Just be the last one standing in this dystopian universe.

That’s all you really to know, and the theme doesn’t matter if you’re not into it! Everyone just has 2 cards in front of them, which are essentially their ‘lives’, but also allow you to activate abilities.

Now abilities can range from getting money (Duke), or paying money to kill others (Assassin), or trying to cycle your cards out to get a new one (Ambassador). But here’s the thing, you can do ANY of these abilities if you want! No one else knows what cards you have in front of you, except for you. So sure, one of those cards could be a Duke, or it might not be. Only ou know.

You can even lie on someone else’s turn when you claim protection from a card you don’t even have, as some cards counter each other. But if someone else thinks you’re lying, they call you out on it. And if you actually are lying, you lose a life. If you’re telling the truth, the accuser loses one of their lives. Isn’t that exciting? Someone will get punished here.

Losing one of these lives means that you flip over a character card though, meaning you can’t use it anymore. This gives way less leverage on what abilities you have or can claim you have, as well as give everyone information.

Also, the money in this game is mostly used for building towards something called a ‘coup’, where you can pay 7 coins to the bank, and force someone to lose a life immediately, no counters whatsoever. Once everyone has been eliminated except one, that person wins the game! Then everyone yells at one another for lying.

This box is just undeniably efficient. It doesn’t need a box insert, stores everything nicely, and is super portable. The cards have a linen feel to them, the cards are made out of some super cardboard with a glossy finish, and the player boards are absolutely golden for newcomers to understand what they can bluff. The characters, like the grizzled Captain to the right, are each SO iconic with the art design and never get mixed up.

But how does this do bluffing right? And… well darn near perfectly. This game handles mind-games, bluffing, and even calling bluffs so well, while also being accessible. The soul of Coup is in the 5 different cards, which can counter each other or have different utilities, whether it be to steal, kill, or get more information. This can make turns super exciting, where if you set up yourself correctly, you can actually bluff anything within reason, especially because you have two facedown cards. This allows for fun different strategies, like going super aggressive early, or playing super passive and pretending you have all the defensive cards. Even choosing to never get money, and just opt to constantly get information by cycling the deck is an option!

The way Coup handles knowledge is great, where the possibility of what opponents could have starts unraveling as people start to lose character cards, letting players slowly deduce what other people have, as there’s only 15 cards in total in the game, and they know 2 in their hand from the start of the game. This makes bluffing more an more intense as the game goes on, especially if you only have 1 life in front of you- that is 1 hidden card as well.

This goes to say that pacing in this game is overall phenomenal, with very fast turns, as players think quickly to avoid suspicion, as well as decisions not being too complicated. To avoid stagnate game states, the card that gives you information is actually doing so in letting you switch character cards with the deck, which is always very fun to play with and around.

The simplicity with just saying one word on your turn, moving your hands, and seeing how others react is just unparallel-ed from our experience, especially seeing how easy it is for newcomers to start winning in their second game. The character interactions and combos are so vast yet simple to understand that newcomers aren’t boggled by it, but to truly understand every single interaction or combo might take a couple of dozen games. Or just don’t overthink it and have fun.

There is nothing bad about it, at all, and our personal scores being only 6/10’s reflect how we’ve played COUNTLESS games of this game in the past with how fun it is, and we still think its fun to play!

You don’t even have to lie to win either! You could pretend to lie, and then smile inside as others squirm to incorrectly call your bluff. Or you can play the game very politically with a bigger group, where everyone just backstabs each other.