The goal
Be the first to get rid of all your cards.
First play your hand cards,
then your face-up cards,
then your face-down cards... blindly.
Swap at the start,
play equal or higher,
and know when to pick up
or chance it!
Setup
Shuffle the deck and deal each player:
- 3 face-down cards (don't peek)
- 3 face-up cards on top.
- 3 in hand.
Before the start, you can swap hand cards with face-up cards.
We recommend putting your best cards face-up. You'll need them later!
Start
The player with the lowest card in hand starts.
Ask "Who has a 1? Who has a 2".
The person with the lowest number will place that card in the center and start the pile.
Turns go clockwise.
How to play
Equal or higher
Play a card equal or higher than the top of the pile.
Multiples
You can play multiples of the same card at once. Works with specials too.
Note that the numbers and specials don't stack. For example: (7,7,7) = 7
Four in a row
4 matching cards in a row makes a BURN! The pile is discarded and you go again. Play anything!
Note. the sequence must be uninterrupted.
7,7,7,7 = Burn
7,Ghost,7,7,7 = no Burn
The number 4
The number 4 is tricky: it forces the next player to play 4 or lower.
The effects stops with 1,2,3, reset or burn.
Can't play?
Pick up the entire pile and end your turn, or...
"Chance it" by flipping the top card of the deck. If it works, you're safe. If not, you take the pile, and end your turn. Turn goes to the next player.
Special cards
Play these over any card to get out of sticky situations.
BURN
Discard the pile. Play again.
The best card in the game!
GHOST
Ghost the game! Passes your turn without changing the pile value.
SKIP
Skip the turn of the player on your left. During 1v1, you to play again!
RESET
Resets the pile value to 0. Next player can play anything. Note, the pile stays under the card.
MIRROR
Sends the turn back to whoever acted last (played or picked up). Cannot be yourself.
Three phases
1. Hand
Play cards from your hand onto the pile.
Always draw back up to 3 cards while the draw deck has cards.
Once the draw deck is depleted and your hand is empty, you move to phase 2.
2. Face-up
Once you hand is empty, you finally get access to your face-up cards.
Play them directly onto the pile.
If you can't play, pick up the pile with the losing card of your choice. That allows to get slightly ahead.
You'll have to empty your hand again before playing the remaining face-up cards.
3. Blind Cards
Once all your face-up cards are played, you can finally play your face-down cards.
Use your magic senses to guess which is right card to play, and reveal it on the pile.
The more dramatic the better!
Winning
Keep playing until only one player is left. That's the ultimate loser. But don't worry, you can always get Payback.
1v1 "Fortress" mode
Same game, head to head. but with 6 face-up and 6 face-down cards instead of 3, so the hand phase stays shorter.
SKIP
In Duel, Skip makes you play again.
GHOST & MIRROR
In Duel, these send the pile straight to your opponent.
"Gladiator" mode
When the first player is out of the game, they they become Julius Caesar, and get to watch the arena.
If they're "not entertained" they have the power to speed up the game by showing their thumb to the crowd.
Thumbs down = 3 matching cards are now a burn.
Thumbs down again = 2 matching cards are now a burn.
Thumbs up: They are entertained. Game continues as normal. (4 matching cards are a burn).
