Rule the Animal Kingdom in Awimbawé, and Avoid Peppers in Jalape-NO!

The king is dead. Who will succeed him...

Awimbawé presents a duel for the throne of the animal kingdom, with each player trying to use the animals of the savannah to win more crowns than their rival while avoiding the pack of hyenas. Win two rounds to become the new king or queen of the savannah.

The card deck consists of 28 cards: 24 animal cards numbered 1-6 in four suits, and four eagle cards in a fifth suit. Shuffle the deck, then deal four cards separately face down to each player, then deal four cards face up on top of these cards (to create four piles of two cards), then split the remaining cards so that each player has a hand of six cards.

On a turn as the lead player, you can play any of your available cards, whether one in your hand or one face up on the table. The opponent must then play a card of the same suit, if possible. If they can't, they must play an eagle — and if they can't play an eagle, they can play anything. If the two cards played are of the same suit, the higher card wins. If the opponent played an eagle, they can make it flee (placing it in their own scoring pile and ceding the trick) or they can make it fight, winning the trick. If the opponent played off suit, the lead player wins the trick, collects the cards, and leads again. At the end of a trick, if you have a face-down card on top of a pile, reveal this card, making it available for play.

Some of the animal cards have special powers when played:

—The mouse (1) wins the trick when played against the elephant (6) of the same suit.
—The rhinoceros (2) pushes a top card on one of the opponent's piles underneath another pile.
—The cheetah (3) allows the player to decide who goes first on the next trick, with a second played cheetah taking precedence.
—The hyena (4) is worth lots of points, but if a player collects all four hyenas, they lose the round.
—The snake (5) blocks the opponent from playing one of their available cards for their next play, whether a face-up card or a card chosen at random from their hand.


The round ends when either a player collects their fourth hyena (losing the round immediately) or all cards have been played. In the latter case, count the crowns on collected cards to see who has the higher score. The first player to win two rounds wins the game.

In Jalape-NO!, you want to dodge the spiciness to end up with the lowest score possible.

The deck consists of 108 cards, with cards being numbered 1-18 in six colors and with the 1s being peppers. Based on the player count, you use 4-6 colors of cards ranging from 1-9 to 1-18.


At the start of each round, you receive 12 cards in hand, and you must place any peppers on the table in front of you. The lead player in a trick plays any card from their hand or one of their peppers. Each other player must follow suit, if possible, except that you are not forced to play the matching pepper card, should you have it. (However, if you do have it, you cannot play a pepper of another color to this trick.) Whoever plays the highest card in the suit led wins the trick and leads the next trick. If you win a pepper in a trick, place it on the table in front of you; you can play this pepper on a future trick, whether to lead off the trick or to play it on a trick that's already in progress.

As soon as a player has no cards in hand, the round ends. All players add any cards in hand to the cards in front of them, whether peppers or cards claimed in tricks. Each pepper you have is worth 2 points, and each card in the same suit as a pepper you have is worth 1 point. After five rounds, the player with the lowest score wins.