Down for the Count
A shedding game where you don’t want to shed, for 2–5 players. Beat the move on the table or spend stamina to stay in it. Run out of cards and you tap out; run out of stamina and you’re pinned. Last one standing wins.
- Players
- 2–5
- Genre
- Shedding · Last One Standing
- For fans of
- Scout · Love Letter
- Length
- About 15 minutes · three 5-minute rounds
- Components
- 60 cards
- Box
- Small two-piece box
Overview
The pitch
Every card in your hand is a move you can still make. Climb the move on the table with a bigger one, or spend stamina to stay in it: a reversal steals a card off the move, a kick out pulls one of your face-down stamina cards into your hand. Shed your last card and you tap out. Run out of stamina and the ref counts you out. Last one standing wins the round.
Hold on to your moves
In most climbers you race to empty your hand. Here an empty hand knocks you out, so every card you spend is one you can’t answer with later. The cheapest move that beats the table is usually right.
Stamina is a clock
Three face-down stamina cards in front of you at every player count. Each reversal or kick out burns one and buys you a card. Everyone can see how close everyone else is to the pin.
Finishers
A move nobody can answer costs three or four cards. Against a wrestler with no stamina left it ends their round. Against anyone else it’s a gift. Knowing which is the game.
One deck, 2 to 5
Sixty cards, ranks 1 to 10. Two players drop the 9s and 10s and leave a few cards unseen, three drop the 10s, four and five use everything. Everyone always gets three stamina cards.
Components
Ten moves, six of each
Every card is a move, and the moves get bigger as the numbers climb: a Chop at 1, a Suplex at 4, off the top rope from 8 up. Four cartoon wrestlers, Big Moe, Rocket Ruiz, The Duchess and Hacksaw Hal, take turns dishing it out and taking it.
››Beat the move. Moves are sets of one number or runs of 2 to 4 in a row. More cards always wins. Same number of cards? Higher wins.
In the box
- 60Cards, poker-sized: ranks 1 to 10, six of each, with the number in two corners
- 1Rules sheet. That’s it: stamina is dealt from the same deck
Mockups show a proposed production version: one deck in a small two-piece box, on the same shelf as Scout and The Mind.
Mockups
Rendered from the card and box art on a ring canvas.
Play
Step into the ring
The game runs below. No download or account needed.
Sell sheet
One page for your review meeting
The pitch, a turn told in three comic panels, the box, specs, contact and a QR code to the playable demo, on a single landscape page ready to print or forward.
Print and play · on request
Want it on your table?
A ten-page kit: two pages of rules, seven sheets holding all sixty cards with crop marks, and a sheet of card backs. Nothing else needed. Email me and I’ll send it over.
Setup
Deal each wrestler a hand and three face-down stamina cards. Two players use ranks 1 to 8 and 15-card hands, leaving 12 cards unseen; three use ranks 1 to 9 and 15 cards; four use the whole deck and 12; five use the whole deck and 9. Arrange your hand however you like.
Moves
A move is 1 to 4 cards: a set of one rank, or a run of 2 to 4 in a row. To beat a move, more cards always wins. Same number of cards? Higher wins: a set beats a run, then the higher number, runs by their top card.
Your turn
If the table is empty, open with any move. Otherwise beat the move on the table, or spend stamina: a reversal takes a card off the move (an end card from a run) and discards a stamina card; a kick out takes a stamina card into your hand. No kick out with two players.
Takeback
If your move comes all the way back to you untouched, take one card from it back into your hand for free; the next wrestler answers what’s left. A move that was reversed is live, even for you.
Going down
Play your last card and you tap out. Have to spend stamina with none left and you’re pinned. Either way you’re out of the round, and the last wrestler standing wins it.
The match
Three rounds. The last one standing scores the number of players, the first out scores 1. The round winner opens the next. Most points wins; ties share the belt.
Interested in Down for the Count?
Ask for a prototype or a walkthrough call with your team, or meet me at a convention.
