Dynamite: The Game
Dynamite: The Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 110 cards in total:
- 64 letter cards: D-I-N-A-M-I-T-A, two of each letter in each of four colours.
- 40 activity cards:
- 8 Dina cards (two per colour).
- 8 Mita cards (two per colour).
- 8 "±2" cards (two per colour).
- 8 "Change direction" cards (two per colour).
- 8 "No playing" cards (two per colour).
- 4 wild cards.
- 2 detonator cards.
Object of the Game
There are two ways to win a game:
- Be the first player to have no cards left in your hand.
- Form the word "DINAMITA" (DYNAMITE) in your hand.
Warning: if you end your turn with 14 cards in your hand, you lose the game.
Setup
- Shuffle the deck and deal 6 cards face down to each player.
- Place the rest of the deck face down to form the draw pile.
- Turn over the top card of the draw pile until a letter card appears. Shuffle the other cards back into the draw pile. Place the letter card in the centre to start the discard pile.
Turn Structure
If you have a DINA card in your hand, you must play it.
On your turn you may do one of the following:
- Draw one card from the draw pile.
- Draw one card from the draw pile and play one card on the discard pile.
- Play one card on the discard pile.
Important: to play a card, it must be the same card as the top visible card of the discard pile, or match it by colour or symbol.
When you finish one of these options, the turn passes to the next player.
Rules That Must Be Followed
- If someone asks you, you must say how many cards you have in your hand.
- A card may only be played if it matches the top card by colour, symbol, or type of card.
- If you have a DINA card in your hand at the start of your turn, you must play it.
- DINA can only be stopped by MITA (of any colour).
Letter Cards
- D-I-N-A-M-I-T-A: use letter cards to spell the word DINAMITA (DYNAMITE), regardless of the colour of each letter.
Activity Cards
- ±2: the player who plays this card chooses whether the next player draws 2 cards or discards 2 cards at random.
- Draw (+2): the next player draws 2 cards.
- Discard (−2): the next player discards 2 cards at random from their hand.
- Important: this card is cumulative.
- Change direction / Change position: either reverses the direction of play (clockwise / anticlockwise), or swaps your position with another player.
- No playing (single / double): choose a player; that player loses their next turn. The double version makes the next two players lose their turns.
- DINA: when it appears, you must immediately place it face up on the table in front of you. At the start of your turn you must turn over one card from the draw pile. If the colour of the card matches the colour of DINA, DINA explodes: discard DINA, and take all the accumulated cards plus 1 more card from the draw pile. If the colour does not match, the count accumulates and passes to the next player.
- MITA: the only card that can defuse the powerful DINA. Use this card to soak all the dynamite so that it does not explode. Any colour of MITA defuses any colour of DINA. A MITA cannot be played to put out a DINA that was placed during that same turn.
- Swap card / Swap hand: choose either to exchange your entire hand with another player, or to give that player a card of your choice and have them pick one card at random from your hand.
- Wild card: becomes any other card (activity or letter) in the game, except a detonator.
Special Cards
- Detonator: at the start of the game, assign it the effect you want. The same effect applies to all players for the whole game.
Game Modes and Variants
- By games (the best of): win the best of X games (X = 3, 5, 7...).
- By points (only one can remain): the player who reaches X points loses (X = 200, 300, 400...).
- DINA and MITA = 0 points.
- Detonator = 0 points.
- Letter cards = 10 points.
- Activity cards = 15 points.
- Wild card = 20 points.
- In pairs (cooperative): either of the other two modes (by games or by points) can be played in pairs. You can help your partner win by making opponents discard or draw cards. Seating for pairs alternates between partners: 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B...
Colour-Blind Mode
Dinamita is adapted for colour-blind players. The page shows a symbol for each colour. The page's text for these symbols reads only as the colour names "Blue; Orange / Red; Yellow; Green" with no further description, so the symbols themselves are not transcribed here.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have only one card left and it is a "swap card or swap hand", and you play it, who wins? The player who plays the card wins, because the effect would not activate when it is the last card of the game. If the players agree before the game, they may change this.
Can the +2 total come back to you after you have played your last card? No. When you play your last card the game ends. If the players agree before the game, they may change this.