Curiosity Killed the Cat ๐นโ If Curiosity Can Kill - Yes It Can.
Transcript
Hey Stella, what you doing?
There's something inside this box.
How do you know?
I don't.
Well, then leave it alone.
But what if it's important?
But what if it's nothing?
What if it's simultaneously important and nothing?
Look, there's literally a warning on this box. Curiosity killed the cat. That could be you that killed Cath.
Yes, but nobody ever talks about the second half, satisfaction brought it back. The satisfied cat.
So, your takeaway is to open the box?
Obviously.
But I mean, you know what's inside. It's a board game.
Yes, but are the components punched? Has somebody already sorted the tokens into little bags?
Hmm, if not, I guess the components would be all scattered.
I need to know. I can't spend the rest of my life not knowing.
We do both have nine of those.
Exactly. I have buffer for mistakes. Curiosity killed the cat. Plays two to four cats with mechanics including bluffing, take that, and set collection. And it's of light complexity. The rules that is, not the people. Welcome to Curiosity Killed the Cat, where you are an occultist cat with nine lives, with questionable decision-making, and with friends who apparently like to lie. Your goal is to collect enough souls depending on player count by surviving rounds and completing cat occult rituals. Basically, ordinary cat behavior. Every player begins the game with nine lives. Sounds generous until your so-called friends become involved.
On your turn, you simply draw one card, look at it secretly, then offer it face down to another player. Cards can be good cards like life, cat burglar, and some rituals, or can be bad like death, the bad ritual, and maybe cat fight. But, and this is important, you can lie. So, perhaps I draw death minus four. Life card.
Hm, you said that far too quickly.
Absolutely. I'm efficient. It's a perfect card for you.
Promise?
Positive.
On our marriage?
Perhaps choose something with less legal significance.
On your board game collection?
How dare you question my honor?
You are very persistent. That's a death card, isn't it?
I find this interrogation hostile. Now, Tarrant has two options. He can accept the card, reveal it, and resolve its effect. Or he can reject it, which costs him one life. But, after rejecting it, he must secretly look at the card, then pass it face down to somebody else. And now he gets to tell them what it is. Truthfully, untruthfully, confidently, begging, threatening, while juggling some random objects, whatever he likes. This is always the case when offering a card. The card keeps traveling around the table until somebody accepts it. If everybody rejects it, it eventually comes back to the player who originally drew it. Me.
So, what are the cards? Life cards restore lives, while death cards remove them. Cat burglar steals a life token. More capacity for life. Cat fight is basically rock, paper, scissors played three times between two players using cards and with a removal of a card at the start. Each time a player loses, they lose three lives. Ouch. Cats and witchcraft rituals go hand in hand, of course. So, here are three rituals that could lose you a life or add a life. And whoever plays the last card that finishes a ritual, they gain a soul and a special power from the ritual. Powers like choosing someone to lose a life instead of you, an extra life when you're about to lose your last life, and one that lets you re-roll dice value when you're gaining or losing life.
Eventually, cats start dropping out of the round like Terrence's trustworthiness. The last player with at least one life remaining becomes the last cat standing and earns a soul. Then, everyone flips their remaining life tokens back to their living side for the next round, with the exception of stolen or sacrificed life tokens. Keep playing round after round until somebody reaches the required number of souls, five, four, or three in a two, three, or four-player game. They win. Probably having learned that curiosity was actually an excellent life choice. I'm going to need nine lives just to survive this friendship.
[gasps]
The game actively encourages table talk. You can bluff, threaten, bargain, beg, and accuse, even if you're already out of the round. You also have skill chips giving you one use powers that let you interfere with your friends' lying nonsense. Such as curiosity lets you peek at a card being offered to you before deciding whether to accept or reject it. Meowtiple doubles the numerical value of a card before you offer it, and scratch that, which can cancel a card's effect. Now, let's scratch a little bit more than just the surface. You're not just judging the card, you're judging why this player chose you, why the previous person rejected it, whether two players are secretly cooperating and whether someone is telling the truth specifically because they know you expect them to lie.
In any case, unfortunately or fortunately, the cute artwork makes me want to accept all the cards given to me. Jared, what are you doing?
There's something in here.
Uh, don't look.
Why not?
Curiosity killed the cat.
You opened it earlier.
Yes, but what if something has changed?
What, in the last 5 minutes?
Exactly.
I mean, it is just a board game box, right?
That's what it wants you to think, hm?
I'm opening this. It's still just a game.
Excellent. So, if you are curious about Curiosity Killed the Cat, back it on crowdfunding.
I knew it was just a game.
Yep, and I know it was impossible for you to resist.