Hey all,
Because I missed October, there are two Games of the Month for November: Hidden Rules and Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom!
Hidden Rules:
My design goal for Hidden Rules was to make a game similar to Mao, but with a little more and a little less consistency. I also wanted every player to be equally knowledgeable and clueless (instead of some players knowing all the rules and some not knowing any). Hidden Rules is a relatively quick-playing trick-taking card game for three to five (perhaps six) players. If you ignore the extra hidden rules, play is identical to Up 'N Over (our April 2000 Game of the Month – http://www.invisible-city.com/play/24/). However, you (and each other player) get two cards at the start of the game: A trigger and an action. Together, these cards create a rule that you can enforce at your whim. Your goal is to figure out or avoid violating any of the other rules and enforce your rule to make the other players lose points while taking enough tricks to win the game.
Hidden Rules requires a standard Poker deck and a custom Hidden Rules deck. The rules and custom deck for Hidden Rules are available at: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/532/hidden-rules
Depending on how strict the players are, Hidden Rules can take a very long or short time to play. I'd say an average game of Hidden Rules takes about 30 minutes for four players to play. Hidden Rules is appropriate for ages 12 and up.
Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom!:
Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom! is a very, very simple trick taking game for three to five players. The game has four card types: Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, and Boom!. Every trick starts with a Birthday Party. When it's your turn to play, you can pass or you can play as follows: Birthday Party or Cheesecake on a Birthday Party; Cheesecake or Jellybean on a Cheesecake; Jellybean or Boom! on a Jellybean. If you're the last player to play on a trick, you take the trick unless you played a Boom!. Boom! sweeps the trick and no-one gets the points.
Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom! requires a custom Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom! deck. Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom! is available at: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/533/birthday-party-cheesecake-jelly-b...
Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom! takes 15 minutes to play. Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jellybean, Boom! is appropriate for ages 7 and up
