Players: 3-6

Play Time: 15 minutes

Ages: 9+

Kobayakawais a game of bluffing and deduction. In this stylish new game from Jun Sasaki, components are kept at a minimum – there are only 15 cards, 32 tokens and the start player marker.

The rules are simple:

At the start each player is given 4 tokens. In addition 8 tokens are placed in the middle of the table. Spare tokens are set aside.

The deck is shuffled and each player is dealt one card face down, an additional card is dealt face up next to the deck (this card is called theKobayakawa).

Each player takes a turn and either:

– Draws a card to their hand and discards one of their 2 hand cards face up in front of them.
Or
– Turns over the top card of the deck to replace the currentKobayakawa.

After all players have taken their turns, each must decide if they want to stay in and ‘fight’ by betting a token.

All players that decided to fight reveal their card. The player that has the lowest value card adds the value of the currentKobayakawato their own card. The player with the highest number (their own card; or their own card + theKobayakawa) wins the round and they take all the tokens that players bet, plus a bonus token from the middle, they take the start player token for the next round.

On the 7th round (when only 2 tokens remain in the middle) the stakes and the bonus are doubled to 2 tokens.

After this 7th round the game ends and the player with the most tokens wins the game.