Narabi

About this board game

Narabi is a cooperative card game for 3–5 players that plays in about 15 minutes. Players work together to arrange numbered cards in numerical order while communicating without revealing the rules hidden on their cards.

At the start of each round, players receive 3–4 cards. Each card shows either a number from 0 to 9 or a blank, and each is held in a sleeve containing a private swapping rule. These rules determine which other cards it can be exchanged with, such as a red card, an even-numbered card, or a card with a higher number.

You may inspect every rule on your own cards, but you cannot tell the other players what those rules say. On your turn, you must use one card’s rule to swap it with another player’s card. When you receive a new card, you can look at its rule, while someone records each move on a chart.

Communication is limited but important. You can suggest moves and ask questions, with other players responding only “yes” or “no” without identifying their card rules. Blanks count as 0 and as an even number when determining whether a swap is allowed, adding another detail for the group to track.

To win, arrange all the numbers in numerical order, ignoring blanks, in either clockwise or counterclockwise order before the 25th move. Your team’s result ranges from “Great” and “Good” to “Horrible,” depending on how many moves you needed. If you fail to finish in time, the result is worse than horrible.

Narabi also includes an expert mode: players cannot speak at all, and a player’s swap cannot be undone on the next turn.