How to Play Salunatics

Game Objective

The goal of Salunatics is to be the first player to finish a round without any character cards in hand. Players take on roles in a themed saloon, using strategy and bluffing to get rid of their cards while dealing with card effects and opponents' challenges.

Setup

1. Character Deck: Shuffle the 36 character cards and deal 5 cards to each player.
2. Dollar Pile: Deal 4 dollar cards to each player.
3. Game Hand: Each player keeps their character and dollar cards together in hand to make it harder for opponents to read.
4. Sheriff: Choose the starting player (for the first game, it’s suggested to pick whoever broke a glass/bottle most recently). They receive the Sheriff card.

Game Flow

The game proceeds in rounds, starting with the Sheriff:

1. Sheriff Plays: The Sheriff plays a card face-up on the table and activates its normal effect (black text).
2. Support the Sheriff: The next player (to the left) plays a card face-down, saying a phrase like "I’m following the Sheriff." They must follow the suit or class of the Sheriff’s card (but can bluff).
3. Challenge: Any player can doubt if the played card actually follows the Sheriff. If challenged, the card is revealed and resolved according to the situations below.
4. Resolution: The play is resolved (see Actions and How to Play for details) and the turn passes to the next player to the left.
5. End of Round: When everyone has played, the round ends. The player with the most dollars becomes the new Sheriff (in case of a tie, the current Sheriff decides).

Actions and How to Play

Character Cards

Each card has:

• Class (10, J, Q, K, A) and suit (♥, ♣, ♦, ♠).
• Normal effect (black text) and bonus effect (red text).

Play Situations

• Situation 1: No one challenges, and the player told the truth → only the normal effect is activated.
• Situation 2: No one challenges, but the player lied → normal effect + bonus are activated.
• Situation 3: Someone challenges, but the player told the truth → challenger loses 2 dollars; accused player activates the normal effect.
• Situation 4: Someone challenges and the player lied → player loses 2 dollars; challenger activates the card’s bonus effect.

Card Examples

• El Mariachi: Normal effect: Draw a card and discard or keep it depending on the suit. Bonus: Give a card to another player.
• Walt Badwood: Normal effect: Lose 1 less dollar in challenges until the end of the round. Bonus: Force a player to draw a card.
• Catty Trick: Everyone shows dollars; the richest loses 1 (normal) or 2 (bonus).

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends when a player has no character cards at the end of a round. In case of a tie:

1. Whoever has the most dollars wins.
2. If the tie persists, the Sheriff wins.
3. Otherwise, the tied players share the victory.

Bankruptcy

If a player doesn’t have dollars to pay, they take 4 dollars from the bank and 1 character card, ignoring pending debts.

Tips to Win

• Use bluffs sparingly: if challenged and caught, you lose dollars and activate the bonus effect for the opponent.
• Cards like Gus Levif help discard characters without drawing attention.
• In competitive mode, each player can only challenge once per round — use this to your advantage.