Kombio is a game about speed, memory, and deception. It can be played with either a standard deck of 52 cards or a special deck designed for the game.
Shuffle the deck and deal each player four cards face down. Without looking players arrange their cards into a 2x2 grid in front of them. The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the table.
When all players are ready there is a chance for everyone to view the two cards closest to them in their hand. This is the last time players may view their own cards without using a power card.
Play begins either left of the dealer or with the winner of the last round. The first player turns over the top card of the draw pile and places it face up in the center of the table.
On a player's turn they may take the top card from either the face up discard pile or the face down draw pile. One card in the players hand must be replaced with the card which was taken. There is one, and only one, exception to this rule: if a player draws an action card from the face-down draw pile they may use its power by placing it in the face-up discard pile.
Play continues until a player, on their turn, declares “Kombio!” – indicating that they believe they have the lowest value hand. At this time all other players get one last chance to play. After a player declares “Kombio!” their hand is locked – it cannot be altered by other players and the caller cannot slap cards from their own hand. They may, however, slap cards from other players hands.
Slapping
When a card is discarded through normal play it becomes available for slapping. Any player can grab a matching card from the table and slap it onto the discard pile. Of course it is up to the player to be sure that the card they are slapping is a match. If it is not a match there are penalties to pay!
A successful slap always reduces the number of cards in the slapper's hand. When the card came from another player's hand the slapper may choose one of their own card to replace the one which was slapped.
Slapping is an asynchronous action in Kombio. Anyone may do it at any time and it does not affect the order of play.
When playing strictly penalize actions which reveal information or interfere with the ability to capitalize on information. You may find additional behaviour to penalize, depending on the strength of your relationships with the other players.
| Error | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Peeking at your own card | Your hand is increased by the top card from the draw pile. |
| Revealing someone else's card | Top card of the face up discard pile either replaces a card in the victim's hand or is added to the offender's hand. If the victim takes the card themselves then the card it replaces is added to the offender's hand. |
| Declaring an action card before placing it | Your hand is increased by the top card from the draw pile. |
Distribution of card values in the deck makes a big difference in Kombio gameplay. For instance having too few action cards removes agency from the players, and having too many low-value cards takes away the fun of fighting over that special card everyone is eyeing.
Including the zero and negative one cards is an important aspect of Kombio as it allows players to camoflage their low-value hand.
Distribution Card values range from -1 to 14. There are five cards of each value, save the following exceptions:
Actions
When I play Kombio with a standard deck of 52 cards I use the following values:
** Values**
Actions