Tick Tick Boom (Exploding Kittens)

Can you hear that hissing?  Can you smell the sulfer and litter mix?  It's getting closer.  Closer and closer until your loss, closer and closer until your dead.  The hissing, it sounds like a bomb, but it's more.  Oh, my dear friend, it is much more.  But that won't matter soon.  The last thing you'll worry about is that kitten, blowing up and ending your life. Watch out for the EXPLODING KITTENS!!!



GAME DESCRIPTION:  Exploding Kittens is a card game for 2-5 players.  Each turn players must draw cards and avoid getting an Exploding Kitten.

SET-UP:  Before the game begins, remove all Exploding Kitten and Defuse cards, then shuffle the rest of the deck.  Each player begins with 1 Defuse card and 4 randomly dealt cards.  Shuffle all Defuse cards into the deck, as well as Exploding Kitten cards equal to 1 less than the total number of players.  If there are only 2 players, shuffle 2 Defuse cards into the deck.  Any cards left are removed for this game.



CARDS:  Each turn, a player may play any cards during their turn, or end the turn.  Once a card's effect is resolved, you may continue to play cards, or end the turn.  Each player ends their turn by drawing a card.

• Exploding Kitten:  These black border cards, when drawn, mean an immediate loss unless a Defuse card is played, and discard all cards as well as this card.
• Defuse:  If a player draws an Exploding Kitten card, they may play a Defuse card.  The player discards the defuse and places the Exploding Kitten card anywhere in the deck they wish.
• Nope:  If a player plays a card, any other player may cancel it by playing a Nope card, and discard both cards.
• Attack:  The player who plays an Attack card does not draw, and the next player takes 2 turns in a row.
• Skip:  The player ends their turn immediately without drawing a card.
• Favor:  Forces another player to give up a card of their choosing to the player of the Favor card.
• Shuffle;  Shuffle the deck.
• See the Future:  Look at the top 3 cards of the deck, and place them back in the same order.
• Kitten Cards:  These cards have only images on them, and must be played as a matching combo of 2 or 3 of a kind.

COMBOS:  Combo's are advanced rules which, when played correctly, ignore the text on the card and are instead applied accordingly.

• 2 of a Kind:  If 2 matching icons (located at the top left) are played, randomly take 1 card from any opponent.
• 3 of a Kind:  If 3 matching icons are played, name a card from a specific opponent.  If they have it, it's now yours.  If not, nothing happens.
• 5 Different:  If 5 different icons of any card are played, you may take any 1 card from the discard pile and add it to your hand.

WINNING:  When an Exploding Kitten is drawn, and the player does not or cannot play a Diffuse card, they are eliminated for that game.  The game ends when there is only one player left.  They are now the winner.

CONCLUSION:  Exploding Kittens is a card version of Russian roulette, plain and simple.  The randomness nature of the game will definitely put off more than a few people, but the simplicity of the rules combined with the fact that the game is random gives most players a chance to win, even if they play 'badly'.  It makes for a great intermission game for longer gaming sessions and wind downs on game nights.  It's a fun, enjoyable little game that both younger and newer players can pick up.