Card Game: The Card Game
Card Game: The Card Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal
The game is for 2 to 5 players. The first player to collect 6 points wins.
Setup
Split the deck into the Money deck and the main deck. Remove the card Suicide Kitten from the main deck. Shuffle the main deck and deal 5 cards to each player, then shuffle Suicide Kitten back into the main deck.
The Final Round card is optional. If you want to play with it, gather 15 cards from the main deck into a stack and place Final Round on top of it. Then place the rest of the main deck on top of that.
The player who most recently won a board game goes last. Give the Initial Money card to this player. Play proceeds clockwise.
Shuffle the Money deck and place it face down on the table. All players can see which Money card the next player will take. This gives no advantage, since every Money card has a value of 1$.
Turn Order
- Draw phase: The active player draws a card.
- Main phase: The active player may play one HAND card, and also one Ability (A:) card.
- End phase: This phase allows players to play INSTANT cards. Some effects also end during this phase.
Money
Cards have a cost in Money, which must be paid to play them. To pay for a card, place the required number of Money cards from the Money deck face down.
When a player needs to draw a card, they may either take a card from the Money deck or draw a card from the main deck.
Money is not kept in your hand. Money cards are played immediately and placed face down on the table.
After use, the Initial Money card goes to the bottom of the Money deck, like other Money cards, and loses its effect after the game has started.
Card Types
- INSTANT: You may play this card whenever you want. You may play it in response to any other played card or any Ability (A:). Discard it after use.
- HAND: You may play this card only during the main phase, and only one per turn. Discard it after use.
- LOCK: This card is not discarded; it stays on the table.
- SPECIAL: Playing this card requires the special conditions printed on the card.
- RULE: This card does not belong to anyone; it stays on the table until the end of the game.
- CHARACTER: This card is a character. Some cards interact with it.
- Ability (A:): During the main phase you may play one (and only one) Ability from among all the cards you have.
Bluff
Cards with the BLUFF keyword may be played even if you have none in your hand.
To use a BLUFF card, place it face down on the table from your hand and name the Ability or effect you are going to activate.
Players, in turn order, may believe you or challenge you.
- If they believe you, you use the effect and return the card to your hand. You are not obliged to show it.
- If a player wants to challenge you, you flip the card over, and one of two outcomes follows:
- If the card was genuine, you take a card from the main deck, and the player who challenged you discards a card and loses 1 token (if they have any). After use, you discard the BLUFF card.
- If the card was not genuine, you must discard this card and 1 token, and also cancel the Ability.
Joker
The Joker card may be played as any card in the game, including as Money.
Tokens
Some cards are tokens; other cards give you one token. If you run out of tokens in the box, you may replace them with coins or chips.
Final Round Variant
If you play with the Final Round card, the following rule applies: when a RULE card is played, the previous RULE card is discarded. The round ends at the end of the previous player's turn, when Final Round lands on the table. If Final Round is discarded, the game continues without changes.
Note on this section: the sheet prints the RULE card symbol in this sentence, and the sentence's wording is taken as printed.
Advanced Rules
All cards without the LOCK icon must be discarded and placed in the discard pile after use. The exception is SPECIAL cards, which are discarded only if the card says so.
Players may play INSTANT cards in response to any other played cards and to Abilities (A:). When a player responds with an INSTANT card, that card's effect resolves first. If several such cards are played, the ones played last resolve first.
The discard pile is where discarded cards go. The discard pile always lies face down, and any player may look at it at any time. The discard pile may not be shuffled.
If a player interacts with the discard pile (that is, takes a card back into hand), they must show the card to everyone. If another player stepped away from the table at that moment, when that player returns you must tell them which card was taken.
If a player was looking at a phone or tablet and asks "What did you do there?" after you have shown everyone the card, you may choose not to show it to them and tell them what a terrible person they are.
If a player has lost or must leave the game, they must discard all cards from their hand, and also discard all LOCK cards.
A card cancelled by Not So Fast does not give the player Money back. This includes The Assassin.
Even More Advanced Rules
Suicide Kitten may be stopped by the card Not So Fast.
If you must draw a card and someone uses To The Top to put cards from the discard pile into the main deck, remember: if it is your turn, you may take Money instead of this card. If it is not your turn, simply accept it and take this card.
No one may play cards or Abilities (A:) in the middle of another card's or Ability's activation. If an effect triggers because of another card's effect, it resolves after that card's effect has finished. (For example, if you drew Suicide Kitten through Ancestral Headache, you do not die until you have taken 3 cards.)
Exploding Island: if a tie occurs, both players receive 2 tokens.
If you successfully played The Guardian, you may leave it on Exploding Island instead of discarding it, since it is a character.
When you play The Guardian and the player you chose has a Joker in hand, that player does not discard it. They argue that the Joker may be any card in the game, and the Joker's owner decides which card it is. If the Joker lies in the discard pile or in the main deck, the player who interacts with it decides which card the Joker is.
Yes, you may play Shot! against a player without tokens. They do not lose any, since they have none.
Imaginary Dinosaur does not save you from Suicide Kitten.
Dark Flower is Money in itself. Do not draw a Money card for it.
Eat Four!: If a player draws cards under the effect of Eat Four! and Suicide Kitten is among them, it activates only if the card type chosen by the player for play is SPECIAL, in which case Suicide Kitten goes into the hand of the drawing player. If a SPECIAL card was chosen as the next card to be played instead, Suicide Kitten is played normally. In that case the player may use Not So Fast normally.
Note also that Money counts as LOCK cards, so a player cannot draw Money cards under the effect of Eat Four! unless LOCK was the chosen card type.
Note on this passage: the sheet prints the symbols in the Eat Four! entry as they appear; the SPECIAL and LOCK symbols are rendered here as words. The sentence about Money counting as LOCK cards is taken as printed.
Some cards, such as Sullen House, are points in themselves. Do not take tokens for them.
Sushi Tray: the symbols on the bottom of this card show how many points a player gets for owning a certain number of Sushi in the game. This means: a player with 3 Sushi Trays in play has 4 points, while another player with only one Sushi Tray has 1 point.
The sheet's illustration of the Sushi card gives the scoring legend 1 = 0 points, 2 = 2 points, 3 = 4 points, 4 = 6 points, and an example of 2 + 2 + 2 = 6.