My kids and their friends love battle card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic, Exploding Kittens, or Adventure Time Card Wars. They not only collect the cards—they make up their own and call it “Game of Derp.” This project is a collaboration with my sons, and we’re pleased to share it with you. (In case you’re wondering, I didn’t know what ‘derp’ meant either, so I queried the boys. They said that it’s an internet term meaning ‘random.’ )

To play the game, you will need (ideally) 40 cards. There are four types of cards. We’ve started your collection here with one of each of the four cards. Each week, we’ll give you two more, plus a template to create your own cards.

Types of Cards

1. Creature cards – are monsters that have a power rating to destroy other creatures. Some have special effects.

2. Equip Creature cards – have a “+” next to the creature’s attack & defense, and attach to another monster card, which allows the Equip creature to gain the attack, defense and the effect of the attached monster.

3. Trap cards – are used as a secret weapon to destroy or eliminate powers.

4. Land cards – are used to boost certain card powers.

Guidelines for Play

For 2+ players.

To win the match, you must defeat/destroy all of your opponents’ cards.

At the start of the game, all players draw 3 cards from the shuffled, mixed card deck. Before each subsequent turn, players draw 1 card.

Hold cards in your hands until you play them. Arrange your cards into “zones” or rows as shown below.

Each player can play up to 1 Creature and as many Land and/or Traps as they want per turn.

If you play all of your cards, draw 3 more cards.

Creatures, Traps, and Land cards have effects which can dramatically change the game.

Creatures can attack once per turn, and if they do, they must attack a Creature with a lower defense rating number (indicated by the shield) than the attacking Creature’s attack rating (explosion). You can use the Creature card to attack as many times in zone 2 until it’s defeated. The defeated monster is moved to the face up pile known as the “graveyard.”

Traps are placed face down in row 3 until you activate one by moving it to row 1 in front of the Creature card it’s defending. Once a Trap card’s effect is utilized, or a creature is killed, both are moved to the graveyard.

This game uses logic that isn’t outlined in these rules or on the cards. For instance, a water bucket card puts out fire cards, and logically can also short out electric cards, or melt witches (see The Wizard of Oz). However, this may leave some things open to interpretation, so there may be disagreements.

Click here to download the first set of cards.

Click here to download Set 2.

Click here to download Set 3.

Click here to download Noël Series Set 4.

Click here to download Set 5. You can now color the cards yourself!

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