KADO Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• The Cards
• Setup
• Scoring
• How to Play
  • Step 1 — Deal Cards
  • Step 2 — Challenge the Gifter
  • Step 3 — Organize Your Grid
• End of the Game
• Duel (For 2 Players)
• Credits

Components

• 65 cards and 4 player aids
• 1 rulebook

The Cards

Every KADO card shows three pieces of information:

1. Gift — one of five gift types: socks, puzzle cubes, teddy bears, flowers, or chocolates. The gift type on a card decides how much a line can be worth.
2. Ribbon — one of five ribbon colors: purple, orange, green, blue, or red. The ribbon color decides how much a column can be worth.
3. Value — a point value from 1 to 5 printed on the card.

Setup

• Shuffle the full set of KADO cards into a single face-down deck.
• Give each player a player aid.
• Pick a starting player. The youngest player at the table is a fine choice.

Scoring

Scoring shapes how you should be placing cards throughout the game, so it helps to understand it before you begin.

• Each line: Pick one gift type present in that line — usually whichever gift type appears most often there, though not always — and add up the value of every card of that gift type in the line. That total is the line's score.
• Each column: Check whether all three cards in the column share the same ribbon color. If they do, the column scores the value of its highest-value card. If the ribbon colors don't all match, the column scores nothing.

In the rulebook's worked example, a finished grid scores 14 points on its top line, 5 and 6 points on the two lines below it split across two columns, and a further 5 points on the rightmost column, for a total of 30 points.

How to Play

A game runs for 12 turns, each made up of three steps. Every turn, each player adds one new KADO card to their grid. One player acts as the gifter each turn, dealing that turn's cards; the gifter role passes clockwise around the table so everyone gifts once per round of turns.

Step 1 — Deal Cards

The gifter takes the deck and privately looks at the top card, without letting anyone else see it. They then hand that card face down to any player of their choice — including themselves.

The gifter repeats this for the next card in the deck, again looking at it alone before passing it face down to a player of their choice, until every player (the gifter included) is holding exactly one face-down card. Each player may look at their own card at this point, but keeps it hidden from everyone else.

Step 2 — Challenge the Gifter

Starting with the player to the gifter's left and moving clockwise, each player in turn decides whether to challenge the gifter. If no one wants to challenge, or every challenge attempted this turn fails, play moves straight to Step 3.

To challenge, a player must publicly guess both the gift type and the ribbon color of the card the gifter chose to keep for themselves.

• If the guess is right on both counts, the challenge succeeds: the challenger and the gifter reveal their cards and swap them. A successful challenge ends the turn immediately, and play moves on to Step 3.
• If the guess misses on either count, the challenge fails, and the right to challenge passes to the next player in turn order.

After a failed challenge, it's worth remembering which gift/ribbon combinations have already been ruled out — that knowledge narrows down future guesses at the gifter's card.

Perfect guess bonus: landing an exact challenge — correctly naming both the gift type and the ribbon color — earns more than the swap. After revealing and swapping cards, the successful challenger also draws the new top card of the deck without looking at it and adds it face down next to their grid. Every such bonus card sitting beside a player's grid is worth 2 points at the end of the game.

Step 3 — Organize Your Grid

Once every player is holding their card for the turn, each player adds it to their own personal grid, following these placement rules:

• The very first card you place can go anywhere in front of you.
• Every card after that must be placed orthogonally next to (directly above, below, left, or right of) at least one card already in your grid.
• Your grid can never exceed 3 lines and 4 columns — every card you place must fit inside that space.
• Once a card is placed, it stays there; cards cannot be moved or rearranged later.

End of the Game

The game ends once the 12th turn is complete. At that point every player has a full grid of 3 lines and 4 columns of KADO cards. Tally each player's score: the value scored by each line, the value scored by each column, and 2 points for every bonus card earned from a perfect guess during the game. Whoever has the highest total wins.

Duel (For 2 Players)

With only two players, the gifter's deal changes slightly: the gifter still deals one card to each player, but may also set aside 1 extra card as a discard. Any card discarded this way is kept face down and set apart from play until the game ends — it does not enter anyone's grid. Players still alternate being the gifter, and every other rule (dealing, challenging, organizing your grid, and scoring) works exactly as in the standard game.

Example: Albertine looks at the first card and decides to give it to the other player. She then looks at the second card, but it isn't the gift she was hoping for, so she discards it face down. She then draws the third card, which — since there is no one else left to give it to — she must keep for herself.

Credits

• Designer: Antoine Bauza
• Illustrator: Gorobeï
• Layout: Supacat Axel Mahé
• Lead Playtesters: Albertine Ralenti, Esteban Bauza, and the team at La Cafetière
• English Translation and Proofreading: Joseph Philipson and Lucy Galbraith for The Geeky Pen