A simple but strategic card game where you take control of a clan of penguins and face the wilderness and your competition in an amazingly fun race to victory! Combustible Penguins takes a less than 30 minutes to play, is recommended for 11 plus, and plays well with 3 to 10 players!
Story: Your penguins have lived on the iceberg Icetasia for centuries, but now it is melting away, and the squid is getting harder to catch. In the chaos, the truce that kept them from fighting over their food supply has been broken. The penguins have begun to form clans to protect their resources and control Icetasia!
To further complicate matters, the penguins share a unique trait: they are spontaneously combustible! The penguins get nervous around others and can burn up at any time.
Rules:
Goal: The player with the only penguins remaining is the undisputed winner. If the deck runs out of cards, the player with the highest value of penguins in play wins. If at any time your line is depleted, you must place a card from your hand onto your penguin line or become extinct.
Set up: Shuffle, deal 4 cards to each player. Discard but do not activate event cards, and draw till each player has 4 penguins. Choose 3 Penguins and place them face down in a line. This is your clan of penguins, or penguin line. Whoever has the lowest sum goes first, then the turns go clockwise.
Elimination: If you have no cards in your line at any point, you suffer an extinction event. Play a card in your hand on your line. This keeps your penguin line alive and keeps you in the game! If you have no cards in your line and no cards in your hand, you no longer draw and are eliminated. Events can bring you back.
Turn: Draw a card. Play events immediately, then continue the turn. Draw until you get a penguin. Then choose: discarding a card and activating an ability, OR placing a card on the line, forbearing ability. COMBUST can target opponents’ penguins. Place them onto the discard pile, but DO NOT activate any abilities.
Game End: Do not shuffle the discard pile into the deck.
If you are the last clan left you immediately win the game. If the deck runs out of cards, continue playing until nobody has a hand left. Players with extra cards get more turns. Count the sum of each player’s clan line; whoever has the highest number wins the game!
History of Combustible Penguins
The Spontaniously Combustible Penguin was an odd comedy “zine” I made in elementary school, where I would write silly jokes and songs on a piece of notebook paper and pass it to kids in class. In college, my kickball team was also named Spontaniously Combustible Penguins. Over time, I had an idea for a card game that mixed one of my favorite games, Love Letter, with a game played with my family growing up: skit-skat (or 31 as I’ve learned it is also called.) I’m not sure if that is exactly what I’ve created, but I’m pretty fond of the little penguins!
I started making the game way back in 2018. I had tried to make a few computer games (Plinko anybody?) before, but this was the first time I put effort into a physical game, and learned a lot. You can see the earliest iteration of the games design here: Combustible Penguins Game Preview. I think the best thing I’ve learned is that simplicity is very hard, but an excellent goal. Many times when I’ve made a game before, I’ve always wanted to add more and new things. But subtracting and making a game enjoyable at its very core has polished this game to have a great mix between strategy and luck.
Since then, there has been marriage, COVID, and even a kid! I’ve playtested the game over 1000 times, with over 500 people! I’m finally at a part where I believe the game runs smoothly and am so excited to bring it to Kickstarter!
How Can You Help Combustible Penguins?
If you’re reading this, please go like our Facebook page! You can also join our mailing list to get an email notification when our Kickstarter is live! You can also try out a beta version digitally with Tabletopia for free (bring friends!)
