Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Theme 5 Alive is an abstract card-playing game. Goal Each player starts with 5 lives.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Theme 5 Alive is an abstract card-playing game. Goal Each player starts with 5 lives. The winner is the last player to have any lives left. Gameplay Each player in turn plays a card from their hand. 'Normal' cards have a face value, and the aim is not to play a card that takes the running total above 21. If you do, you lose a life. If you manage to play the last card from your hand without taking the total above 21, then every other player loses a life. As well as 'normal' cards, there is also a variety of 'wild' cards that perform special actions, like resetting the running total, skipping the next player, reversing the direction of play or causing other players to draw extra cards. Components 108 cards & instructions Re-implemented by: Boom-O