Short Fuse™

Each player resides safe and comfortable inside their own bunker, but not for long. You and your rival warlords must battle against the clock in a game of cunning, trickery, and luck. Take turns setting up your enemies for failure, but be careful to avoid the fate you want them to have. In Short Fuse, blowing up is as easy as 1, 2, 3!


Ages 7+ | 3-10 Players | 30 min Play Time


Available for purchase HERE

How to Play

To set up the game, shuffle the deck and deal out six cards to each player. This becomes their hand.

Each turn you follow 4 steps:

  1. Draw - draw one card from the deck

  2. Play - play down one card from your hand, whether you like it or not

  3. Pick - pick a card from someone else's hand

  4. Play - immediately play down the card you picked

Play continues clockwise until there is only 1 player left. That person is the winner.


Types of Cards

There are 4 different types of card in Short Fuse.

  • Normal Cards - These cards, when played, simply activate an effect and are sent to the discard pile.

  • Supply Cards - These cards are played down in your bunker, stored for later activation. There is no limit to how many you can activate from your bunker per turn.

  • Fuse Cards - These cards are played down in your bunker and stay there, slowly bringing you closer to death.

  • Bomb Cards - When you play down one of these cards and you have all 3 fuse cards in your bunker, you blow up. Now you are dead.

**These rules are simplified and designed to give an idea of what playing the game is like. for full, detailed instructions, either refer to your instruction manual or click this link**

Tips & Strategy

Short Fuse is all about outlasting your opponents, and as tensions rise, you need to do everything in your power to bring your enemies closer to the brink of failure - or you can just try as hard as you can to not blow yourself up. Remember, in Short Fuse, one turn can be the difference between life and death.

As the person who designed this game from the ground up, I know a thing or two about strategy. Here are some helpful tips and strategies that should give you an edge against your friends.

  1. Keep track of your opponents. What cards have they picked from others? What cards have they added to their hand from the deck? Knowing anything about your opponents' hands lets you make the best decision when choosing who to pick from

  2. Deal with the biggest threats first. Does someone have a lot of supply cards stored up? Weapons poised, aiming directly at your heart? Kill them first.

  3. Create chaos. When people die, they can give a parting gift of whatever bad cards are left in their hand to any of the remaining players. You can shift the blame they place onto other people - and maybe last a few more turns for the effort. Stay out of the spotlight, and everyone else will kill each other for you.

  4. Know the strategy, beat the strategy. Knowing these tips gives you an edge, even if you don't fully employ them yourself. Try to keep other players from figuring out what you have - keep them off your trail. Be able to recognize when someone seems to know what they're doing - kill them. Immediately.

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