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Rules

Boom Balloon is a party game of nerve and sabotage. A real balloon is slowly filled by the machine as players take turns. Every action happens by inserting a card into the reader.

Your goal is simple: don't be the player who makes the balloon burst.

What you need

  • The Boom Balloon machine, powered on, with a balloon fitted.
  • The card deck (see The Card Deck for the full catalog).
  • At least two players. A 1 Spieler ("1 player") card exists, but only as a target card — it cannot start a game.

Setting up a game

  1. Shuffle the deck and deal each player 4 cards, face down — this is their hand. The rest of the deck stays face down as a hidden draw pile.
  2. Power on. The 7-segment display shows a dot . when it is ready.
  3. Choose the number of players. Insert one of the 2 Spieler…5 Spieler ("2–5 players") cards. This selects the game size — for example, insert 4 Spieler for a four-player game.
  4. Start. Pull the card back out. Removing it begins the game, and a random jingle plays — either the Beverly Hills Cop theme or the A-Team theme.
  5. Lay out the player cards. Place the 1 Spieler…5 Spieler card in front of each player, one per player, in clockwise seating order. These stay on the table for the rest of the game, so everyone always knows whose player number is whose.

The player cards do double duty

The 2 Spieler…5 Spieler cards choose the game size at startup, and during play the 1 Spieler…5 Spieler cards laid out in front of each player are also used to pick a target for cards that act on an opponent — grab that player's card off the table and insert it.

Taking a turn

On each turn the display shows a P followed by the current player number, so everyone knows whose turn it is.

  1. Choose a card from your hand. The current player picks one of their 4 cards and slides it into the reader.
  2. Resolve the effect:
    • Immediate-effect cards apply at once — the pump inflates or the valve deflates, with a buzzer sound and a display animation.
    • Target cards — Teufelsbote (Devil's messenger), Blockierung (blocking / miss a round), and Weltuntergang (apocalypse) — do not act on you. After playing one, the machine waits for a second card: grab the target player's player card off the table and insert it to choose which player the effect hits.
  3. Pull the card out to advance. Removing the played card clears the action and passes play to the next player.
  4. Draw back up to 4. Before the next player goes, whoever just played draws a new card from the deck, bringing their hand back to 4.

The balloon volume carries over from turn to turn, creeping up or down with each card, until someone makes the balloon burst.

Direction of play

Play normally passes from one player to the next in a fixed order. The Kurswechsel ("change of course") cards reverse the direction of play — so a well-timed reversal can send a nasty situation right back toward the player who set it up.

Winning and losing

Whoever's turn it is when the balloon bursts loses the round.

After a loss the device auto-deflates the balloon. To play again, remove the card from the machine and it restarts for a fresh game.