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@bag-man
Created December 26, 2022 16:42
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Rules for the card game "Kabul"

Kabul

This is a game I was taught by some friends in Sweden, they called it Kabul, but I think it might have another name as Googling for it returned no similar results. I decided to write down the rules as it's actually a pretty great game!

Card values

  • Joker: -1
  • Red Kings: 0
  • Ace: 1

Card effects

  • Queen & King: Switch any two cards and look at them
  • Jack & 10: Switch any two cards, but don't look at them
  • 9 & 8: Look at one of your cards
  • 7 & 6: Look at one of another players cards

Setup

  1. Shuffle the deck including jokers
  2. Deal four cards face down to each player
  3. Arrange each players cards in a 2x2 grid face down 4 The deck is then placed in the middle of the table face down, and one card turned face up next to it, to create a discard pile
  4. Every player can now look at the two bottom cards in their hand, and then return them to the table face down
  5. Player left of the dealer takes the first turn

Aim of the game

The goal is to have the lowest value hand at the end of the game, so if you had 2♦, 4♣, A♠ and a Joker🃏, they would get 6 points. See Card values for all the special card points. The game ends, when on at the start of a players turn they choose to loudly proclaim "KABUL!", once they have done this, their cards are "locked" and cannot be touched. The rest of the players then take one more turn, and then the game is finished. Players then reveal their cards, count their points, and the player with the lowest number wins.

Gameplay

  • On your turn you must draw a card from the deck, or from the face up discard pile, unless you choose to end the game by yelling "KABUL!"
  • With the newly drawn card, you can either:
    • Discard it with no effect (A - 5)
    • Discard it with effect (6 - K)
      • See card effects above for their powers
    • Replace one of your hidden cards with the card you picked up, the hidden card goes to the discard pile
  • Your turn is finished once you have discarded a card
  • When a player discards a card, any player may "snap" the discard pile with one of their hidden hand
    • If the numbers match, your card stays in the discard pile
    • If the numbers do not match, you must return the card to your hand, and add another card to your hand from the deck
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