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?
Kobayakawa is a game of bluffing and deduction. In this stylish new game from Jun Sasaki, components are kept at a minimum - there are only 15 cards, 32 tokens and the start player marker.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Kobayakawa is a game of bluffing and deduction. In this stylish new game from Jun Sasaki, components are kept at a minimum - there are only 15 cards, 32 tokens and the start player marker. The rules are simple: At the start each player is given 4 tokens. In addition 8 tokens are placed in the middle of the table. Spare tokens are set aside. The deck is shuffled and each player is dealt one card face down, an additional card is dealt face up next to the deck (this card is called the Kobayakawa). Each player takes a turn and either: - Draws a card to their hand and discards one of their 2 hand cards face up in front of them. Or - Turns over the top card of the deck to replace the current Kobayakawa. After all players have taken their turns, each must decide if they want to stay in and 'fight' by betting a token. All players that decided to fight reveal their card. The player that has the lowest value card adds the value of the current Kobayakawa to their own card. The player with the highest number (their own card; or their own card + the Kobayakawa) wins the round and they take all the tokens that players bet, plus a bonus token from the middle, they take the start player token for the next round. On the 7th round (when only 2 tokens remain in the middle) the stakes and the bonus are doubled to 2 tokens. After this 7th round the game ends and the player with the most tokens wins the game. Example Round: Kobayakawa: 8 Player A: 9 Player B: Pass Player C: 15 Player D: 12 Player C has the highest card value (15), but Player A is declared the winner as the results of the lowest card (9) and the Kobayakawa (8) is 17.