The cards never lie. Everyone holding one does.

A night at the back-room table. Raw creature cards come up as lots, one at a time, and the only light in the place is the candle on your cursor.

Read the card. A card is three things: its kind, which is the picture, and its power, which is the number and its health.  All are honest. What nobody can see is what you mean to do with it.

Buy well, not much. The house takes its cut on every lot whether you bid or not. You can’t sit the night out. You can only choose what to sit out of. Losing a bid costs nothing — only the winner pays. Most chips wins the night.

Then say what you’re holding. Your cards go into the lanes face down, and you announce each one — the truth, or any other card the table can see you hold. Announce your worst, send your best, and let them prepare for the wrong fight.

Or call the liar. Point at one seat before the flip. Right, and their lies burn and they pay you. Wrong, and your whole board turns face up while the table watches.

The lanes flip together. The ring beats the number. Cards wear out where they stand, and nothing you buy tonight leaves with you — you bring only what you learned about the people across the felt.

Bring your own table: host a night, read the six-letter table word to your friends, and talk at the felt while you play. Or take a night off the house and the stranger’s chair opens — matchmaking gathers up to four players live. Same candle, same rules. Empty chairs go to the house.

Made for Brackeys Game Jam 2026.2 — theme: TRUST NO ONE.

Credits: parlor table by Danubis/One Dad Studio modelled for this game. Kenney (kenney.nl, CC0) · Quaternius (CC0) · KayKit by Kay Lousberg (CC0) · in-house audio, Kindled Games. Music: “Deadly Roulette” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0. Wall art: public domain — Coolidge, Caravaggio, Cézanne, de La Tour. No generative AI.