Game Guide

Cursed Goblins is a competitive card game for 2 to 5 players. Each player takes on the role of a dark lord who curses
their opponents’ minions until only one dark lord is left standing.

Players do not know what cards are in their own hands, but they do know what cards are in their opponents' hands,
and what cards have already been played. Players will also give each other hints about the cards in their hands
throughout the game.

Set Up
First, create the deck for the game based on the number of players. Look at the table below. Take the indicated number
of colored sets of curse cards (each colored set contains three 1s, two 2s, two 3s, and one wild card), and the indicated
number of chicken cards. Shuffle them together to make the deck. Each player also has the number of life points
indicated on the table.

Players Life Points Sets Chickens

2 10 3 x4 Knights (1), x3 Clerics (-1), x1 Seer (0)
3 10 4 x5 Knights (1), x3 Clerics (-1), x1 Seer (0)
4 8 5 x6 Knights (1), x4 Clerics (-1), x2 Seer (0)
5 8 5 x8 Knights (1), x4 Clerics (-1), x2 Seer (0)

Knights Clerics Seer

Winning the game
Each card placed in a player's playing area has a damage value. If the sum of all the damage values in a player’s playing
area is greater than or equal to their life points, that player is eliminated.
The last player left wins the game.

Damage Example
If your playing area has a 3 on top of a 2 on top of a 1, this counts as 6 damage (1+2+3 = 6).

Start the game

Put the deck in the center of the table and deal 5 cards to each player. Players hold their cards facing outwards, so they
cannot see the faces of their own cards, but the other players can see them. The player who most recently saw a goblin
goes first. Players take turns, with play passing to the left.

Player turn
On their turn, a player does the following in order:

1. Play any number of cards one at a time. Then, if all of those cards were played successfully, discard any number of
cards.

2. Give a hint to the player to your left or right.

3. Draw until you have 5 cards in hand.

Playing Cards

A card can only be played if there isn’t already a copy (same set and value) in the target playing area.

A 2 card can only be played on top of a 1 card from the same set. A 3 card can only be played on top of a 2 from the
same set.

A wild card (X) can be played as if it were a curse card from its set, with any value from 1 to 4.

Chickens may be played to any play area with no restrictions.

Cleric Chickens (-1 ) subtract 1 point of damage. It’s a good idea to play these to your own playing area to
heal damage… if you’re sure you know what you’re doing.
When a Clairvoyant Chicken (0 ) is played on your playing area, you can look at one card of your choice from your
own hand.

Before you play a card, you must declare which playing area you are playing it on. Then, look at the card and determine
if there’s a valid place in that playing area to play it.

If it has a place to be played → Place it in the playing area of the designated player.

You may continue playing cards if you still have cards in your hand.

If you don’t wish to play another card, you may discard cards.

It has nowhere to be placed → It goes to the discard pile. You can’t play or discard another card this turn.

Card stacks

When playing cards in the player area1, these must be organized into stacks based on their set in ascending order.
Additionally, each set can only have one stack. To fill in any gaps, the books (X) can be used as wildcards, taking on the
value of the missing card.

1
Please note that you may play 0 cards in your turn.
Below are three perfectly played stacks.

(1, X, 3) (1, 2, 3) (1, 2, 3, X)

Other valid examples are: (1, 2), (X, 2, 3) and (1, 2, X)

Please note that you cannot make more than one stack of the same set within the same player area. The following is an
example of how the same set of cards could potentially be arranged to achieve the same outcome:
In total, these amount to 6 points of damage.

Bear in mind that you cannot play, say, a 2 on top of a book whose value is 2, as
its place has already been taken.

See example at the right.

Chickens

Chickens, on the other hand, follow different rules.

Unlike a 1, 2, 3 transition (or -1, 0, 1), they can pile up without any
restrictions. However, this does not make them wildcards as they have
their own set of rules.

In the current scenario, the target player has suffered a total of three
damages and received two healing points, along with the positive effect of
the Seer which allows the player to see one card in their hand.

1 point of damage
Heal 1 point
Seer! now the player may see one card in their hand 😁
Heal 1 point
1 point of damage
Another point of damage!

In summary, the stack amounts to a net damage of one and the Seer's
positive effect.

Discarding Cards

If you get to discard, you may select one or more cards from your hand and put them in the discard pile. The discard pile
is public. In this way, the players have more information available to deduce what cards they have in hand.
Giving Hints

At the heart of this game lies the hidden information mechanic, which makes obtaining clear clues essential to
eliminate randomness. To convey this information effectively, one should verbally provide the clue and physically
indicate the cards that match that criteria in the other player's hand by pointing at them with their finger.

Choose the player to your left or your right, and give them a hint about their cards. It can’t be a lie.

The hint must make explicit the value or type of the card.

The hint must give at least one new piece of information.

The hint must indicate all the cards in the player’s hand that the information applies to.

Hint examples:

“These three cards are red.”

“These two cards are level three.”

“This is a chicken.”

“None of your cards are blue.”

Dramatization:

“These two are chickens!”

*touches them with his index finger*
Player Elimination
If you play the card that causes another player to be eliminated, remove a card from your own playing area. This
represents you healing your minions after taking the life force of your foes.
When a player is eliminated, the cards from their hand go into the discard pile. The cards on their play area remain
visible and untouched.

Renew the Deck

When the deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile, and place it face-down to renew the deck.

Hinted Huddle mode

Looking to mix things up? Try this alternative mode of play!

This is an alternative way to play where each player, before the start of the game, gives one hint to the player on their
left and one hint to the player on their right. This ensures that every player has two pieces of information before
beginning the match.

In the case of playing with only two players, both players should simply give each other two hints directly.

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Thank you for playing Cursed Goblins!

A Game by Goblin Gox Games.

Art by @nique.