A tense card game inspired by Exploding Kittens where players draw cards while trying to avoid the Exploding Kings, using special cards to peek, skip, or defuse explosions.
Exploding Kings
2 - 5+ players
10 - 20 minutes
Objective: Don't pick up an Exploding King
Setup:
- Discard Jacks and Queens
- Each player gets an Ace or Joker and 6 random cards
- Count the number of players, shuffle the same number of Kings into the deck minus 1
- Shuffle extra Aces/Jokers into the deck
- 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
Cards:
| Card | Power | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| King | Bomb | This kills you |
| Ace / Joker | Defuse | Ace (or Joker) is an extra life! Defuse the King and place the King back wherever you like in the deck |
| 1 - 4 | None | Useless unless used in a combo |
| 5 | Favour | Force another player to give you 1 card from their hand. They choose which card to give you |
| 6 | Skip | End (only!) one of your turns |
| 7 | Shuffle | Feeling lucky? Shuffle the deck |
| 8 | See the future | The magic 8 ball allows you to view the top 3 cards from the deck |
| 9 | Nope | Nein! Cancel the last played action (before it happens!). Can be played by anyone anytime. Cannot Nope a Defuse |
| 10 | Attack | 10 in binary = 2 decimal - move play onto the next player, they get your # of turns + 2 |
Combos:
| Combo | Effect |
|---|---|
| 2 identical | A player must give you a card of their choice |
| 3 identical | Take a card from another player |
| 5 distinct | Take a card from the discard pile |