Exploding Kittens
the rules
Original, First and NSFW Edition
How to Play
Sample Round
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How it works
In the deck of cards are some Exploding Kittens. You play the game by putting the deck face down and taking turns drawing cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten.
This process continues until there’s only 1 player left, who wins the game. The more cards you draw, the greater your chances of drawing an Exploding Kitten.
Basically if you explode, you lose.
And you’re full of incendiary loser sadsauce.
If you don't explode,
you win!
And you’re full of greatness, good job buddy!
And all of the
other cards
Will lessen your chances of getting exploded by Exploding Kittens.
You could use a See the Future Card to peek at the top few cards in the Draw Pile. If that reveals an Exploding Kitten you could then use a Skip Card to end your turn and avoid drawing it.
Setup
01
To start, remove all the Exploding Kittens (4) from the deck and set them aside.
02
Remove all of the Defuse Cards (6) from the deck and deal 1 to each player.
03
Insert the extra Defuse Cards back in the deck.
Defuse cards
Each player is dealt 1 Defuse Card, the most powerful card in the game. These are the only cards that can save you from Exploding Kittens. If you draw an Exploding Kitten, instead of getting exploded, you can play the Defuse Card and reinsert the Kitten back into the Draw Pile anywhere you’d like in secret.
Try to get as many Defuse Cards as possible.
Two or three players
Put only 2 of the extra Defuse Cards back into the deck and remove the others from the game
04
Shuffle the remaining deck and deal 7 cards face down to each player.
Note: If your paper instructions tell you to deal out 4 cards instead of 7, don't believe them. Paper instructions are dirty liars.
05
Insert enough Exploding Kittens back into the deck so that there is 1 fewer than the number of people playing.
Remove any extra Exploding Kittens from the game.
For example
For a 4 player game, insert 3 Kittens. For a 3 player game, insert 2 Kittens.
This ensures that everyone eventually explodes except for 1 person.
06
Shuffle the deck, and put it face down in the middle of the table
07
Pick a player to go first. (Some sample criteria: most impressive beard, most intimidating odor, shortest spleen, etc.)
Take your turn
07
Pick a player to go first. (Some sample criteria: most impressive beard, most intimidating odor, shortest spleen, etc.)
Play
Play no cards.
08
Play
Play a card by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discard Pile and following the instructions on the card.
After you follow the instructions on the card, you can play more cards. You can play as many cards as you’d like.
Cards with no instructions on them
Some cards don’t have any instructions on them (Cat Cards). These cards must be collected and played as matching Pairs.
If you play matching Pairs of Cat Cards, pick another player and steal a random card from their hand.
Note: If you have a newer version of the game your Cat Cards WILL have instructions on them.
09
End your turn by drawing a card from the top of the Draw Pile into your hand and hoping it’s not an Exploding Kitten.
(This is different from most games in that you END YOUR TURN by drawing a card.)
Remember
Play as many or as few cards as you’d like, then draw a card to end your turn.
