Swords is a fast-paced simultaneous action card game for 2-5 players that feels like a multi-person sword fight! It's quick, fun, intense, strategic, and not too difficult to learn. Players play their cards at the same time either on themselves or on an opponent and each card has a different effect depending on where it's played!

Swords is an exciting game of quick decisions and sudden changes in fortune, just like a real sword fight! You and your opponents make your decisions in secret and execute them at the same time, strategies adapt by the second, and every hand is a surprise! You can win by playing aggressively, always attacking and making opponents draw cards, or you can hope that the others will be so busy fighting each other that they won't notice your quickly diminishing hand as you Yield and discard an extra card. Often a person you were just attacking might suddenly become an ally when you realize, almost too late, that someone else is about to win and you need to team up to take them down! There are many different strategies, some readily apparent and others more sneaky, and reading your opponents is just as important as making the right choice at the right time!

Here's a quick summary of how to play!

Everyone starts with seven cards. Each round, players each choose a card in secret and then play their cards at the same time. The goal of the game is to run out of cards first.

There are four types of cards: Attack, Defend, Yield, and Riposte.

You can play any card on yourself or an opponent and each card does a different thing depending on where it is played!

Attack when played on an opponent makes them draw 2 cards. If you play it on yourself you lay a trap for any player who plays a card on you, making them draw 4 cards. But look out, it's risky! Anything that's played on you still hits you, and if no one plays anything on you the trap backfires and you have to draw 2 yourself!

Defend when played on yourself does what you might expect, it defends you! When you play it on someone else, it acts as a sort of guard break, negating cards they've played on themselves... just watch out for that Attack trap, Defend is defenseless against that!

Yield lets you sneak an extra card into the discard pile when you play it on yourself. When you play it on an opponent, however, instead of putting that extra card in the discard you give it to them! Like some kind of card vampire!

Riposte is like a counter attack when you play it on yourself, it bounces Attacks, Yields, and Ripostes back at the person who played them on you. When you play Riposte on someone else it immobilizes them for the next turn, leaving them wide open! Careful though, if more than half of the people playing lay down Riposte on the same turn it causes a Clash and every single person has to draw 2 cards!

The main game is played with 3-5 players but there is also a fun and sneaky 2 player variant that shakes things up with a hidden Dagger mechanic!

A battle usually lasts around 5 to 10 minutes! You can play single battles or play a war where battles award 1 point for a tie or 2 points for winning alone, and the first player to 6 points wins the war!

—description from the designer

Games