Middle Child

Goal

3–8 players. The Family works the shared score. Terror-able Children try to exhaust the deck first.

• Boss, The Real Boss, and Helpers: play cards to hit the target exactly.
• Terrors: match ranks to pull cards off the count, or empty the draw deck.

Roles

The first Family seat is the Boss. The second is The Real Boss. Everyone else on the Family is a Helper.

• 3 players: the third seat chooses Family or Terror.
• 4 players: exactly 3 Family and 1 Terror.
• 5–8 players: at least 1 Terror, at most 3.

The deck

3–4 players: one 54-card deck (Heart, Flowers, Ring, Disco, ranks 1–13, plus 2 wilds). 5–8 players: two decks combined.

Everyone starts with 5 cards. Helpers draw one at the start of their turn. Terrors draw a replacement only after a successful match.

Target score

3 → 100 · 4 → 125 · 5 → 150 · 6 → 175 · 7–8 → 200.

Go over the target and you bust to half the target (never below 50).

Turn order

Strict seat order around the table.

House rules

Optional toggles in the lobby.

Snap Match. Terrors have no normal turn. After each Family card they can match, play an action, SLAP!, or pass — then the next Family player goes. A slap hit cancels the card. A miss means they discard one card of their choice.

Double-Down. Two of the same rank in a row opens a slap race. Helper slap first: freeze the score. Terror slap first: the last two cards come off.

Action Cards. It's Too Silent, Reverse Psychology, No Privacy, and Drive Up a Wall. Two decks double the action copies.

• It's Too Silent — after a Terror cancels, the Family can shield so the score stays. A Terror can play it after a Family card to cancel it without a match, or to counter that shield.
• Reverse Psychology — a Terror withdraws the last scoring card when the Family is close to the target. The Family removes the last It's Too Silent block.
• No Privacy — play from your hand to swap a random card with an opposite-role player.
• Drive Up a Wall — the Family plays it as any rank 1–13. A Terror uses it as any rank for matching and blocking.

Play Out Hands. Empty deck → Helpers keep playing remaining cards. Terrors cannot slap, match, or block.