# Cuttle — the first fighting card game

- From: Cuttle, a two-player card game
- Players: 2 players
- Time: 15 min
- Made by: Traditional, American; rules as kept by the Cuttle community today
- This version: The modern rules, as played on cuttle.cards

Made with boardgameBuilder 0.14.4. To design from it, open boardgameBuilder and choose Open game: its blocks go on the canvas, and the feelings are left for you to pick.

Number cards are points; face cards and some numbers do things. You race to 21 points while scrapping your opponent's cards, stealing them and changing the target. Often called the first combat card game, long before trading card games.

## What it shows a designer

A small deck carrying many card powers, each answering another. It shows how a designer gives every card a role, builds counters into the rules, and makes a race into a fight.

## What you need

- one standard deck of cards

## How to play

1. **Deal.** Deal 6 cards to the dealer and 5 to the other player, who goes first. The rest is the deck. Hold no more than 8 cards.
2. **A turn.** Do one thing: draw a card; play a number card (Ace to 10) to your table as points equal to its number; play it on a smaller point card of your opponent's to scrap both (ties go by suit, clubs lowest, then diamonds, hearts, spades); or play a card for its effect.
3. **Royals stay on the table.** King: you need fewer points (21, then 14, 10, 5 and 0 with one, two, three or four Kings). Queen: your other cards can't be targeted. Jack: take one of your opponent's point cards. Eight played as Glasses: your opponent plays with their hand shown.
4. **One-off effects.** Play a number card to the scrap pile for its effect. Ace: scrap all point cards. Two: cancel an effect just played, or scrap a royal. Three: take any card from the scrap pile. Four: your opponent discards two at random. Five: discard one, then draw three. Six: scrap all royals. Seven: turn up the top two cards and play one. Nine: put one of your opponent's cards on top of the deck.
5. **Win.** Reach your target in points on your table. When the deck is empty you may pass; three passes in a row is a draw.

## After playing, talk about

- Which card changed the game most when it was played?
- When did you hold back a Two to answer your opponent?
- Which rule would you remove to make it simpler, and what would be lost?

## Where the rules are written down

- https://www.cuttle.cards/rules
- https://www.pagat.com/combat/cuttle.html

## Its blocks

- Core mechanic: hand management
- Victory condition: race to finish
- Player interaction: direct confrontation
- Chance or skill: skill with luck
- Information visibility: hidden hands
- Timing: take turns

## Saved state

boardgameBuilder reads this part back when the file is opened.

```json
{"mechanics": {"core-mechanic": ["hand-management"], "victory-condition": "race-to-finish", "player-interaction": "direct-confrontation", "chance-skill": "skill-with-luck-tempering", "information": "hidden-hands", "timing": ["take-turns"]}, "chosenFeelings": [], "previousMechanics": {}, "previousFeelings": [], "turnNumber": 0, "locked": false, "turnHistory": [], "answers": {}, "tests": {}}
```