Decksplain

Objective: Beat the dealer

Setup:

1. Discard Jokers
2. Each player places their bet
3. Dealer deals 2 cards to each player face up
4. Dealer deals themselves 2 cards (1 face up, 1 face down)

Your turn options:

• Hit: Take another card
  • Hand value exceeds 21 (automatic loss)
• Stay: Keep your current hand
  • Ace + 10-value card on first 2 cards = Blackjack
• Double Down: Double the bet, take one more card
• Split: Split matching cards into two hands

Card values:

• Ace = 1 or 11
• 2- 10 = numbered value
• Face cards = 10

Dealer Rules:

• Must hit on 16 or less
• Must stand on 17 or more
• If dealer busts, all remaining players win

Winning Conditions:

• Beat dealer's hand without busting
• Get blackjack (21 with first 2 cards)
• Dealer busts while you don't
• Tie if both have same value - bets are returned

Payouts:

• Standard win = 1x
• Blackjack = 1.5x

Objective: End the game with the lowest score

Setup:

1. Discard Jokers
2. Each player gets 4 face-down cards in a grid; peek at 2
3. Place remaining deck face down, start discard pile with top card face up

Take your turn, either:

• Draw from the deck and peak at the card:
  • If it’s a power card, you can use it (discard after)
  • Or exchange (see below)
• Draw the top card from the discard pile and exchange (see below)
• Call Cabo to end the game after others get one more turn

Exchanging cards, either:

• exchange the new card for one of your face down cards
• exchange the new card with matching multiples of your face down cards

A failed matching requires picking up a penalty card.

Power cards:

Scoring: Lowest points = 0 points, Calling Cabo and losing = card points + 5 points, Ace = 1, 2 - 10 = face value, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, Black King = 13, Red King = 0

Objective: End the game with the lowest score

Setup:

1. Discard Jokers
2. Each player gets 4 face-down cards in a grid; peek at the 2 closest cards
3. Place remaining deck face down, start discard pile with top card face up

Take your turn, either:

• Draw from deck and peak at the card:
  • If it’s a power card, you can use it (discard after)
  • Or exchange with a card from your face down cards
• Draw the top card from the discard pile and exchange with a card from your face down cards
• Call Cabo to end the game after others get one more turn

Discarding cards: When a card is discarded, you can match a face down card from anyone’s pile to discard it too

• When attempting a match, reveal the card to everyone
• If from your own pile → fewer cards = fewer points
• If from another's pile → give them one of your cards
• Wrong match = take a penalty card (no peeking)

Power cards:

Objective: Get rid of your cards

Setup:

1. Discard Jokers, combine decks if playing with more players
2. Deal cards out to all players which they can look at
   • Some players may end up with an extra card
3. The player to the left of the dealer starts with Aces

Take your turn:

• Declare the number of cards you're discarding and the rank (e.g. 2 Aces)
  • You may only follow the previous rank (e.g. 2 has to be played after Ace)
• Discard, face down, the same number of cards you declared
  • Note that the cards you discard don't have to match the cards you declared

Calling cheat:

1. If you think a player has cheated, you can challenge that player by saying "Cheat"
2. The played cards are revealed
   1. If the player cheated, they take all the discarded cards, you then start the next play
   2. If the player did not cheat, you take all the discarded cards, and play continues with the next player after you

Other notes:

• Aces follow Kings

Objective: Don't pick up an Exploding King

Setup:

1. Discard Jacks and Queens
2. Each player gets an Ace or Joker and 6 random cards
3. Count the number of players, shuffle the same number of Kings into the deck minus 1
4. Shuffle extra Aces/Jokers into the deck
5. Place the remaining (shuffled) deck face down

Take your turn:

• Play (and discard, using the ability) as many cards from your hand as you like until your turn is over
• End your turn by picking up a card
• If you pick up a King, you must Defuse or lose

Defusing:

When you pick up a King and Defuse, you must put the King back

You can put it face down, wherever you like, inside the deck, without inspecting the deck (and you can do this in secret).

Hints:

• Your cards help you avoid the Kings, play as many as you like
• Running out of cards is fine, but now you're powerless to avoid the King
• It's unlikely the King is on top of the deck, especially at the start of the game
• The game really starts when someone picks up the King and defuses as they could put it anywhere
• When you've been Attacked, draw one card at a time

Objective: Don't pick up an Exploding Kitten

Setup:

1. Each player gets a Defuse card
2. Count the number of players, shuffle the same number of Exploding Kittens into the deck minus 1
3. Shuffle extra Defuses into the deck
4. Place the remaining (shuffled) deck face down

Take your turn:

• Play (and discard, using the ability) as many cards from your hand as you like until your turn is over
• End your turn by picking up a card
• If you pick up an Exploding Kitten, you must Defuse or lose

Defusing:

When you pick up an Exploding Kitten and Defuse, you must put the bomb back

You can put it face down, wherever you like, inside the deck, without inspecting the deck (and you can do this in secret).

Hints:

• Your cards help you avoid the Exploding Kittens, play as many as you like
• Running out of cards is fine, but now you're powerless to avoid the Exploding Kitten
• It's unlikely the Exploding Kitten is on top of the deck, especially at the start of the game
• The game really starts when someone picks up the bomb and defuses as they could put it anywhere
• When you've been Attacked, draw one card at a time

Objective: Bet on the winning horse

Setup:

1. Discard Jokers
2. 4 Aces are lined up in a row, face up, these are the horses
3. Place around 7 cards face down perpendicular to the horses, these help count the rounds
4. The remaining deck is left face down

Everyone: Place bets on the horses

Play:

• The dealer flips the top card of the deck and moves the horse that matches the suit of the card forward one space
• When a horse reaches the end of the track, it wins

Objective: ??

Setup:

1. Discard Jokers
2. Each player gets ~6 hidden cards which they can look at
3. Place remaining deck face down, start discard pile with top card face up
4. Say "the only rule I can tell you is this one"
5. The player left of the dealer begins

Objective: Get rid of your cards

Setup:

1. Discard 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, Jokers
2. Each player gets 5 hidden cards which they can look at
3. Place remaining deck face down, start discard pile with top card face up

Take your turn, either:

• Discard a matching suit (e.g. 10♦ on 5♦) or matching value card (e.g. 7♣ on 7♦) with the last discarded card
  • Call Mau if you only have 1 card left
  • Call Mau Mau if your last card is a Jack
• Take a card from the draw pile

If a player calls Mau on another player who's on their last card, the other player must take a penalty card

Power cards:

Scoring: 7 - 10 = face value, Ace / Queen / King = 10 points, Jack = 20 points

Basic rules for a suit game

Objective: Win each trick with the best card, end the game with the highest score

Vocabulary:

• A trick is when each player plays one card (a round of cards)
• A trump card is a special suit (or set of cards) that beats all other suits in a trick, regardless of rank

Setup:

1. Discard 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, Jokers
2. Each player gets 1 row of 4 cards face down
3. One player then gets 4 face up cards on top of their face down cards and chooses a suit to be trumps
4. 4 more face up cards are placed on the remaining face down row
5. 2 more rows are added to each player in the same way

Play:

1. The player who chose trumps (or won the last play) plays a card
2. The second player then plays a card in return - they must play in the same suit if possible
3. The best played card wins
4. Exposed face down cards are flipped
5. Play again until all cards are used

The winning card:

The order from high to low is:

1. Jacks in order: ♣ Clubs, ♠ Spades, ♥ Hearts, ♦ Diamonds
2. Trumps suit in order: A-10-K-Q-9-8-7
3. First played card suit: A-10-K-Q-9-8-7
4. Any other card loses

Objective: Kill the royal cards

Dealing:

Steps:

1. Play a card or skip your turn (yield)
2. Activate the suit power (check immunity)
3. Deal damage to the enemy
4. Suffer damage from the enemy

Enemies:

Suits:

• ♥ Hearts heal - discarded cards go to the draw pile
• ♦ Diamonds draw to the hand
• ♣ Clubs deal double damage
• ♠ Spades shield against enemy attack
• 🂿 Jesters negates immunity of enemey

Objective: Be the first player to use all your cards or have the lowest points left in your hand

Setup:

1. Discard Jokers
2. Each player gets 7 cards
3. Remaining cards are placed face down

Take your turn, either:

• Draw one card from either the stock pile
• Use a card from your hand to add to a set or run on the table

Using cards:

• A set is 3 or more cards of the same rank (e.g., 7♣ 7♦ 7♠)
• A run is 3 or more consecutive cards of the same suit (e.g., 4♦ 5♦ 6♦)
• You can add cards to your own or other players sets/runs once you’ve laid down at least one set or run

Ending the round:

• The round ends when a player discards their last card
• Other players then count the points in their remaining hands

Scoring: Ace = 1, 2 - 10 = face value, Face cards = 10