Unluckables (2023)

OVERVIEW:
Unluckables are a mad scientist’s experiment gone wrong. Created to give bad luck, they instead absorb it! But, if an Unluckable absorbs too much, they turn from playful candy loving creatures into trick playing pranksters.

Adopt Unluckables, play tricks, activate unique abilities and do your best to avoid the perils of Unluck.

The first player to end a round with 13+ Skellies, wins!

(additional win conditions included for increased challenge and excitement)

SETUP:
Each player will choose a uniquely colored Home card, which always produces 1 Skellie, and set it face up on the table in front of them. This table space will now be referred to as your “Home.” All adopted Unluckable, as well as certain Luck or Unluck cards with the “Hold” symbol, will be played into your Home.

Congratulations! If you are the first person at the table to read these instructions, you are now designated as the First Player. Deal 3 Luck cards face down to each player. They may look at their cards, but must keep them secret from all other players. After the first player ends their turn, play will continue clockwise around the table until all players have performed their actions. At the start of each new round the First Player will rotate clockwise.

STARTING THE GAME:
Starting with the First Player, you have 3 actions to perform each round. Available actions are:

Draw: Draw the top card of the Luck deck and add it to your hand.

Play: Play a Item, Trick or Support card from your hand.

Adopt: If you are able to meet the Skellie cost of an Unluckable indicated in the star symbol on the top left of the card, place it into your Home. You must draw and resolve Unluck cards up to the number indicated in the bat symbol on the top right corner.

Release: Discard any number of Unluckables and reduce the cost of adopting by their Skellie value until the end of your current turn. (adopting will require performing another action)

Activate: Perform the ability of an adopted Unluckable with an Activation symbol. You may only use an adopted Unluckable’s ability once per round.

Trade: Trade any number of cards with another player. An action is only performed if another player accepts the trade, allowing you to make multiple offers without risk of losing actions.

After you’ve performed all of your available actions, the next player may begin theirs.

HAND SIZE:
Each player starts with a hand size of 5 cards, however there are ways within the game to increase your hand size. Players with more cards than their hand size must discard down, but only at the end of a round. This allows players to hold cards higher than their hand size for a brief, and hopefully beneficial, period of time.

WIN CONDITION:
When adopted Unluckables are providing any player(s) with 13 or more Skellies at the end of a round, the player with the most wins!

ALTERNATE WIN CONDITIONS:
Adopt 8 Unluckables in consecutive order of cost (1-8, 2-9 or 3-10) or attach all 6 unique items to adopted Unluckables for an instant win!

Play each win condition independently, or all at once.

-description from designer