Complete Rules

Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot (NPZR) is a tactical two-player card game. The object of NPZR is to be the first player to build one each of a ninja, pirate, zombie and robot. You do this by playing your cards to build your own characters, or to prevent your opponent from building theirs. Players can steal cards from each other, and use wild cards to get ahead (or a-leg, or a-torso *groan*)

Take the deck of cards and shuffle them thoroughly. Deal five cards to each player and set the deck within easy reach of both of you. Players take it in turns to draw one card from the deck and then play any card from their hand (which can be the card they’ve just drawn). Each player must draw one and play one card.

To play a card, take it from your hand and lay it on the table in front of you, in such a way as to be able to place other cards above or below it in order to make a complete picture of the character you’re trying to build. An area where a character is being built is called a stack. You may have as many stacks as you like at any one time. You may also play cards on top of each other in a stack. For example, you could play a Zombie head on top of a Ninja head. When cards are on top of each other like that, it is referred to as a pile (in this case, a head pile).

You may play cards on your opponents stacks too, primarily as a way to prevent your opponent from completing stacks. For example, if your opponent had a stack with Ninja legs and a Ninja torso, you could play Zombie legs on the leg pile of that stack, preventing your opponent from completing the stack with one card.

If the head, torso and legs of a stack all match, then you have completed the stack. Take up all the cards in the stack and set them to one side. You have now scored the character for that stack. Once you have scored all four characters, you win!

Once you have completed a stack, you earn a move. Pick any card on any stack and move it to anywhere you like. This is especially useful if your opponent has played an unwanted card on top of one of your piles. You can move a card from one stack to another, between players, and even create a new stack. This move is in addition to playing a card. If a move completes a stack, it earns another move, and thus moves can easily create a game-winning cascade.

There are times when it may be beneficial for you to complete your opponent’s stack. If you do this, your opponent scores that character, but you earn the free move.

There are 8 wild cards. One type is wild for a given character, e.g. it may function as head, torso or legs for a Ninja. The second type is wild for any given position, e.g. it may function as legs for any character. The final wild card is wild for both character and position, and so can be used to complete any stack in any pile.

Wild cards also have the added bonus of being fast cards, which means that you can play them in addition to the normal card you play during your turn. You must always play one regular card in your turn as well, which is the downside of fast cards: you end up having one less card in your hand for every fast card you play, which can be telling late in the game.

When you play a wild card, you must nominate what it is, and it remains that card until it is moved, at which point it becomes wild again. For example, playing a Wild Legs card, you could nominate it to be Ninja Legs. If you place a Robot Torso above it, it is still Ninja Legs. However, if you complete a stack you could move the wild card to make it Robot Legs (you could even “move” it back on to the same stack, if all you wanted to do was change its nomination).

It is perfectly legal to score the same character twice, in order to earn a move. The score does not affect whether you win or lose, as it only matters whether you score each character once. However, using that extra move can be valuable in defeating your opponent!

If the deck runs out of cards, take a note of the stacks that you and your opponent have scored and then shuffle all the cards from those stacks back into the deck.