Splat! (2005)

The Birthday Party has not been going well. The soup was lumpy and the main course was stodgy and overcooked. Now dessert is served—the table is laden with Chocolate Mousse, Rice Pudding, Cherry Pie, Fruit Salad and so much more. The guests start to grin wickedly…

The object of Splat! is to furiously flinging food at other players while dodging food they are throwing back at you. The more food that hits you, the messier you get. At the end of the game, the cleanest players are allowed to think that they’ve won.

The game uses three types of cards:

Food Cards : Each food card has a special power which takes effect when the food is either eaten, or is thrown at another player and hits. Some of these powers are long lasting while others are instant (e.g. the banana split is vitamin fortified and so increases a players hand size, while the revolutionary cupcakes contain added additives which force you to throw all your food at other players). Food cards are either green (generally beneficial powers) and red (generally not beneficial).

And Then Cards : Event cards which can be played during the food throwing process to impact the course of the game. These cards act as interrupts which provide much of the interactive story telling character of the game (e.g. Amy throws Birthday Cake at Clare but Bob catches it and throws it back at Amy on his next turn). These cards can also be played as dodges to avoid food that is thrown at you.

Object Cards : Throughout the game players may also stand in front of objects (e.g. The Children, The Gnu, Uncle Harry or The Mirror). If a player standing in front of an object dodges then the food hits the object instead and the thrower gets yelled at by either the Host or the Hostess--forcing them to discard all their And Then cards and eat a food (if they have one).

Each player has a 'You' card with 5 hit locations--when food hits someone the thrower rolls to see where (Head, 2 x Arms, 2 x Legs, 1's miss). Food which hits a location that is already messy replaces the previous food.

The Butler (Jeeves) also has a hit location card--players may choose to throw food at him through the game and in addition any food that is thrown which does not hit a player or an object may hit Jeeves instead. Once Jeeves is completely covered with food he chases the players out of the house, ending the game.

Splat! is a reworking of Ed Carter's 1992 food-fight card game, Kersplatt!