Snake Charmers
Snake Charmers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective of the Game
Depending on whether you are holding one or more snake cards in your hand or not, you have different goals in the game. With snake(s) in hand, you want all the day cards to disappear from the middle of the table until only a single night card remains. Without a snake in hand, your goal is that no night card at all, but only day cards, lie on the table at the end of the game.
Game Components
- 1: 13 hand cards with values 0–9, plus 3 snake cards Note: the card with value 0 exists only as a hand card!
- 2: 9 day-and-night cards with values 1–9 (night side / day side)
- 3: 6 gate cards (open gate / closed gate)
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Setup
Sort all cards by type. Depending on how many people you are playing with, you need different cards:
| People | Hand cards with values | Day-and-night cards with values | Number of snake cards | Number of gate cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 0–5 | 1–5 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | 0–6 | 1–6 | 2 | 4 |
| 5 | 0–8 | 1–8 | 2 | 5 |
| 6 | 0–9 | 1–9 | 3 | 6 |
Put the remaining gate cards, hand cards, day-and-night cards and snake cards back in the box. You do not need them for this game.
Take the day-and-night cards and lay them out in a circle in the middle of the table. Make sure the night sides face up and the values lie in ascending order around the circle.
Now shuffle the hand cards together with the snake cards. Whoever is the best liar deals all the cards face down, clockwise. In this way, one of you receives 3 hand cards, everyone else receives 2 hand cards.
Now also take one gate card into your hand, so that the closed gate faces you and the open gate faces the others. Note: keep it as the outermost card in your hand, so everyone else can see it well.
Look at your cards now. Make sure that no one but you can see them.
Whoever has 3 hand cards (plus gate card) starts the game (shown below as ▶).
Sequence of a Turn
▶ (Active player): Choose any person who still has an open gate in hand, and speak to them. (Shown below as ●.)
● (Addressed player): When someone speaks to you, place the gate from your hand down in front of you so that the card with the closed gate faces up in front of you. By the way: if someone forgets to place the gate card down in front of them at this step, a mysteriously whispered "Hey, shut the door" helps.
▶: Now offer the person one of your hand cards by placing it face down on the table in front of you and pushing it toward them. Say what is — allegedly — underneath it. Important: you may name any of the numbers in the game, or a snake. But remember: you may, and sometimes even should, lie when you state which card it is. Of course, it is also allowed to tell the truth …
●: You may now decide whether you want to reject or accept the offered card.
Reject
"Lars, I have a 3 here for you." Lars thinks: "Strange, I have the 3 myself in hand, and every card exists only once … Is Cyrill trying to slip me a snake? Better take a different card."
Don't want the card that was just offered to you at all? No problem! You may reject it, but you may not look at it!
▶: Was your card rejected? Leave it face down in front of you and choose a different card from your hand. Offer it in the same way to the same person you just tried with. How you now announce this card for your counterpart depends on which card you want to hand over … and on whether you want to tell the truth this time, or not. You may even name the same number you just named once again ...
●: You may again decide whether you want to accept or reject the card. Important: if you reject this card, you must accept the third and therefore last card that will be offered to you next!
"Okay, Lars. Then I have a 5 here for you." Lars must now decide: "That really could be a 5 — at least I don't have one in hand. But I don't trust Cyrill. Better reject this card too."
▶: Was your second card also rejected? Leave it face down in front of you too, and now offer your last hand card. Again say what is — allegedly — underneath it. This one, your last card, will now definitely be accepted!
Cyrill pushes Lars his last card: "Alright then, Lars. This is your card. It's a 3!" Lars is annoyed: "Damn, that's definitely a lie ... But I can't change it — I have to take it!"
●: After you have accepted a card (see the ACCEPT section), it is your turn next to pass on one of your cards. You now become ▶, since you have 3 hand cards. Choose another, any person, who still holds an open gate in hand.
▶: Take all the hand cards that are now lying on the table in front of you back into your hand. (But not your gate card yet!)
Accept
You want to keep the card? Then take it into your hand and look at it. Note: what matters from here on is not what was just announced, but the number or symbol on the card you have just received!
The card you just received shows a number that is still lying in the middle of the table.
- The number still lies on its night side in the middle: turn this card over to its day side in the middle.
- The number lies in the middle of the table, but already on its day side: remove this card from the middle and put it back in the box.
The card you just received shows a number that is no longer lying in the middle of the table, or you have received a snake. Nothing happens. So you say "Nothing happens!" Reminder: the zero exists only as a hand card. It therefore never lies in the middle of the table.
Important: you never say exactly which card you received. You only share information with the others when you turn over or remove a card in the middle of the table. If you do not react at all, that can mean either that you received the zero or a snake, or that the number on your card is no longer lying in the middle of the table. Make sure you keep your poker face when you receive cards, so you don't accidentally give away something that could come back to haunt you later.
Cyrill offers Lars a card that is supposedly worth 3. Lars must accept it (whether he wants to or not) because it was Cyrill's third offer. But when he looks at the card, he sees that Cyrill gave him a 6, not a 3. (Liar!) Since the 6 is still lying in the middle of the table showing its night side, Lars turns the 6 over to its day side.
End of a Round
A round ends after the turn in which a closed gate card lies in front of every one of you (and therefore no one still holds a gate in hand). Everyone now takes their gate back into their hand so that the open side faces the others.
The person who now has 3 cards (plus gate) in hand chooses any person to whom they offer one of their cards. A new round begins. (Note: whoever starts the round will still be chosen by someone else during that same round, and can therefore take a turn twice.)
Finale
The end of the game is heralded as soon as only a single night card, and otherwise only day cards, lie in the middle of the table.
Depending on which cards you currently hold in your hand, you pursue different goals. Always remember: this can still change from turn to turn, even now!
You have no snake in hand. Your goal is to turn the last night card in the middle of the table over to its day side as well. As soon as you manage this, everyone without a snake in hand wins — the Snake Charmers lose!
You have one or more snakes in hand. Your goal is that only a single card remains lying in the middle of the table, and that this card shows the night side. So you want to remove all other cards from the middle of the table. As soon as you manage this, everyone with at least one snake in hand wins — everyone else loses!
End of Game
Keep playing until either
… all cards still lying in the middle of the table show their day side. The night is over! The Snake Charmers lose — everyone else wins!
OR
… only a single card lies in the middle of the table and it shows the night side. It stays night forever … The Snake Charmers win — everyone else loses!
Variant
(We recommend this variant when a few more people (max. 6) are playing and the game should go a bit faster.)
You play as described, but: at the end of every round, put the lowest card showing the day side back in the box from the middle of the table.
Credits
Authors: Emely, Lukas, Inka & Markus Brand Illustrations: Tina Kraus & Florian Biege Layout: Fiore GmbH Realisation: Michael Schmitt Editing: Kaddy Arendt Proofreading and support: Lars Frauenrath, Cyrill Callenius
© 2025 Edition Spielwiese. Distribution: Hutter Trade GmbH + Co. KG. Version 1.0. All rights reserved. Any reproduction or publication of the rulebook, the game components, or the illustrations requires prior permission.
We thank everyone who tested the Snake Charmers with us and made them into what they are now!