Research Guides: TableTop Games: Card Games

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A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules, but most are folk games whose rules vary by region, culture, and person. Many games that are not generally placed in the family of card games do in fact use cards for some aspect of their gameplay.

Card Games

Anomia
Anomia plays off the fact that our minds are positively brimming with all sorts of random information: things to eat, pop songs, websites, etc... Sure, under normal circumstances, it's easy to give an example of a frozen food or a dog breed, but you'll find that your brain works a little differently under pressure!
Batman: Almost Got 'Im
The villains of Gotham City have gathered for a poker night and to share stories about the time they nearly dispensed with that troublesome caped crusader Batman. Little do they know that the Dark Knight is in their midst, disguised as one of their own. Will the rogues be able to suss out the bat in their belfry before he clandestinely subdues them?
Bloodborne: the card game
Bloodborne: The Card Game is based on the Chalice Dungeons in the video game Bloodborne — the ever-changing labyrinths and tombs carved out by the Great Ones beneath the fallen city of Yharnam, where horrifying creatures reside. Players compete to kill monsters and take their blood.
Cards Against Humanity
"A party game for horrible people." Play begins with a judge, known as the "Card Czar", choosing a black question or fill-in-the-blank card from the top of the deck and showing it to all players.
Cat Face
"There are CAT FACE cards and CAT BUTT cards. Each player finds the funniest combination of CAT FACES and captions, or CAT BUTTS as we call them.
Charty Party
The absurdly funny game of ridiculous charts! If you like bizarre charts, goofy card games, and want a fresh game for your next party night, give Charty Party a try!
Cthulhu Gloom
From Dunwich to Innsmouth, from the halls of Miskatonic University to the Charles Dexter Ward at Arkham Asylum, trouble is in the air. The stars are almost right, and terrors from beyond space and time are beginning to break through. When Cthulhu rises, we're all doomed – but whose downfall will be the most entertaining?
Exodus: Paris Nouveau
Your mission? Lead a daring rescue attempt to save innocent citizens from the corrupted Paris Nouveau government. You've been in this together from the beginning. You've had each other's backs, but we fear some of your team may have been bought off by the hunters — especially since our last team didn't come back. Trust no one but yourself!
Exploding Kittens
A kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game. The deck is made up of cards that let you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck.
Extinction: a dinosaur survival card game
Extinction is a dinosaur battle royale card game where you must protect the last dinosaur eggs of your species. Build your herd of dinosaurs and send them to destroy your friends' nest before they get to yours.
Fluxx
Fluxx is a card game in which the cards themselves determine the current rules of the game. By playing cards, you change numerous aspects of the game: how to draw cards, how to play cards, and even how to win.
Get the MacGuffin
As popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, the "MacGuffin" is the thing that everyone wants and is trying to get. Examples include the Holy Grail, the Maltese Falcon, and the briefcase in the movie Pulp Fiction.
Gloom
The world of Gloom is a sad and benighted place. The sky is gray, the tea is cold, and a new tragedy lies around every corner. Debt, disease, heartache, and packs of rabid flesh-eating mice—just when it seems like things can't get any worse, they do. But some say that one's reward in the afterlife is based on the misery endured in life.
Gloom: Unquiet Dead
The Game of Inauspicious Incidents and Grave Consequences! In the Gloom card game, you make your eccentric family of misfits suffer the greatest tragedies possible before helping them pass on to the well-deserved respite of death. Just mix the 55 transparent cards in this set together with your copy of Gloom to add morbid new Modifiers, Events, and Untimely Deaths.
Hanabi
Hanabi—named for the Japanese word for "fireworks"—is a cooperative game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by placing the cards on the table in the right order. (In Japanese, hanabi is written as 花火; these are the ideograms flower and fire, respectively.)
Happy Little Dinosaurs
Lately, it feels like we’re all just dinosaurs trying to avoid the falling meteors. In this game, you’ll try to dodge all of life’s little disasters. You might fall into a pit of hot lava or get ghosted by your dino date, but the dino who survives it all wins the game!
Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ Battle Defence Against the Dark Arts
Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ Battle Defence Against the Dark Arts is a competitive deck-building game for two players, inspired by Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle.
Hoity Toity
What do bored English noblemen do with their free time? Well, according to this Spiel des Jahres (1990) winner by Klaus Teuber, they like collecting old junk and then showing it off.
Jane Austen's Matchmaker: Chapter Two
In Matchmaker, you take characters under your wing and try to find them suitable partners. Some characters want to fall in hopelessly in love but others are more pragmatic - or just plain mercenary!
Magic the Gathering
From the official website: In the Magic game, you play the role of a planeswalker—a powerful wizard who fights other planeswalkers for glory, knowledge, and conquest. Your deck of cards represents all the weapons in your arsenal. It contains the spells you know and the creatures you can summon to fight for you.
Modern Art
Art collectors are competing to gather the most prized art pieces.
Munchkin
Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything you meet. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. Grab the treasure and run.
Admit it. You love it.
Phase 10
A rummy-type card game where players compete to be the first to finish completing all ten phases. Phases include collecting runs of numbers, collecting certain number of a given color cards, etc. The first player to finish completing the 10th phase wins. In case of ties, the player with the fewest number of points wins.
Quiddler
Quiddler challenges players to create words from an ever-increasing number of letter cards in their hand. The game lasts eight rounds, with three cards being dealt to each player in the first round, four cards in the second, five in the third, and so on. Each card has one or two letters on it as well as a point value.
Rick and Morty: Total Rickall
Rick and Morty: Total Rickall Card Game is based on the Rick and Morty episode of the same name. If you haven't seen it, don't worry. You can still play this wild and wacky game and have plenty of fun — but you really should see it at some point. Seriously. Don't be a Jerry.
Set
In SET, each card contains 1-3 objects, with all of the objects on a card having the same color, shape and shading, e.g., two purple shaded ovals. Colors, shapes, and shadings come in three different types: green, purple and red; oval, diamond and squiggle; and solid, shaded and outlined.
Skip Bo
Each player is dealt a stockpile of 30 cards. The winner will be whoever manages to empty their stockpile first. Cards are played onto four shared building piles in numerical sequence from 1 to 12.
Sorry!
Race your four game pieces from Start around the board to your Home in this Pachisi type game. By turning over a card from the draw deck and following its instructions, players move their pieces around the game board, switch places with players, and knock opponents' pieces off the track and back to their Start position.
Sushi Go!
In the super-fast sushi card game Sushi Go!, you are eating at a sushi restaurant and trying to grab the best combination of sushi dishes as they whiz by. Score points for collecting the most sushi rolls or making a full set of sashimi.
Uno
Players race to empty their hands and catch opposing players with cards left in theirs, which score points. In turns, players attempt to play a card by matching its color, number, or word to the topmost card on the discard pile.
The Voting Game
The Voting Game is an adult party game that uncovers the hilarious truth about your friendships. Each Round, vote anonymously for the player that is described by the current question. Tally the votes and watch as the personalities of your friends are revealed.
We Didn't Playtest This at All
In this exceptionally silly and awesome game, your objective is to win! Simple enough. Sadly, all of your opponents have the same simple goal, and they're trying to make you lose. Between Rock Paper Scissors battles, being eaten by a random Dragon, or saved by a Kitten Ambush, there are many hazards to avoid."
Zombie Fluxx
Zombie Fluxx is the zombie uprising card game with ever-changing rules. There is now a new type of card: Ungoal cards (conditions in which everybody loses!)