Big Cats Chase Prestige Through Heat in Spicy

Spicy is a 2-6 player bluffing game where everyone cheats for the grand prize of being the top cat.

Gameplay

Spicy works similarly to games of chance and bluffing, such as Liar’s Dice. Each player is dealt 6 cards and the rest are placed face down as the draw deck. The World’s End card will be placed into the face down deck as determined by the number of players, which corresponds to a measuring stick on the card for reference.

Players will have cards in one of four spices (which act as suits) with a value of 1-10. The first player will play a card declaring its value and the type of spice. The next player will play a card declaring a higher value of the same spice. Once a player has played all the cards from their hand, they will earn one of three trophy cards, which are each worth 10 points. 

However, Spicy is not as simple as this. Players may bluff as to what card they are playing at any time, and it’s up to the other players to determine when someone is bluffing and to act accordingly. If a player challenges the validity of someone’s claim (either value or spice type), they can only challenge one of the attributes. Whoever wins the challenge will collect all the cards played, turn them face down, and these will count as points at the end of the game. Whoever loses the challenge will draw two cards and play will continue. 

The game ends one of three ways: one player has collected two trophy cards, all three trophy cards have been claimed, or the World’s End card is exposed in the draw deck. In all instances, play immediately ends. If a player has earned two trophy cards, they automatically win the game. Otherwise, players count up the totals of any cards won in challenges (each card is worth a point) and any earned trophy cards and subtract one point for each card remaining in their hands that have not been played. The player with the highest total is declared the supreme big cat. 

Review

Spicy is a simple bluffing game that is a perfect ice breaker. Much like bluffing games, much of Spicy is more about reading the other players’ expressions and find their tells rather than trying to play by the rules. However, Spicy allows players that exact option (players may pass and draw one card during play) and this can be a viable strategy as well. Especially when a player who rarely bluffs sneaks one by without getting challenged. 

There is not much variety with Spicy. It’s best suited as a filler while others are setting up the next game on game nights, or while trying to decide what to play next. Spicy is also the type of game that is going to make some players uncomfortable because they don’t like bluffing or have no poker face. 

Spicy is very much a game for a certain sect of gamers to play on specific occasions. It’s a great bluffing card game if that’s what a gaming group is into, but others may prefer bluffing games with higher stakes, variable strategy, or shy away from bluffing entirely.

Pros: Fun scoring mechanism

Cons: Little variety in game play, bluffing genre may turn off some gamers