Feiges Huhn! 2024

In the card game Feiges Huhn! ("Cowardly Chicken!"), you have to decide when to step into the ring — and when to tuck your tail and run.

The game consists of a deck of 48 cards, with cards in three colors numbered 1-8 twice. Shuffle the deck, place three cards aside face down, then deal out the rest of the deck evenly, placing any remaining cards in the box. Without looking at their cards, players place them face down in front of themselves.

The start player flips a card into the center. The next player either takes the top card of the discard pile and tucks it under their deck or flips their top card onto the discard pile. If the flipped card is the same color as the top card or the same value or lower, then the player's turn ends; if the flipped card is both a different color and higher than the top card, the player takes all cards in the discard pile, then either tucks them under their deck or places them face down to their side as a point stack. In either case, they flip the top card of their deck to start a new discard pile. (If the discard pile is empty due to a player taking the top card, the next player flips their top card to start it again.)

On a turn, if a player is hesitating over what to do, another player can yell "Feiges Huhn!" at them. If the active player decides to take the top card from the discard pile, the player who yelled gives them the top card of their deck to tuck as well. If the active player flips a card and succeeds, then they give their top card to the yeller, who tucks it under their deck. (If the active player fails, they take the discard pile as normal with no other penalty.)

When a player's deck runs out, the round ends. Reveal the three cards set aside. For each such card in your point stack and your remaining deck, score 1 point; if, for example, the three cards are 5, 5, and 7, and you have one 5 and three 7s, that's 5 points. Each 1 among your cards is worth an additional 1 point, regardless of whether they were set aside.

After three rounds, and the player with the most points is the unluckiest person at the table and (simultaneously) a sad chicken.