FLAME WAR!¶
A card game about email communication and decision making, for 4-6 people. (Get the code to generate cards on github! ).
Download¶
- All cards, front and back [PDF]. Print two-sided with long-edge binding.
Cards last updated 2013-04-09
Parts:
- 14 Goal cards
- 24 Attention cards
- 66 Email cards
- 8 Interrupt cards
Game play¶
Players sit in a circle. Draw two goal cards and place them face up. Shuffle email and interrupt cards together, and deal 5 cards to each player Maintain a hand of 5 email and interupt cards throughout the game.
Game play proceeds by turns. In each turn, a player does the following, in this order:
- Attention! Draw an "attention" card, which lets you know how many emails you have attention to read and send this turn.
- Read email! If there are unread email on the board, read the number of email specified by the attention card. You must read as many as specified, unless there are no emails left which you haven't yet read. Read an email by turning it face-up, and reading it out loud.
- Check goals: After reading all the email you're supposed to, check the count for goals. If the total number of flames for any goal is more than 3 (unless modified by an interrupt), the goal is burned. Discard it and all email attached to it and draw a new goal card. If any goal's number of lights have been reached but has fewer than 3 flames, claim the goal's points and remove it from the table. Draw a new goal card to replace it.
- Send email! Place the number of emails specified by your attention card face-down under the goal of your choice.
Interrupt cards can be played at any time. They take effect immediately and do not affect turn order.
| Goal card | Attention card |
| |
|
| Email card | Interrupt card |
| |
|
Lights and Flames¶
Each email has a number of "lights" and "flames" -- however, those lights and flames are only 'activated' if someone has read the email. An email which is face-down and unread does not count toward the goal. By activating lights and flames, you can burn a thread or win it.
- Burning a thread: If a thread contains three flames which have been activated, that thread is "burned", and nobody gets points for the goal.
- Winning a thread: Goals specify a number of lights for them to be fulfilled. The last player to take an action which satisfies the goal without burning the thread wins the goal card.
After a goal is burned or won, remove all emails from it. Replace it with a new goal from the goal pile, and draw a starting email from the email pile to kick off a new thread.
Some interrupt cards modify the number of flames or lights required to win the goal.
Scoring¶
Your score is the total number of lights on goals you have one, minus any penalties incurred by special emails. The game ends when any player reaches 10 points.
Feedback¶
Played a game? Let us know how it went! And please give us any suggestions you have for improving the design, game play, or messaging. cfd@media.mit.edu
