Haven’t gotten a taste of Spicy yet? We highly recommend you check out the hottest bluffing party game around. But what if you’ve already played a ton of Spicy with friends and want to find a way to freshen up the experience? The core game is a ton of fun on its own, and it’s a great starting point for getting new players up to speed. Once you’ve mastered the basics, however, the Spice It Up variant cards (which are conveniently included in the box) are a great way to kick everything up a few notches.
Here’s how they work: simply draw a random Spice It Up card (they have the red backs) and place it face-up next to the draw deck. This card will modify the rules for the rest of the game, which is great if you like adding a little extra chaos and unpredictability to the mix. If you fancy a wilder challenge or are a more advanced player, feel free to add a second variant card into the game at random, too. Here’s a look at each of the six cards and how they impact the gameplay.
Start It Up!
After playing an 8, 9 or 10, you may also declare a 1, 2, or 3. You aren’t allowed to change the spice type, only the spice level. This is handy for forcing a faster reset back into lower spice numbers.
Turn It Up!
You can declare a 6 as a 9 and a 9 as a 6. Neat! Both are in-essence the same. That means if you declare a 9 but actually play a 6 (or vice versa) — and someone challenges you…you’ll still win the challenge. Assuming you played the correct spice suite, of course.
Spice Raider
If you declare a 4, place your hand (or paw) on the spicy stack. Unless your card is challenged by another player, you win all of the cards under your hand (or paw) as soon as the next card is played. After you collect the stack (minus the top card that was just played by another player), the game continues with only the newly played card in the spicy stack.
We Love Chili!
Who doesn’t love a good chili? If you can legally declare a 1, 2, or 3 in any spice, you can declare chili instead of the played card’s spice. This changes the suit of the spicy stack to red chilis. It’s a helpful one if you happen to have a lot of chili cards in your hand. But then again, things can get quite out of hand fast if everyone loves chili a little too often.
Change Your Luck
When you declare a 5, immediately tuck up to 2 extra cards from your hand under your 5 card on the spice stack. Then draw the same number of cards you tucked from the draw deck and put them in your hand. Also, those cards you tucked? They’re not affected by a challenge.
Copy Cat
Ok, this is a bit of a funky one! After another player has played a card, you can copy their turn by declaring the exact same card yourself — even if it’s not your turn, and even if the card you played is actually not the exact same card. Then, gameplay continues with the player to the left of the copy cat. You cannot copy your own turn, but another player can also chime in and copy a copy cat. Pure madness!
Additionally, players can do a special challenge after a copy cat. To challenge a copy cat, simply say “Wrong!” and reveal the challenged card. The copy cat wins the challenge only if both the spice suit and the number played are correct. Otherwise the challenger wins, so take care when copying another player. Note: the challenge doesn’t affect previous copy cats, or the original copied card.
And that’s it! Six cards that add some interesting rule tweaks to the core game. If you haven’t tried the Spice It Up variants yet, it’s a lot of fun!
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