KAKURENBO 掴恋慕～かくれんぼ～

Regarding Japanese horror tales, the Western audience probably would be most familiar with movies adopted by Hollywood, such as the Ring. Japanese horror tales are less about the thrills and shrieks, but more about the steady buildup of spookiness that the audience can never rid of -- like the Shining perhaps? Horror themes are always an important part of Japanese popular culture, and naturally it extends to the tabletop space as well. A good example of this is Hako Onna, which has recently been picked up by a Taiwanese game maker for publishing and caused quite a sensation within the Chinese gamer circle.

The game I introduce today, KAKURENBO (meaning "hide-and-seek"), also has a grotesque back story in full Japanese horror glory, but the mechanics is simple old-school Old Maid on a deck of 15 cards. Yes, there are some variations using dice, and each pair of cards has a certain effect when discarded, but these additions are too weak to change gameplay. Most importantly, you are still playing Old Maid on 15 cards, so you can imagine each game is pretty short. 

If you think more about what exactly we are playing ... *SPOILER*:

• We are literally throwing around dismembered body parts across the room throughout the game. Pretty disturbing sight, if you ask me.  
• Can somebody tell me why we need to match identical body parts of the twins, instead of assembling all body parts of the same twin, to help them rest in peace?

The game is not the most fun (comparing with other games using a small deck of cards such as Love Letter), but it seems to be a nice cool-down in between heated gameplay of big exciting titles. And I mainly dig for its graphics design anyway.

By the way, the Japanese publisher for KAKURENBO, ビストロ怪談倶楽部 (Bistro Horror Tales Club), is not itself a board game publisher. Instead, it is an interest group for -- you guessed it right -- horror tales! You can actually find their audio recording series on horror tales over Youtube. 

KAKURENBO

(3-5 Players, 10 - 15 minutes)

Contents: 1 red dice, 1 blue dice, and 15 cards, including 

• seven red-and-blue pairs (head, chest, waist, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg), and 
• one card "Kaku's Curse" (掴の呪い), which is the joker in Old Maid

Game objective

To match the dismembered body parts of twins "Karen" (Red) and "Karin" (Blue), so as to let the twins rest in peace and score the cards' points.

Each pair of cards (body parts) has a certain effect when discarded.

• Head (4 points) -- the discarding player needs to show his hand for the rest of the game.
• Chest (3 points) -- the player to the right of the discarding player scores the points.
• Waist (3 points) -- the player to the left of the discarding player scores the points.
• Right Arm (2 points) -- the discarding player needs to show his hand to the player on his right.
• Left Arm (2 points) -- the discarding player needs to show his hand to the player on his left.
• Right Leg (1 point) -- the discarding player exchange hands with the player on his right, except for the "Kaku's Curse".
• Left Leg (1 point) -- the discarding player exchange hands with the player on his left, except for the "Kaku's Curse".
• Kaku's Curse -- at game end, the player holding this card does not score any points.

Game Rule Variation #1 "Kakurenbo" (hide-and-seek)

Game Preparation:

• Shuffle all cards except "Kaku's Curse," and give one card to each player.
• Put the remaining cards in one pile with the color side (Red / Blue) facing up, and put "Kaku's Curse" at the bottom of the pile.

Game Rules:

• At a player's turn, the player does one of the two actions below:
• Draw one card from the pile. Do one of the following according to the color of the next top card of the pile:
• Red: Give one card at hand to another player of choice
• Blue: Take one card from the hand of another player of choice. (If a pair can be matched, that pair can only be discarded for points at the player's next turn.)
• Discard one pair of red-and-blue cards of the same body part in front of the player, and score the points written on the card.
  (The cards' functions do not take effect until "Kaku's Curse" enters gameplay.)
• The player who draws the card on top of "Kaku's Curse" also gets "Kaku's Curse." After this point, when discarding card pairs, execute the card's functions.
• The player holding "Kaku's Curse" gets rid of the card by giving "Kaku's Curse" plus one more card to any player of choice. Then the player receiving "Kaku's Curse" becomes the in-turn player, and repeat the step. If a pair can be matched, discard the cards immediately, execute its functions, and score the points written on the cards.
• The game ends when the player holding "Kaku's Curse" cannot get rid of the card. The player holding "Kaku's Curse" scores 0 points, and the player scoring the most points wins.

Game Rule Variation #2 -- "Kurayami" (gloom)

Game Preparation:

• Put all cards into card sleeves, with the color side (Red / Blue) facing out.
• Shuffle all cards except "Kaku's Curse," and give one card to each player.
• Put the remaining cards in one pile with the color side (Red / Blue) facing up, and put "Kaku's Curse" at the bottom of the pile.

Game Rules

• Every player in turn draws the top card from the pile. Depending on the color of the next top card of the pile, do one of the following:
• Red: Give one card at hand to another player of choice
• Blue: Take one card from the hand of another player of choice.
• The player who draws the card on top of "Kaku's Curse" also gets "Kaku's Curse."
• Then all players flip the cards within the card sleeves, which become their hand. If a match is found (one pair of red-and-blue cards of the same body part), discard the pair in front of yourself and score the points written on the card. (Card functions are not executed.)
• The player holding "Kaku's Curse" becomes the starting player, selected another player of choice, and roll the two dice. 
• Red dice > Blue dice -- The player rolling the dice takes one card from the chosen player's hand;
• Blue dice > Red dice -- The chosen player takes one card from the player rolling the dice;
• Red dice = Blue dice -- If one of the players have the "Kaku's Curse," pass the "Kaku's Curse" to the other player. Otherwise, re-roll.
• When a match is found, even when it is not the player's turn, the player can immediately discard the pair for scores. (Card functions are not executed.)
• Repeat clockwise, until one player has only the "Kaku's Curse" remaining in his hand. He scores zero points.
• The player who have no remaining cards at hand and scores the most points wins.