Or, well, it isn’t so much a Knuckle Sammich as a Kobold sammich or just a non-descript sammich… but that doesn’t sound as cool, so Knuckle Sammich it is!
In Knuckle Sammich, everyone is a Kobold, trying to eat the most sammiches without getting eaten by your friends (oh yeah, did I forget to mention that Kobolds have cannibalistic tendencies?) and serving King Torg (“All Hail King Torg!”). Because Kobold paws are quite small and don’t have opposable thumbs, they can only hold one card at a time, so when they draw a card at the beginning of their turn they must immediately play one of their two cards.
Cards have five important parts. There’s the meat, the flavor, when in activates, what it does, and the footnote. Meat is only really important if a card someone plays specifically says so. The numbers range from -1 to 13, and there are also variables such as how many beverages are on the table or how many sammiches you’ve eaten. Flavor can be chicken, bacon, beer, Kobold, baby, pretzel, everything, and, if you have the Kickstarter special, pickle. Again, these only really matter if a card brings it up.
Cards can activate in three different locations: In Your Paw, When Played, or On Your Plate (your plate is the pile of cards you’ve played). In Your Paw cards react to what someone does while you’re holding the card. There’s a card called Cursing where if one of the players swears while you have Cursing in hand you eat them. Eating a Kobold means that they place their paw face-down on their plate and are out for the rest of the round, and you get to eat a sammich. When Played is exactly what it sounds like, and On Your Plate means that it is the most recent card you have played (so, at the top of your plate).
Obviously, the most important part of the card is what it actually does. I used the example of Cursing earlier for In Your Paw. A common card is Fork, where you guess a Kobold’s flavor, and, if you’re right, you get to eat them. While the action is the most important part of the card, it’s also pretty straightforward, so I’m just going to move on. My favorite part of the card is definitely the footnote. Occasionally it’s something useful, like “You both get a sammich if you tie,” but most of the time it’s just funny. Some of my personal favorites are, “You would be surprised at what a Kobold considers soup,” “Kobolds have been known to not stop eating when they reach the plate,” “Kobolds will never understand why ‘adventuring parties’ don’t have a buffet,” “Random horrible death is the leading cause of death in Kobolds. Being lunch is in the top ten though,” and “#Drunk #Yolo #BeerAndPretzels #AllHailKingTorg.” I was shocked to find out that not all cards are fortunate to have a footnote. Oh, and I suppose the title of the card is mildly important. But not important enough for me to actually talk about.
A round ends when there is one Kobold left or when all Kobolds have been eaten, a card says to end the round or the deck (“Kitchen”) runs out and a Kobold needs to draw. The survivor (if there is one) and King Torg (“All Hail King Torg”) each eat a sammich before everyone is brought back to life, their paws and plates discarded, and a new round started. The game ends when the Pantry is out of sammiches, or if King Torg (“All Hail King Torg”) eats nine sammiches, automatically winning the game. Whichever Kobold (King Torg [“All Hail King Torg”] included) has the most sammiches by the end of the game wins and is crowned The Victor of Lunch! All Hail King Torg!
