Killer Bunnies

If there is one constant when I go to meet my family, it’s that I will end up playing cards.  Of late, it has been Phase 10, which is fun but takes forever when you play in groups of five or more.  To save time, my mom introduced a new rule that instead of playing all 10 sets, we skip every other set.  I approve very much of the idea.

There is another game that gets played when my brother comes to town and gets hold of a mutual friend: Killer Bunnies.

Killer Bunnies may be the most entertaining game where the rules don’t make sense, and in the end, only a couple of them matter in order to win.  For those who have played before and could never make sense of the rules, or for those who might now be interested to purchase and play this elaborate card game, let me give you a few tips on what the game is about.

Tip #1—Collect carrots.  No matter what else happens in this game, your goal is to collect carrots.  It doesn’t matter how good your strategy is, the wonderful hand you were dealt, or how well you played.  If you don’t have the right carrot by the end of the game, it was all for naught.  Last game, I had seven carrots, my friend had the same, and in the end, it was the player with one carrot that ended up winning the whole thing.

Tip #2—Keep your bunnies alive.  If you don’t have a living bunny by the time all the carrots are collected, you have to give up any carrots you’ve collected to the player with the money.  That ends up being the worst feeling in the world.

Tip #3—Kill bunnies.  Show no mercy.  Use every weapon in your arsenal: butcher knife, kitchen whisk, food processor, dynamite, chainsaw, nuclear strike, or asteroid.  Or go for the subtler methods; sending a drought or forcing a player to feed their bunny can be just as effective a tactic, if not more so, than a full on assault.  Killing bunnies is not just good strategy, it’s also what makes the game so much fun to play.

Don’t worry about feeling overwhelmed about the rest not making sense.  There are a lot of rules, and though I’ve played over a half-dozen times, I still need the gameplay explained to me.  It all makes by the end.  Just keep these three guidelines in mind and go with the rest of it.  Play with a Killer Bunny veteran; they’ll guide you through, and just have a blast at all the ridiculousness.  And remember, at the end of the day, you have just as much chance of winning and losing as anybody else.  Skill and experience matters not at the end of it all.