Coup

 

Coup
Company: Indie Games; Type: Mixed; Players: 2-6; Time: 15 minutes; Genre: Bluffing, Elimination; Rating: 💥💥💥💥💥 I love it!

Along with Ace of Aces and perhaps Trashsexy in the RPG world, this is the perfect pick-up game. To start the game, you are dealt two role cards facedown. The object of the game is to be the last player left with an unexposed (i.e., facedown) card left.

The rules are simple. Every turn you take an action, either a general rule available to anyone or a special rule that is limited to as specific role. Now here's the wrinkle: you don't have to actually have the role to perform a special rule. You just have to successfully bluff your way into doing it.

At any point, another player can challenge your right to perform a specific action. You must then show them a card. If you don't actually have the role in your tableau, you must expose it and leave it in your tableau. That card is now effectively dead. However, if you do have the role, your opponent must expose a card instead and leave it dead in their tableau. You then bury your card in the deck and deal yourself a new card facedown. 

The normal actions include:

Income: Take 1 coin.
Foreign Aid: Take 2 coins.

Coup: See below.

Special roles and actions include:

Duke: Tax to earn 3 coins. Block foreign aid.

Captain: Steal 2 coins from another player. Block steals.

Ambassador: Take two cards from the deck and replace them with any two cards, each of which can be the original card drawn or one from your tableau as a replacement.

Assassin: Pay 3 coins to kill one of another player's cards.

Contessa: Block assassination.

But there is also a built-in clock to the game. If a player accumulates 7 coins, they may initiate a coup against another player and force them (without recourse) to expose a card from their tableau and leave it dead there. At 10 coins, you must initiate a coup. Hence the game's name of Coup.