Calaveras is a poker-style party game based on a popular Mexican game called Viuda. Viuda (which means “Widow” in Spanish) has it roots in the older game of Whiskey Poker, which in turn took ideas from the much older game of Widow Whist; in Widow Whist, an extra hand is dealt to the center of the table (the widow), which players can then use in addition to their own hand. Calaveras takes the general game-play ideas from Viuda, but adds an extra suit and some special cards that make the game much more strategic and appealing to the sensibilities of modern gamers.

Each player receives 5 cards in their hand. 5 cards are also dealt to the center of the table. Before the round begins, in turn order, each player can swap their hand with the cards on the table, turning their cards face up. Once the center cards are revealed, each player in turn order can swap one card from their hand with a card on the table, swap their entire hand with all the cards on the table, or pass. This continues until a player knocks, indicating they want the round to end. After knocking, every other player (except the knocker) gets one last turn, then hands are revealed; the lowest hand then loses one of the three skulls they started the game with (the hands are ranked similar to poker, but with 5 suits rather than 4)

The goal of Calaveras is to be the last player in the game. Each player starts the game with three skull tokens. After each round of play, the player with the lowest hand loses one of his skulls; when a player loses his last skull, he is out of the game. The winner is the last player to still have skulls after everyone has lost theirs.

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