Hatchet 2013

I hope that I have so far demonstrated that there are many possibilities to be had with a humble deck of 52 cards (the name of this booklet by the way means 52 in Swedish, a language I sporadically try to learn). Be it creative ways to use cards, or interesting timing mechanisms, there are infinite ways to put a deck to use. Some people even hone their dexterity with cards; throwing them with stunning accuracy tens of metres into watermelons, or building houses with a steady hand. While this last game is not a dexterity game and doesn't really borrow heavily from another game, it could be compared to Flowerfall, by Carl Chudyk, where players are trying to drop cards from a height onto others. There is no dropping in Hatchet, but burying other symbols is key.

—description from the designer

This game is part of Femtitva, a collection of 10 games by Scott Huntington that were inspired by popular modern games but can be played with a traditional deck of cards.

In Hatchet, you start by turning the top card face-up from a face-down shuffled deck. Players take turns drawing a card and placing it so it covers face-up pips, with a maximum of one pip for each suit, and only if the entire pip is covered. Points are scored for the number of pips covered (i.e. a maximum of four per turn). Picture cards are not placed but just earn 2 points when turned up. The game ends when the 10th picture card is turned up, and at that point the player with most points is the winner.

—user summary