Sloths vs Kraken is, perhaps appropriately, a very quick game. However, the mechanics of the competition aren’t quite what the name implies. Instead, players use Sloth cards to prevent their opponents from spelling the word KRAKEN, while racing to build the word themselves.
Players are dealt six cards. As a result, it’s entirely possible to win on the initial deal, if you happen to start the game with all six letters of KRAKEN. Otherwise, players take turns playing cards, whether those be actions or letters. “Playing” a letter at this stage in the game means discarding one and redrawing. Similarly, any action that takes cards from someone’s hands requires that they immediately redraw, so they continue to have six cards. Any player that has five letters of KRAKEN must yell (or speak at a reasonable volume) “Ahoy!” or else they forfeit their hand and have to draw a new one.
In our case, I started with five of the six necessary letters, reversed someone else’s theft, stole the letter I needed, and won before my first turn. On the one hand, it was a perfect length for the time we had to play it in; on the other, victory relied heavily on luck of the deal. Is that the kind of game you want to play? This, I can’t answer.
Just wondered if your version states the rule “Similarly, any action that takes cards from someone’s hands requires that they immediately redraw, so they continue to have six cards”?
The rules here state “you must always end your turn with 6 cards”, seems to suggest you and not everyone else.
The only other rule is “When two or more players need to pick up from the ‘pick up’ pile, the player whose turn it was picks up first and so on, in the direction of play”. As far as I can tell this rule only activates when an action card states other players need to pick up. The steal cards do not state this.
Apologies for the wait! I’ve acquired a copy of the rules and it looks like you’re correct; we must’ve been playing a house rule. Thank you for asking!