Zen Master

About this board game

Zen Master is a card game for 3–5 players that plays in about 30 minutes. Also known as Yin Yang or Fifty-Fifty, it challenges players to manage high and low cards across a series of rounds.

At the start of each round, every player has a hand of ten cards, but only nine will be played. This extra card gives players some flexibility as they decide when to commit their cards and when to hold one back.

Each turn, players simultaneously play a card from their hands. The player who plays the highest card receives light tokens, while the player who plays the lowest card receives dark tokens. The number of tokens awarded is determined by a scoring card revealed for that turn.

• Play one card each turn, using nine of the ten cards in hand during the round.
• The highest card claims light tokens and the lowest card claims dark tokens.
• Use the revealed scoring card to determine how many tokens are received.
• Pair and eliminate light and dark tokens before calculating the round score.

When the round ends, players remove pairs of one light token and one dark token from their holdings. A player’s score for the round is the number of tokens left after this cancellation process. After the specified number of rounds, the player with the lowest total score wins.

Compared with its predecessor, Relationship Tightrope, Zen Master adds two notable twists: players play only nine of their ten cards, and scoring cards can award different numbers of light and dark tokens rather than matching amounts. These changes create room for careful card choices and shifting scoring possibilities.