At a glance
| The box game | On Table Party | |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 2–5 (original edition) | 2–8 |
| What you need | The 56-card deck | A phone each |
| Winning | Last player who hasn’t exploded | Last player standing |
The goal
Be the last player who hasn’t exploded.
Setup
- Take out the 4 Kitten cards and the 6 Defuses.
- Give each player 1 Defuse. Shuffle the rest and deal 7 cards each, so everyone holds 8.
- Shuffle 1 fewer Kitten than there are players into the deck, plus 2 of the spare Defuses (just 1 in a five-player game). Remove the rest.
- Put the deck face down in the middle as the draw pile.
How a turn works
- Play as many cards as you like, or none, following each card’s instructions.
- Then draw the top card to end your turn.
- If you draw a Kitten, show it. Play a Defuse to survive and secretly put the Kitten back anywhere in the deck. With no Defuse, you’re out.
- Skip ends your turn without drawing. Attack ends it without drawing and makes the next player take two turns.
- See the Future shows you the top 3 cards. Shuffle shuffles the draw pile. Favor makes a player give you a card of their choice.
- Nope stops any action except a Kitten or a Defuse. Anyone can play it at any time, even on someone else’s turn.
Scoring and winning
- There are no points. Each Kitten knocks out one player, and the last player left wins.
- The draw pile never runs out first, because it always holds enough Kittens for everyone but one.
- There’s no hand limit and no minimum. Run out of cards and you simply draw again at the end of your next turn.
Combos and variants
Two of a kind
Play any two cards with the same title as a pair to steal a random card from another player.
Three of a kind
Play three matching cards and name the card you want. If that player doesn’t have it, you get nothing.
Attacks stack
If you’re attacked and play an Attack yourself, the next player takes your remaining turns plus two more.
Faster 2–3 player game
Before adding the Kittens, remove about a third of the deck at random.
Playing Ruff Luck on Table Party
Ruff Luck is Table Party’s version: free in the browser, with everyone on their own phone. A round goes like this.
- Everyone starts holding eight cards, one of which is a Squeaky Bone.
- On your turn, play as many cards as you like — or none at all.
- Then draw one card, and that ends your turn.
- Draw a Bad Dog and you are out — unless you spend a bone, and then you hide that dog back in the deck wherever you like. Nobody sees where.
- Skip and Attack end your turn without drawing one. Attack makes the next player draw twice.
- Sniff Ahead shows you the next three cards. Favour takes a card off somebody. Shuffle buys you a fresh deck.
- Two matching mutts steal a card at random. Three let you ask for one by name — and you get nothing if they have not got it.
- Down, Boy! cancels any card just played — from any seat, the moment it lands. A second Down, Boy! cancels the first.
- There is one fewer Bad Dog than there are players, so the game only ends one way: last dog standing.
- A turn clock runs by default. Go quiet and the table draws for you — the host can lengthen it or switch it off.
- The Big Bad Dog expansion is off until the host switches it on. It adds Reverse, Sic ’Em, a wild Stray — and one dog no bone can save you from.
What’s different here
- Ruff Luck is Table Party’s own game with its own cards: Bad Dogs in place of the Kittens, a Squeaky Bone for the Defuse, and Down, Boy! for the Nope.
- Up to 8 players can play, each from their own phone.
- A Down, Boy! can come from any seat the moment a card lands, and the app keeps the timing fair.
- An optional expansion adds Reverse, Sic ’Em (a targeted attack) and a Big Bad Dog no bone can save you from.
The fiddly bits on Table Party
The deal
Eight cards each, one of which is a Squeaky Bone. The Bad Dogs and the spare bones are shuffled in after the deal, so nobody can start the game holding one.
Ending your turn
You end your turn by drawing one card. Skip and Attack end it without drawing at all, and Attack makes the next player draw twice instead of once.
The bone
It answers one Bad Dog and is then spent. You put the dog back into the pile yourself, at whatever depth you like, and nobody is told where.
The Down, Boy! window
Every played card sits in the open for a few seconds so any seat holding a Down, Boy! can cancel it. They stack, and an odd number of them means the card never happened.
The turn clock
The host sets 30, 45 or 60 seconds a turn, or no clock at all. When it runs out the table draws for whoever has gone quiet, so a phone in a pocket cannot end the evening.
The official rules
For the publisher’s own wording, read the official rules from Exploding Kittens. Table Party is independent and isn’t affiliated with Exploding Kittens.
Questions about Ruff Luck
How many Kittens go in the box game’s deck?
One fewer than the number of players: 3 in a four-player game, 2 in a three-player game.
Can you Nope a Defuse?
No. A Nope stops any action except a Kitten or a Defuse.
Do you have to play a card on your turn?
No. You can play nothing and just draw. Saving cards early, while the odds of exploding are low, is often the right call.
Is Ruff Luck free?
Yes. Every game on Table Party is free, with no accounts, no adverts and nothing to buy.
How many people do you need for Ruff Luck?
Between 2 and 8. Below 2 there are not enough of you for the game to work.
Do we need to download anything?
No. One person opens the site and starts a room; everybody else joins by typing the room code on their own phone. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.
Can we play Ruff Luck over a video call?
Yes. Share the room code in the chat and play with the call running — everything private stays on each player’s own phone.
Play Ruff Luck online
Free, in the browser, with everyone on their own phone.