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Cards and Quarters

Welcome to Cards and Quarters! A blast of games that can be played with coins, cards, dice, paper, pencils, and your most important tool: your friends. It's time to have a lot of fun.

Card Games Paper Games Dice Games
Skull Fish Bowl Liar's Dice
Card Golf The Card Game Mia
Werewolf / Mafia Word Assassin
Win, Lose, Banana

Card Games

Skull

Skull is a deceptively simple bluffing game. You can learn this one no matter how drunk you are, I guarantee it.

  1. Give everyone 4 cards: 3 black and 1 red (your Skull).
  2. Start with the last winner or the tallest player.

Playing the Game

  1. On your turn, you may either:
    1. Play any of your cards onto a pile face-down in front of you.
    2. Place a bet of how many cards you can flip over without flipping a Skull.
  2. Once a bet has been placed, you cannot put any more cards down. Instead, on your turn you can either wager a higher bet or fold.
  3. Betting goes until everyone but one person has folded. The remaining Player must now make The Attempt.

The Attempt

  1. The Player making The Attempt must now flip over the number of cards they wagered.
  2. The Player must start with all of the cards in their own pile.
  3. They may then any flip any other player's pile over, one at a time, in any order they choose.
  4. If the flip a Skull, The Attempt has been failed and they permanently lose one of their cards (chosen by another player).
  5. If they succeed, they win the round! Place a coin or a shot in front of them, because the first player to win two rounds wins the game!

Card Golf

Card Golf brings a simple, strategic, and lightly competitive puzzle to the 52 cards. It's super easy to learn and very addictive.

Dealing

  1. Deal everyone 9 cards face-down.
  2. Place the rest of the cards in the center and flip the top card face-up and place next to the center pile (Rummy style).

Setup

  1. DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR CARDS.
  2. Arrange your cards in a 3x3 grid face-down in front of you.
  3. Choose any three cards and turn them face-up.
  4. Now is your only chance to re-arrange your cards. Do so wisely!

Goal

Your goal is to have the lowest score at the end of the game. Every card is worth its face value except Kings, which are worth zero (Aces are worth 1).

Besides replacing your cards with lower cards, there is one trick that you can use to lower your score. If you can get three cards of the same value in a row or column, that whole row or column now counts as zero. Your competitors will probably try to stop you in this endeavor, so good luck!

Play

  1. Start with the previous winner or the person left of the dealer.
  2. On your turn you may do one of the following:
    1. Flip one of your cards face-up.
    2. Replace one of your cards with the face-up card in the center.
    3. Draw from the face-down deck and either replace or discard.
  3. All cards are replaced and discarded face-up.
  4. The game ends the instant one of the players makes all of their cards face-up.

Werewolf (aka. Mafia)

Werewolf is the ultimate party bluffing game. You and your friends are now Townsfolk in a remote, quant Village in the woods. However, strange things have been happening in town. Some of your friends are secretly werewolves. Can you figure out who is human and who has been killing in the night? Good luck, citizens. Werewolf is best played with 5 or more people.

Setup

Take two Aces, a King, and a Queen out of a deck of cards. Add non-face or Ace cards until your deck is one less than the number of players. One of you will have to be the Narrator that facilitates the game and perhaps weaves a fun story. If there are no volunteers, add a Joker to the pile to randomly determine the Narrator.

Pass the cards out randomly to the players. Keep your card a secret! It is your secret identity. At no point should you show your card to anyone, even if you die.

  • Aces are the Werewolves
  • The King is the Sheriff
  • The Queen is the Nurse
  • Any other card is a ordinary Villager.

Night

Narrator, tell everyone to close their eyes. It is nighttime in the Village, and everyone is sleeping.

However, Werewolves hunt in the night. Ask the Werewolves to open their eyes. They must silently pick another player to make their prey. Narrator, remember their choice and have them close their eyes.

The Sheriff is doing their rounds in the night. Wake up, Sheriff, and choose someone to investigate. The Sheriff must silently indicate who they want to investigate. The Narrator will silently and truthfully indicate whether the person they selected is or is not a Werewolf. The Sheriff goes back to sleep.

The Nurse is returning from their late shift. Nurse, open your eyes. The Nurse silently chooses any player to save. They may choose to save themselves. If the person they choose was to be killed by the Werewolves, they will not die in the morning. Nurse, close your eyes.

Everyone may now open their eyes.

Day

It is morning in the Village, a sunny, clear day. But oh no! Someone is dead! The Narrator will now announce who has fallen prey to the Werewolves. If they were saved by the Nurse, they live another day! Do not reveal who the Nurse saved otherwise.

When a player is killed, they are now a Ghost! Ghosts are out of the game and cannot talk, but they may stay awake to learn everyone's identity and enjoy the show.

The rest of the day is spent trying to figure out who the Werewolves are. If you're a Werewolf, you want to appear to be an innocent Townsfolk at all costs. Lie. Beg. Manipulate. Accuse. Your life depends on it. At any point during the Day a vote may be called. Whoever gets the most votes is lynched for the good of the Village and are now dead. Choose carefully Villagers.

Once a player has been lynched, the Night phase begins again.

Narrator, the morning is your chance to spin a small tale of how each person met their demise. Were they found bloody and wounded, or could it have been a simple accident? Did they fall in the river? Were they found strung up in a barn? Add flavor and suspense to your tales, especially if they were heroically saved by the Nurse.

The End

The game is over either when both Werewolves are eliminated (Townsfolk win) or there are now equal or more Werewolves than people in the Village (Werewolves win). Choose your allies carefully and play multiple rounds. This game is better with a history of lies and broken promises. Good luck.

Variations

For a larger or more experienced group, consider the following variations:

  • The Scapegoat - Replace an ordinary Townsfolk card with a Jack. Whoever draws the Jack is the Scapegoat. The Scapegoat only wins if they get lynched during the day. If they do, everyone else loses. If they survive to the end of the game or get killed in the Night, they lose.
  • Seance Mode - In the morning, the most recently lynched Ghost may write a single letter the next morning to help the Townsfolk out. Unless they were a Werewolf...
  • Alpha Wolf - Make one of the Aces red and the other black. The Werewolf with the red ace must say the word Werewolf once every day. Otherwise you are killed by the narrator.

Win, Lose, Banana

A simple, silly time-waster for three players. Take a King (Winner), an Ace (Loser), and a Joker (Banana) out of a deck. Give one card to each player. The player who gets the King is the Winner. However, the Winner can only win if they can choose the Loser out of the remaining to. If they succeed, the Winner and the Loser win! If the Banana is picked, only the Banana wins!

Paper and Pencil

Fish Bowl

Fish Bowl is a game of charades on crack. By using the same prompts through multiple different rounds, you'll develop inter-friend telepathy, which makes this game completely hilarous.

Divide into two teams and give everyone two piece of paper to each person playing. Write anything they thing everyone else would know. Celebrity names are good. Inside jokes are very good. Memes you all like are better. Or you can all draw three Cards Against Humanity cards and discard one. When everyone's done, put all the prompts into a container, like a hat or a fish bowl!

On your team's turn, take turns drawing a prompt out of the fish bowl. You have to get your teammates to guess the word or phrase while following the rules of the round. If you pass, put the prompt back in the bowl and draw a new one. When you succeed, the next person on your team goes.

Each team has 60 seconds to get through as many prompts as they can. When the prompts run out, tally how many each side got and put them all back into the fish bowl for the next round.

Round 1: Taboo - For the first round, you may say anything you like to get your team to guess the word or phrase but you cannot use any words written on the prompt. Round 2: Charades - Gestures only, not sounds. You know. Charades. Round 3: One Word - After drawing the prompt, you may only say one word. Any word that doesn't appear on the prompt. Then you wait to see if anyone can guess it.

After three rounds, the team with the most points wins! Unless...

Bonus Rounds

  • Ghost - A silent ghost: charades, but under a bed sheet.
  • Puppets - Hide behind a couch or have the other team hold a blanket so only your hands can be seen. Act out the prompt with only your hands and arms. No noises!
  • Heads Up! - Hide behind a thing so that only your head is visible. No noises, only head movements and faces.
  • One Noise - Like one word only you can't use words. Brilliant!

The Card Game

DANGER! This make-your-own game wicked fun but watch out for wicked friends! It's like extreme Truth or Dare with only Dares.

Give everyone two pieces of paper. Your task is to write two game cards to be drawn from the deck and followed. Your cards should read in a "When you draw this card..." style. Draw a little picture at the bottom to help illustrate the premise. If you want to get fancy, you can also write "Hold onto this card to play at any time" or "Hand this card to someone and that player must..." cards.

Shuffle all the paper into a pile or bowl and take turns drawing them, reading them aloud, and following them. If you play, you must follow the cards you draw. Remember, you might draw your own card, so keep that in mind!

Some example cards for inspiration that have gone over well for our friends:

  • When you draw this card, go to the fridge eat a teaspoon of mustard. Scream "IT'S DELICIOUS" afterward.
  • Hide this card somewhere in the next room.
  • When you draw this card, you have 60 seconds to find the card hidden in the other room.
  • You are now the Pope. Act accordingly.
  • Do not read this card out loud. Eat this paper immediately. Explain nothing.
  • Everyone must steal a sock or other article of clothing from the person to their right. The last person to succeed must wear those clothes for the rest of the game.
  • Hold onto this card and discard at any time to see a slow motion replay of what just happened.

Word Assassin

Assassin is a game about sneaking up on and "killing" your friends until one person remains atop the mountain. This game normally takes weeks to complete as the last few lock themselves away in their rooms and buying pizza through their windows. Word Assassin is a variation that allows a game of Assassin to take place over a single party!

When people arrive, have them put their name into one bowl and a word or two into a second bowl. When everyone is in, secretly arrange the targets: Draw the first name and set it on the table. Draw a second name and a word. The second person is the first person's Target and their Weapon is the word you drew. Draw a third person and a second word. The third person is the second person's Target, etc. When you are out of names, the last name drawn has the first name drawn as their target. Draw a word for them and distribute the Target-Weapon pairings.

To eliminate your Target, you must get them to say your Weapon word. When you succeed, you take their Target and Weapon as your own. If you ever have your own name, you are the last one left! You win!

Tips

  • Remind guests to make their words hard, but not too hard: they may need to use their own word as a Weapon. Don't make the words too easy though, your Assassin may draw your word as well!
  • If the last few people are onto each other, it may be good to have a quick game like water-balloon roulette or a quick game of Skull ready to break the stalemate and end the game.

Dice Games

Liar's Dice

Liar's Dice is a great deduction and bluffing game for medium sized groups. Goes great with drinking.

Give everyone 5 dice and a cup to hide them under.

Everyone shakes up their dice and rolls them, hiding them under their cups. You will go around placing bets about your collective dices. For example, say "Five 4s" if you think there are at least five 4s if you counted up everyone's dice. Each bet must be larger than the last, so the next person could say "Five 6s" or "Six 3s". Must be a equal count and higher value or higher count of any number.

At any time, anyone can call the last betting player out by calling them a Liar. Everyone then reveals their dice and counts up the dice that equal the last value said. 1s are wild. So if you rolled 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 2 and the last bet was "Six 3s", you would hold out 2 fingers. If the total count is equal to or higher than the bet, the Accuser loses a die. If the count is lower than the bet, the Better loses a die. If it's the loser's last die, it goes to the other. You are out when you run out of dice.

Start the next round with the last round's loser.

Mia

Mia is a game about pressing your luck. It's played with two dice and a cup. It's also a great drinking game.

To play, put both dice into the cup, shake and turn upside-down. Secretly peek at the die to see your score. Announce your score and pass the dice to the next player.

On your turn, if your score is higher than the previous roll, announce proudly and slide the cup to the next person. If your score is lower, you need to lie about your score. Announce a higher "score" proudly and pass to the next person.

When you are passed a roll from another player, you need to decide whether or not you believe them. If you believe them, roll the dice without looking. If you think they are lying, call them on their lies and lift the cup revealing their true score! Whoever is wrong loses/takes a drink/gains a letter HORSE style.

What's interesting in Mia is how you score the dice: it's the higher number as the tens' place and the lower as the ones' place. So a roll of 4 and 5 is 54. A roll of 3 and 6 is 63. Doubles are higher than any mismatched pair, 1-1 beating any other roll and 6-6 being the highest pair. The top roll is rolling a 1 and a 2, called a Mia. If you roll a Mia on your turn, lift the cup and proclaim victory to the shame (or drinking) of all of your opponents.

Tip: Flipping the cup onto a drink coaster makes it easier to pick up between rolls.