Juggling Trumps Information
The Juggling Trumps project was born late one night after the renegade of the Dublin Circus Festival 2024. A spreadsheet was devised comprised of 72 jugglers, the majority of whom have reached the top 10 of Luke Burrage's Top 40 Jugglers of the Year project. Subsequent months were spent introducing other categories, scoring every juggler in each category, and designing a card to hold all of the game information (and adding some easter egg juggling references). At the time of printing, the most recent Top 40 Jugglers of the Year event was 2023, so these statistics will likely go out of date with the passage of time.
Juggling Trumps was created as a personal project for fun amongst friends, not for profit, and out of love for the juggling community, so our hope is that it will continue to be viewed as such even though the audience has grown a little (The font used on the cards is literally a font made out of Jonny Moore's handwriting to make it clear that this was a silly project for fun!).
Juggling Trumps was created as a personal project for fun amongst friends, not for profit, and out of love for the juggling community, so our hope is that it will continue to be viewed as such even though the audience has grown a little (The font used on the cards is literally a font made out of Jonny Moore's handwriting to make it clear that this was a silly project for fun!).
The Categories
The categories on the cards are as follows:- Tech: This score represents the jugglers technical ability. Of course, whilst all facets of juggling require a lot of technique, this score represents the style of juggling that includes siteswaps, high numbers of objects, and pirouttes.
- Creativity: This score represents the jugglers creativity. How many tricks have they invented/popularised? Have they created any new and interesting props? Have they showed juggling that nobody has thought of before or thought possible?
- Clout: This score represents the jugglers online presence. How often do they make quality juggling Instagram posts? Have they made any awesome YouTube videos? How much do they engage with the online juggling forums on Facebook or Reddit?
- Normie Respect: This score represents how interested non-jugglers are in their juggling. If a non-juggler saw their average practice session, would they stay and watch? Do non-jugglers appreciate and enjoy their juggling performances?
- Prop Versatility: This score represents how proficient the juggler is across different props (traditionally the main 3 of balls, rings, and clubs). Can they do the same siteswaps with clubs that they can do with rings? Is it surprising that a juggler is so good with clubs, but relatively mediocre with balls?
- Best Result: This is the jugglers highest ever placement in Luke Burrage's Top 40 Jugglers of the Year project (complete with the year they earned that placement on the side of the box)
- Placements: This is the number of times that the juggler has featured in any position on Luke Burrage's Top 40 Jugglers of the Year project. Were they here one minute and gone the next, or have they showed consistency and dedication to juggling for many years?
The Scoring System
The scoring system was based on a couple of us scoring all 72 jugglers across all of the categories from 0-10, discussing any large discrepancies between our scores, taking an average between our updated scores, multiplying the averages by 10 to get the scores out of 100, and then adding or subtracting a random number from 0-8 from these scores to get the final number.If you disagree with any of the scores on the cards, that's totally understandable! Whilst we love juggling and try to be as knowledgeable as possible about each juggler, we simply can't know everything about every juggler (and manually deciding on over 400 scores is pretty difficult to do with consistency) so we will no doubt have made some mistakes, but hopefully the random plus or minus 8 would counteract (or cause!) these concerns.
How to Play Juggling Trumps
- Each player is dealt a roughly (or exactly if you don't mind counting) equal number of cards into their personal face-down deck.
- Each player draws the top card of their deck. This is now their active card for the round.
- The starting player (determined by who juggled most recently) selects a category from their top card and reads it aloud to the other players (we find reading in the format "Creativity - 79", for example, works best).
- The other players then compare their values in the same category and read them aloud to the group in turn.
- The player with the highest value in the chosen category wins the round and collects all other players' active cards.
- These cards, along with the card used to win the round, are placed at the back of the winner's deck so that every player will have a new active card which is different from the previous round.
- In case of a tie, the tied cards are placed in the center, and a new round is played with new cards. The winner of the new round collects the cards from the center as well.
- The winner of the last round is the starting player for the new round.
- The game continues until one player has all of the cards or the players agree on a stopping point.
- Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game is the winner!
Alterations for playing time
Depending on the player count and the amount of time you have to play, we find that using all 72 cards can result in a very long game. As such, we suggest these alterations:- Remove a handful of cards at random before you start.
- Decide on a predetermined number of rounds to play before ending the game.
- In a game with more than 2 players, just play until 1 player has no cards left.
Juggling Trumps Variations
If you fancy a challenge and consider yourself a bit of a juggling nerd, then give one of these variants a go!
Variant: I know them!
Before the active player chooses a category, all other players read out the name of the juggler they have for the current round. This way, the active player can make an educated guess on which category their juggler will be best in based on their knowledge of the jugglers in play. If you don't recognise a juggler, then take a note and look them up on Instagram or YouTube after the game to find out more about them for next time (and enjoy their excellent juggling in the process)!
Variant: I've met them!
This variant relies on the deck owner getting their cards signed by the jugglers on the cards. If your current card is signed by the juggler on the card, then all stats have a +10 modifier to them.
Variant: I'm a juggler too
Once per game, when you would lose a round, you can instead opt to challenge the group to a juggling challenge - the 3 card flash. Draw 2 additional cards from your deck to add to your active card, and then try to perform 3 catches of the cascade with the cards. If you successfully perform a 3 card flash, then you win the round. If you drop any card, then you must give all 3 of your cards to the current round winner.
Variant: ...Yeah but I'd win in a fight
Once per game, when you would lose a round, you can instead say 'Yeah, but I'd win in a fight' and use the sixth 'secret' category of 'Physical Strength' found in the top left of the cards. You then compare the strength score of your active card against the strength score of the round winner's active card. If your card has a higher strength score, you win the round. If your card has a lower strength score, then you must give an additional card to the winner to apologise for your rudeness.
Variant: Sticky-fingers James
Whenever the Jambo Hennigan card becomes an active card, the current player may call for a Sticky Fingers challenge. All players place their active cards on a flat surface, press their fingers on their own card for 5 seconds and simultaneously lift them up together. The player whose card sticks to their hand the longest wins the round.
Variant: Oisin's drinking game
Must be legal drinking age. Please drink responsibly. Whenever the active player chooses a category and loses the round, take a drink.
Variant: Jonny's game, Jonny's rules
Whenever the Jonbo Moore card becomes an active card and the player it belongs to would lose the round, they may instead say "Jonny's game, Jonny's rules". Then they will send a direct message to Jonny Moore's Instagram simply saying "Jonny's game, Jonny's rules". If Jonny responds within 1 minute, then you win the round. If there is no reply within a minute, you instead lose an additional card to the round winner.
Contact Us
If you have any feedback, questions, want a deck of your own, or just want to know what all the easter eggs on the cards are, then please feel free to get in touch with us! Jonny Moore is the primary contact for this project.
