Ever wonder which of your friends would be better at avoiding stabbings? Well now you can know with Don’t Get Stabbed, the card game!
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In this quick card game players take turns drawing cards and trying to avoid the dreaded stab cards, (or at least pass them along to someone else). However one player gets to be the killer who’s job is to make sure each of the Victims gets stabbed three times before they can assemble the getaway car.
How does it work?
Simple. Don’t get stabbed.
At the start of the game one player is chosen as the Killer and the rest are the Victims.
Each turn one player draws a card in turn, and does what it says. The goal of the game is to avoid the stab cards or at least place them lower in the deck to buy some time. Victims also need to find matches to draw from the car deck and try to spell out the word “C A R” and escape.
There’s three types of cards to be drawn in the main deck. Matching cards, Action cards, and Stab cards.
Matching Cards (The blue ones)
These are the cards the victims and killers are trying to collect. They each come with a phrase on them, and if a player can get 2 with a matching phrase they can draw one of the cards from the CAR deck. However if the Killer gets a matching set of 3, they can use it to eliminate one of the uncovered CAR cards and set the players back.
Action Cards (The green/purple ones)
These action cards are used to change the game, usually by avoiding stab cards. The green text is for the Victims and the purple text is for the Killer. Mostly these are played during your turn unless the card says otherwise.
Stab! Cards (The red ones)
These are the cards the Victims try desperately to avoid. If a Victim draws one they are stabbed. If they ever have 3 stabs they are removed from the game entirely. (dead). If a Killer draws one they can put it back in the deck wherever they want.
Car Cards & Ending The Game
These are the cards the Victims try to collect by trading in matching sets of match cards. The goal is to get all 3 letters and spell out “CAR” and escape before they all die. If they successfully spell it out the Victims win the game. However if each of the Victims accumulates 3 stabs, the Killer instead wins the game.
Don’t Get Stabbed Review
Much like The Unseen (another game from the wonderful Rookie Mage Games), Don’t Get Stabbed keeps it simple. The goal is clear; just avoid stab cards and build that getaway car.
On the face of it, it’s an easy card game. Pick up one card on your turn, play actions if you got em’, then pass the turn to the next player. There’s quite a bit of randomness in the game, mostly hoping that the stab cards are lower in the deck.
The overall balance of the game is fair. we played a few rounds and most of them were very close for both teams, however it can really mess you up when one of the letters of C-A-R eludes your team.
On the other end, the killer has a bit more to consider. They can move stab cards around and try to trick players into wasting their actions. Which gives them a bit more strategy to their gameplay.
The artwork on the cards is fun too, the matching cards all play homage to horror movie tropes like “investigating a strange noise” or “thinking the killer is dead”.
Overall it’s a very fun party game. Quick to set up and play, so you don’t have to spend much time toiling over rule-books. Don’t Get Stabbed also makes for a great drinking game, we played where you drink for stab cards and then finished your drink if you die (3 stabs).