The Silver Series

Hello all! I’ve arrived at your doorstep once more, spreading the word of all these lesser-known games that are easy to learn and quick to play. But quick and easy means nothing if they’re not fun, so the games I’ve covered go through a rigorous testing process which include friends, partners, friends’ partners, and partners’ parents. Thus far, the hits have been The Mind, 6 Nimmt!, and Cockroach Poker. This time round, we’ll be playing odds and taking risks in a village infested with werewolves.

Silver Amulet, Silver Bullet, Silver Coin, and Silver Dagger are all fun twists on the same core game. If you’ve played games like Rat-a-Tat Cat or Four Card Golf, then you’ll be familiar with this formula. In a game of Silver, two-to-four players are each dealt a hand of five face-down cards. Each card has a cool character and a number from 1 to 13 on it, and to win we want to be the player with the lowest sum. At the beginning of the game, you get to look at two of your cards. Commit them to memory, because this is the only time you’ll be allowed to do so. On your turn, you can draw a card from the deck, take the top card of the discard pile, or call for a vote. If you draw a card from the deck, you can discard it or swap it with a card in your hand. If you have cards of a kind in your hand, you can swap it for all of those cards! If you take from the discard pile, you can swap it for a card in your hand like you would from drawing, but the card stays face-up, so everyone knows what you’re working with. If you call for a vote, you’re saying “I reckon my hand’s the best.” Everyone else gets one more turn, then we flip our cards and add up the numbers. Some cards have powers if you discard them, some have powers if they’re face-up in your hand, but otherwise that’s the game! And if you have different versions of Silver, you can mix and match the cards to create a deck of your very own.