Killer Bunnies

I posted this over on my Gaming blog, but I thought I’d post it here as well, since I’m trying to get as many people as possible into this game. Check it out:

My personal favorite [new game] is a card game that a friend of mine introduced me to called Killer Bunnies. The box says for 2-8 players, though I don’t see why you couldn’t add more players. The starter pack comes with the Blue and Yellow set of cards, you can also buy booster packs that vary in color. It’s important to purchase the sets in order, since each set of cards builds on the ones previous. The goal of the game is to:

1. Still have a Bunny alive at the end of the game
2. Have in your hand, the “Magic Carrot”

I’ll go through a round of play so you can get an idea what’s going on.

First, you take the small Carrot Card pile, shuffle it, and choose one card, without looking at it. Place it at the bottom of the deck, and put the deck aside. This is the Carrot card that everyone is trying to collect. Obviously, no one knows, during play, which carrot card was chosen, so out of 20 carrot cards, you could have 19 or them and still lose. What’s great about this is it levels the playing field. No one will ever get better than the rest of the group, since the winner is chosen at random. Winning isn’t the idea, the fun is in causing as much trouble for your opponents as you can - winning is just a happy bonus. Case in point: The last session we played I was without a Bunny card for 3/4 of the game (a bunny card is required to do just about anything in the game, so I wasn’t doing very much most of the game) - but I snatched one towards the end and ended up collecting the winning card. Even though I won, the game wasn’t that much fun for me, since I didn’t do much all game.

Now that you’ve chosen the winning carrot, each person takes 7 cards from the deck. You will then choose 2 cards to place down in front of you, one above (not on top of) the other. This is called your “Run” pile. Nearly all cards in the deck must go through the Run pile. On your turn, you flip over your Top Run card and either put it into play (if it’s a Run card or Bunny card), set it off to the side (if it’s a Special or Very Special card), or discard it (if you can’t play it or don’t want to play it). You then move your Bottom run card up to the Top Run card position. Now choose another card from the deck and choose a new card to place down as the new Bottom Run Card. If you put a Bunny through the Run pile, you will place it in what is called the “Bunny Circle”. This is the area in front of you - only Bunny’s may go there (or special cards that give the Bunnies protection). It’s called a circle because all the Bunnies are connected, in that if a weapon attacks adjacent bunnies, it means bunnies, not players, so a weapon could affect more than one person’s bunnies at the same time.

Here’s where the fun begins: in the deck are many and various ways of killing your opponents Bunny’s. Remember, you need to have a Bunny to win the game. You must also have a bunny to attack other players with weapons and also to collect Carrot cards. To collect carrot cards you can do several things: you can buy them with Dolla’s or you can play “Choose a Carrot” cards. These are taken from the special big carrot deck (not the small deck you’ve sat aside). Now, if you are able to put down 3 Bunny’s of either the same color or the same type (Sinister, Timid, Congenial, Gleeful, Lumbering), you may play both Top and Bottom card in the same round. Trust me, this is tough to achieve, not to mention to maintain for very long - as it gives you a hefty advantage over everyone else, so you immediately become a target.

Once all the Carrot cards have been collected, the game is over and you take a look at the card at the bottom of the small carrot deck to see who has the matching big carrot card. That person wins the game. If you want a better picture of what this is all supposed to look like, take a look at this.

It sounds complicated, but you’ll have it down in 15 minutes, easy. It’s also addictive fun, not to mention terribly frustrating, as you build up a strategy and watch as it all comes crashing down. It’s just good, clean, evil, Bunny-Killing fun!