INTRODUCTION
WHITE RAVEN
A Rook-like card game.  If you enjoy Rook, Pitch or any bidding card games, you'll love White Raven.

WHITE RAVEN is a fast paced, two-team, four-player, trick-taking card game that has many similarities to the old favorite game of Rook. The game is played with a colorful custom designed deck of cards made specifically for White Raven.  Watching the playfully hued raven theme cards moving around on the screen and a choice of ten radical card backs and three tabletops, White Raven will appeal to video gamers as well as hard core Rook players.  Old pros and tournament Rook players will enjoy its advanced strategy, while the kids will like the game's simplicity and colorful interface.  White Raven will provide hours of fun for the whole family.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Minimum System Requirements
486/33, 8MB RAM, 2MB Free Hard Drive Space, VGA Display, Mouse
Windows 3.x/Win95

WHITE RAVEN IS SHAREWARE and FREELY DISTRIBUTABLE.  If you like WHITE RAVEN please register by contacting:

Syberdyne Systems
651 Perimeter Drive
Lexington, KY  40517
606-268-5113
fax: 606-268-4672
e-mail: syberdyn@syberdyne.com

WHITE RAVEN
The deck consists of 45 total cards: 11 black, 11 green, 11 red and 11 yellow, plus the White Raven (all powerful) Card. Each suit has a R or Raven card, capable of capturing anything in its suit,  followed in descending order cards numbered 14-5. Only the White Raven, Suit Ravens, 14's, 10's, and 5's have point value.  High card in suit or trumps capture tricks.

POINT VALUES
CARD		VALUE		TOTAL VALUE
White Raven	20 points	20 points
Suit Ravens	15 points each	60 points
14's		10 points each	40 points
10's		10 points each	40 points
5's		  5 points each	20 points
				180 TOTAL POINTS
PLAYING THE GAME
1. After you choose PLAY GAME from the opening screen the computer takes you to the playing table. If you would like to change Card Backs or the Table Top click on Preferences in the Options menu and make your selections. 
2. Click on Start New Game under Options Menu and the computer automatically deals each player ten (10) cards, and deals five (5) cards to the kitty at the center of the table. 
3. Player One's (YOUR) cards are revealed and the computer determines the best  hand from the other three players and presents a BID which you must BID or PASS on. Remember, in White Raven Player 3 is your playing partner. A BID is the minimum number of points a player believes he and his partner can win in the hand.
3. Players are bidding on the rights to the cards in the kitty and to call trumps the color of their choice. There are 180 points available in each hand.  In most hands the bidding will start at 100 or more, with bids 125-140 winning. This is a guideline to get started, but there are no set rules on how high one can bid to take control of the game. 
4. If YOU win the bid, the Bid Dialog box disappears and the kitty's cards are revealed. You may choose to add any number of the five cards in the kitty, but you must exchange an equal number of cards back into the kitty from your hand before proceeding. If you PASS the computer player wins the bid and, Trump Call and Exchange of Cards with the kitty is completed automatically.
5. TO EXCHANGE CARDS simply click on the card you want to exchange from both the kitty and your hand. The cards pop-up from their current position to denote they've been selected. Simply click on the card again to de-select.
6. You can CHOOSE TRUMPS before or after exchanging cards with the kitty. Generally you choose a trump color based upon which color you have the most of, but that's not always the case. You may have less cards that are higher that could be a better trump call.
7. Once the trump color is determined and you depress the OK button the hand begins. Note that the Player's Bid and Trump Color is noted in the upper left of the screen.
8. Play of the hand proceeds with each player playing a card in the same suit that was led, if he has any cards in that suit left. If not, a player can trump or play any other card in his hand. 
9. The winner of the previous trick leads the next trick. The current HAND SCORE and GAME SCORE is updated as the tricks and hands are completed respectfully.
10. If the bidder and his teammate does not make the minimum winning bid that team is SET and its score is reduced by the BID amount.
11. KITTY POINTS - Any POINT VALUE cards left in the kitty during the exchange process are awarded to the winner of the the final trick. Depress the NEXT HAND button to deal the next hand.
12. YOU determine when the game is over. A typical game end score could be 500 or 1,000. The user decides when to start a new game or quit the program.
