Reply To: The Incomplete Guide to Nice Little Card Games

We’ve passed Chanukah, so I’m going to forget about Candle Quest
(by Yehuda Berlinger) for now. Food themes may happen eventually.
For now, here’s a game you can play without having to actually buy it.

Kobayakawa
3-6p (I’ve heard it’s best with 4) / 8^? / 15-20m

You will need:
Cards numbered 1-15
4 tokens per player, plus 8

Initial setup:
Players start with 4 tokens. Another 8 tokens are placed in the center.
Choose a starting player.

Round setup:
In each round, the deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt a card.
One card is put in the center, face up. The rest of the cards remain
as a deck in the center.

Playing a round:
On their turn, players take 1 of 2 possible actions:
1. Draw a card, then discard either of your cards face up.
2. Replace the center card with the top card of the deck.

After each player has had a turn, each player (in turn order) must
choose whether or not to pay a token to stay in the round.
The players who paid then reveal their cards. The player with the
lowest card adds the value of the center card to their own card,
and then the player with the highest card wins all of the tokens paid
that round, plus 1 token from the center. They also become the first
player for the next round. At this point, players with no tokens left
are eliminated from the game.

Play 7 rounds. In the last round, you must pay 2 tokens to stay in
(exception – if you only have 1, you can pay 1), and the winner of
the 7th round gets 2 tokens (not 1) from the center.
After the 7th round, the player with the most tokens is the winner.