A Sci-Fi Western

Thousands of years in the future, A robot gang is waiting out the rain at their local saloon. As the hours tick by, a pair of 'cowboys' pull up chairs and settle in for a game of 'Showdown'. Surely these hot headed and cocky criminals will play with respect and take losing with the highest standard of sportsmanship.

Bluffing and Betting without Gambling

Bet against each other to try and flip as many cards as you can without revealing a deathly HIT card. Set traps for your opponent by tricking them into betting high knowing full well that you'll put your hit on top of your stack, although hopefully they don't call your bluff and let you flip your own cards.

Play it at Home!!

Using the following rules, you can use your own deck of playing cards to play Showdown against a friend at home!

Materials:

• 2x Ace playing cards (Hit)

• 2x Number 3 Playing Cards (Beartrap)

• 2x King playing cards (Blank)

• 2x Queen playing cards (Battery)

• Energy tally (App on phone or pen & paper)

Goal:

Win by eliminating your opponent through getting their energy to 0 or having them lose all their cards.

Set Up:

Deal both players a Hit, Beartrap, Blank and Battery card. It's important to keep these hidden from your opponent. Designate areas for both individual stacks and a 3rd for the river stack. Create a health tally starting with 10 and never going above 10. Decide who goes first then start playing! Starting the round in the stacking phase!

Stacking Phase:

Players take turns stacking a single card from their hand on top of their individual stack face down. After both players have had their first turn, players then have the added option to start the betting phase by saying the first bet. If you have no more cards to stack from your hand you must start the bet.

Betting Phase:

Once the betting phase has started you can no longer stack cards and must raise your opponent's bet or fold and let them start the flipping phase.

• Raising: you raise by saying aloud the amount of cards you wish to flip during the flipping phase, you cannot bet higher than the amount of cards in all 3 stacks and unless you are starting the betting phase, you must bet higher than your opponents previous bet.

• Fold: If you do not wish to bet higher than your opponent, you may fold and allow your opponent to flip cards equal to the amount they bet during the flipping phase.

Flipping Phase:

The player that bet the highest amount will now get to flip cards. Starting with your own stack, flip cards over from the top, taking on their effects and flipping more cards. Once you've finished your own stack you can move onto flipping cards from the top of your opponents stack and the river in any order.

Once you've flipped over enough cards to equal the amount you betted on during the betting phase without revealing a Hit card, you end the round and the player who wasn't flipping cards losses the round. If during the flipping phase your energy reaches or drops below 0 you immediately lose the game.

Card Effects:

• Ace / Hit = Stop flipping cards and lose the round

• Number 3 / Beartrap = Lose 3 energy

• King / Blank = No effect

• Queen / Battery = Gain 1 energy

Ending the Round:

At the end of the round players collect their cards from their individual stacks and puts them back into their hands. the loser of the round takes a random card from their hand and shuffles into the river. You can now start a new round alternating who starts the stacking phase.

The River:

The river is a 3rd stack that players add their lost cards too, shuffling and stacking face down at the end of a round. Players can include cards from the river in their bet and once they've finished flipping their own stack, they can flip from the river, alongside their opponents stack. Cards in the river can never be taken back and if a player adds their last card to the river then they immediately lose the game!