Racesmack header

Racesmack (Rules)

Setup

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Shuffle all cards into one deck. Deal everyone 4 cards. Place the remaining cards as a faceup draw pile.

Objective

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During the game, you’ll win cards and place them in a row before you. This is called your Race.

If your Race has a Finish Card, and you satisfy its requirements, you win the game. If the deck runs out before this happens, whoever has the most cards in their Race wins.

Example of how to check if you finished your Race (and won the game).

Gameplay

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Gameplay happens in rounds. There are no turns: everyone plays at the same time.

  • Everyone picks a secret card from their hand and places it in front of them.
  • Once done, everyone reveals their cards at the same time.
  • Reveal your cards facing away from you. (This means any text on it faces the others, not you.)

Now everyone quickly studies the cards played and then taps a card.

Only some cards, however, are “correct”. By default,

A card is correct if it contains the symbol that appears most often (across all cards). If none of the cards are correct, tap your own card.

Example of how to play a round: play cards, tap the correct one, resolve who gets what.

Once all players except one have tapped something, the round ends.

  • If correct, you win your own card.
  • If incorrect, you lose 1 of your Race cards.

Any leftover cards are won by the first player that tapped a correct card (the “fastest winner”).

Won cards are placed in your Race (left or right end). When checking if you’ve finished, only the Finish Card with the highest number in your Race counts.

But there’s one final twist.

When Rule Cards are played, find the one with the highest number. Its special rule (top text) determines what cards are “correct”, instead of the default rule.

Example of how to handle Rule Cards and finishing a round (by adding won cards to your Race).

Expansions & Variants

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Played the base game and ready for more? Or looking to tweak the game to fit your playing group better? Check out these variants and expansions!

This game has many different variants that require no extra material. This makes it very easy to try a few of them and see if you like the change.

Variant: Noise Canceling (Easier)

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The following rule is a different way to handle Rule Cards being played. This makes the game easier, as special rules can often be ignored.

  • If exactly 1 Rule Card is played, then its rule determines the “correct” cards instead.
  • Otherwise, if no or multiple Rules cards are played, just use the default rules stated above. (They “cancel” each other out.)

Variant: Racing Rules

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This variant simply changes the default rule for each round.

  • Keep 9 random Rule Cards in a separate deck.
  • At the start of each round, reveal the top one. That’s now the “default rule” for finding correct cards.
  • Once this deck is empty, simply re-use the same 9 cards again for a new deck.

It also changes what you must do in one specific situation.

If only Rule Cards are played, only the Rule Card with the highest number is “correct”.

Variant: Time Penalty

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Use this variant if you find players are just tapping randomly and without concern for being incorrect.

When tapping an incorrect card, you must pick one of the following penalties.

  • Lose 2 Race cards.
  • Lose 2 Hand cards.
  • Next round, you are always “incorrect” if there’s a tie ( = there are multiple correct cards).

Variant: Tiebreaker (Harder)

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This variant creates only a single correct card in most rounds.

  • Whenever there are multiple correct cards,
  • Ties are broken by the card showing the color that appears most often (among the tied cards).
  • If still a tie, the highest number of shapes on the card wins.
Example of how to check if you finished your Race (and won the game).

Variant: After You

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This variant makes the game turn-based instead of simultaneous.

  • Pick any start player.
  • Player’s hands are “blind”: a facedown pile before them.
  • From start player, in clockwise turns, people reveal a single card (faceup).
  • The smashing begins only once somebody reveals a Rule Card.
    • That specific card tells you the rule for what’s “correct”.
    • If you’re correct, you win the entire pile of cards that has built up in front of you.

Expansion: Shifting Gears

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All the cards in the game have three properties: their shapes, their colors, and how many of them.

In the base game, cards show this by simply displaying the icons as many times as needed.

In this expansion, however, cards will have different ways of displaying the “how many” part: number text, fingers on a hand, dice, or tallying.

Example of how to check if you finished your Race (and won the game).