The claim is required
Each action has a public displayed rank chosen by the game. Your opponent always knows the claim, never the hidden card.
Goblin BluffRoyal Field ManualLearn in 60 seconds
The official player handbook
Protect your crown.
Lie beautifully.
A complete guide to claims, challenges, cards, opponents, match settings, royal entrances, side matches—and the tiny civilization making terrible decisions around your table.
5 HP per King5 cards starting hand1 damage per wrong read52 cards plus the Reset Card
The shortest possible explanation
The match in four beats
The game chooses what your card must appear to be. You choose whether the claim is true.
- 01
Draw
At the start of your turn, draw one card. Keep your real hand secret.
- 02
Place
Drag any card from your hand to the table. It is displayed as the required claim.
- 03
Judge
The opponent chooses to Believe or Call Bullshit without seeing the real card.
- 04
Pay
A correct call hurts the liar. A wrong call hurts the challenger. Reach zero HP and lose.
CLAIMK♛
→
REAL CARD4♠
Legal bluff example
You play a Four. The table claims King.
The opponent sees “King,” not the Four. Playing the wrong rank is allowed—it is the point of the game.
Core rules
Truth is optional. Consequences are not.
Everything that can change who wins is contained in this loop. Presentation never changes the ruling.
Illustration: a King claim challenged and revealed as a Four.
Any hand card may be played
Matching the claim tells the truth. Playing another rank creates a lie. Suit currently has no rule effect.
Believe keeps the truth hidden
The card enters the discard without a reveal. Belief does not confirm honesty and cannot be corrected later.
Bullshit forces a reveal
If real rank differs from the claim, the liar loses damage. If it matches, the challenger loses damage.
The Kings decide the match
Classic Kings have 5 HP. A standard accusation deals 1 damage. The first King reduced to zero loses.
Full turn flow
What happens, in exact order
The two sides follow the same legal card rules. Only the response interface differs.
Your turn
Draw → choose → place → wait
- You draw one card.
- The current claim appears at the top of the table.
- Drag one real card into the central played-card area.
- The AI evaluates only public information and its own hand.
- Believe hides the card; a call reveals it and resolves damage.
- The resolved card enters the discard, then the AI turn begins.
Enemy turn
Watch → judge → respond
- The AI draws and legally selects from its own hand.
- Its card lands with only the required claim visible.
- Choose Believe or Call Bullshit.
- A call reveals the actual rank and immediately determines who takes damage.
- The card is discarded and your next draw begins.
What the reveal showsYour decisionWho loses HP
Real rank ≠ displayed claimCall BullshitThe liar
Real rank = displayed claimCall BullshitThe caller
Card remains hiddenBelieveNobody
Bluffing school
Make reads, not guesses
There is no perfect call. Strong play combines card evidence, opponent tendencies, and the cost of being wrong.
Use your own hand
If you hold several copies of the claimed rank, fewer remain available to the opponent. That makes their claim less comfortable.
Spend HP deliberately
At high HP, a risky information-gathering call can be affordable. At 1 HP, a marginal call can end the match.
Track public reveals
Only revealed cards are certain. Believed cards remain unknown, so never count an accepted claim as proven truth.
Break your rhythm
Repeated truth-then-bluff patterns become readable—especially to Memory Mike and the Royal Judge.
Truth can look suspicious
An honest face-card claim may seem too convenient. Against frequent callers, truth is sometimes the strongest trap.
Believe is an active choice
You do not need to challenge every doubtful card. Preserve HP when the evidence is weak or the opponent benefits from baiting calls.
The royal opposition
Six personalities, not six health bars
Every AI follows the same rules and information boundary. Personality changes judgment, risk, memory, and bluffing—not cards, damage, draws, or HP.
HH
The gentle read
Honest Harold
Trusting, predictable, and reluctant to accuse. Bluff sparingly against him; he gives honest claims more room.
SS
The frequent caller
Suspicious Steve
Sees lies everywhere. Feed him a few honest claims and let his suspicion cost him HP.
MM
The card counter
Memory Mike
Tracks public reveals and grows dangerous late. Change patterns before he builds a clean read.
GG
The risk taker
Gambler Greg
Bluffs boldly and reacts to streaks. Expect volatility instead of a stable threshold.
GK
The chaos pick
Goblin King
Wild, noisy, and strategically questionable. Probabilities help, but certainty is a trap.
RJ
The precise one
Royal Judge
Calm and probability-led. Weak tells rarely move the Judge; card evidence does.
The AI may know
Its own hand · displayed claims · revealed cards · public HP · discard count · deck size · completed side matches.
The AI never knows
Your hidden hand · your unrevealed played card · secret deck order · future random outcomes.
Build your match
Rulesets, modifiers, and arenas
Casual Mode lets you choose the opponent, arena, base rules, and compatible optional modifiers.
The standard duel
- Deck
- 52
- Hand
- 5
- HP
- 5
- Damage
- 1
A compact match
- Deck
- 32
- Hand
- 4
- HP
- 4
- Reveal
- 0.8s
For memory players
- Deck
- 52
- Hand
- 6
- HP
- 8
- AI think
- 0.4s
Optional modifiers
A second cosmetic goblin burst follows every public claim.
Shorter AI thinking and faster presentation.
Kings begin with twice the selected ruleset HP.
Kings begin with half the selected ruleset HP.
Bullshit outcomes deal twice the selected ruleset damage.
Patterns are recorded, but no side match interrupts play.
No side matches and much more cosmetic comedy.
A neutral modifier with no additional adjustments.
Fast turns, double damage, double goblins, and frequent comedy.
ArenasTavern · available presentationCastleForestDungeonPirate ShipVolcano
Castle, Forest, Dungeon, Pirate Ship, and Volcano are selectable placeholders that currently use the Tavern table presentation.
Beyond the core duel
Special systems, clearly separated
These systems add presentation or bounded interruptions. The bluff result remains authoritative.
01
Special card
Reset Card
One Reset Card is appended to a match. When played, it consumes itself, combines the undrawn deck and discard, clears revealed-card and pattern history, resets card ownership and claims, then shuffles the rebuilt deck.
The fire, drunk goblin, flask, panic, and bucket business is presentation after the reset has already completed.02
Pattern
Matching Square
A Matching Square occurs when each player’s latest two real cards share one rank across all four cards. The game detects the authoritative ranks after normal resolution and consumes that pattern history.
This can trigger the currently implemented side match unless No Side Matches is active.03
Side match
Russian Roulette
Six chambers, one hidden loaded chamber, alternating identical trigger pulls. Neither side knows the loaded position. The losing King takes the side match’s damage, then the paused card turn resumes exactly where it stopped.
Poker, Coin Flip, Dice Roll, Reaction Test, Arm Wrestling, Chess, Memory, and Rock Paper Scissors are future placeholders—not active modes.Face-card presentation
When royalty lands,
the table notices.
Royal actors are brief, pooled presentation characters. They never replace the played card or delay the authoritative result.
Jack
Acrobatic entrance · 11 goblins
Queen
Graceful entrance · 12 goblins
King
Sword salute · 13 goblins
Ace Champion
Golden entrance · 14 goblins
The Goblin Engine
A civilization that happens to surround a card game.
Goblins inspect, carry, follow, drop, watch, celebrate, panic, misunderstand, and recover. Their little stories can combine, but they always yield visual priority to cards, Kings, and UI.
- Displayed value controls spawn count—not the hidden card.
- Up to 240 pooled goblins can be active without constant creation.
- Every behavior is cosmetic and cannot affect who wins.
- Reduced Motion removes excess bob, lean, and emergence movement.
Public claim → crowd size
How many goblins leave the card?
Only the displayed claim crosses into the Goblin Engine. A hidden Four shown as King produces thirteen goblins.
A1422334455667788991010J11Q12K13
Controls
Made for clear decisions.
- Play a card
- Drag from Your Hand to the central table.
- Answer a claim
- Select Believe or Call Bullshit.
- Skip presentation
- Space, Enter, or the equivalent accept control where supported.
- After a match
- Restart Match or return to Main Menu.
Player settings
Tune the table to you.
- Display
- Fullscreen, window size, VSync, and frame-rate cap.
- Audio
- Master volume.
- Accessibility
- Reduced cinematic motion and optional screen shake.
- Persistence
- Settings are saved between launches on this device.
Questions from the table
Rules clarifications
The answers below describe the current playable build, not future campaign or multiplayer plans.
Can I play a card that does not match the claim?+
Yes. That is the central bluff. Any legal card from your hand may be placed; the opponent sees only the required claim until a challenge reveals it.
Does suit matter?+
Not in the current core rules. Suits identify physical cards, while rank determines whether a claim is truthful.
Does Believe prove the card was honest?+
No. A believed card stays hidden and enters the discard pile without revealing its real rank.
Can the AI see my hidden card?+
No. Opponents know their own hand, public claims, revealed cards, HP, deck and discard counts, and public match history only.
Do goblins change the result?+
Never. Goblins cannot deal damage, alter cards, change turns, influence AI, or affect randomness. They are a cosmetic civilization.
What happens when the deck runs out?+
The existing discard is reshuffled as needed. Hidden cards remain hidden information unless another system legitimately revealed them.
Are every arena and side match finished?+
No. Tavern is the current authored arena. Several arena and side-match names are extension placeholders and are clearly marked as future content.