
- ④ Check for scoring: score the round once everyone has held back, or when only one player remains active.
HOLD BACK & WILD
HOLD BACK stops you for the round. Your Round Total counts only the Accessories you actually played, plus any card you set aside.
- Setting a card aside: only the first player — or players, if simultaneous — to play HOLD BACK may set aside 1 Accessory from hand face down. It is revealed during scoring and counts as played this round.
- Anyone who holds back later may not set a card aside, and a player with no Accessory left in hand loses the right entirely.
- WILD happens once per game: playing or revealing a −2, −3 or −5 flips your THE START to WILD, costing you 1 point at game end.
- WILD itself does not add to your Round Total.
Round scoring I — Ranking Points
Sum every Accessory you played this round, including your set-aside card. That is your Round Total. Rank the players highest to lowest and consult the table:
- 3 players — 1st: 1 pt / 2nd: 2 pts / 3rd: 0 pts
- 4 players — 1st: 1 pt / 2nd: 3 pts / 3rd: 2 pts / 4th: 0 pts
- 5 players — 1st: 1 pt / 2nd: 3 pts / 3rd: 2 pts / 4th: 1 pt / 5th: 0 pts
- Tied players share that rank's points, rounding fractions down. Ties do not skip the next rank.
- Example (3 players): Red and Blue tie for highest and share 1st place — 1 ÷ 2 = 0 pts each. Yellow is next and becomes 2nd, scoring 2 pts.
Round scoring II — display and clean up
- Display face-up Accessories equal to the Ranking Points you earned — take them from the cards you played this round first, then from your hand.
- Each Displayed Card is worth 1 point regardless of its printed value, and can never be used again.
- Every played Accessory not turned into a Displayed Card returns to your hand. HOLD BACK always returns to hand.
- Record your Ranking Points, add that round's Reserve Cards, and begin the next round.
End of the game
- After 3 rounds the highest final score wins. Final Score = number of Displayed Cards − WILD penalty.
- Early finish: if after Round 2 the leader's score exceeds second place by more than a single round's maximum possible score, declare that player the winner immediately.
- Tiebreaker: the player who has been single longest wins.
Two-player variant: the Robot Bridesmaid
With 2 players, add 1 Robot Bridesmaid and use 3-player scoring. The Robot joins the ranking and may share tied points, but it never scores or displays cards of its own.
- Robot setup: take the Robot colour's 11 Accessories, THE START and HOLD BACK. Randomly remove 1 Accessory without revealing it.
- Deal the other 10 Accessories to the two players, 5 each. Each player secretly chooses 2. Shuffle those 4 cards together with the Robot's HOLD BACK to form the Robot's deck.
- Robot play: both players play as usual. Each turn, reveal the top card of the Robot's deck alongside the players' cards. An Accessory adds to the Robot's total; HOLD BACK means the Robot stops for the round.
- Score as a 3-player game. The two players use the normal hand-growth and clean-up rules.
Gallery
