Bucket of Doom Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of Bucket of Doom is to be the first player to collect three Doom cards.

Setup

The players should decide whether they are going to use the white or black side of the Object cards.
Mix up the Object cards. Each player should draw eight Object cards. Add them to your hand so you can see the side that the players agreed to use at the beginning of the game.
Shuffle the Doom cards and place them face down on the table.
Choose a player who will read out the first Doom card. This role rotates throughout the game.

How to Play Bucket of Doom

The player who is reading the Doom card this round draws the top card from the pile. They will read the card out loud to all of the players. They will then place the card face up on the table so all of the players can see it.

Danger Card — For this round all of the players need to find a card from their hand which they can use to escape as a zombie that is surrounded by people with flamethrowers.

All of the players (including the reader) looks through the cards in their hand. They are looking for an Object card that they can use to escape the situation detailed on the Doom card. When you find the card that you want to play, set if face down on the table and wait for the other players.

Choosing a card to play — This player decides to use Men in Black’s Neutralizer in order to make the team with flamethrowers forget they are even there.

Once everyone is ready, the players will take turns explaining their escape plan. You should tell the other players a story about how you will use what is on your card in order to escape the predicament from the Doom card.

After all of the players have explained their escape plans, all of the players (including the reader) will vote on which they think is the best. The player whose plan gets the most votes wins the Doom card. They will place it in front of themselves. If there is a tie, the player who read the Doom card gets to break the tie.

Choosing the best submitted card — All of the players have chosen a card for the current round. They will explain to the other players how they will use what is on their card in order to escape the Doom Card. The players will then vote on which submitted card was the best.

All of the players draw a new Object card and add it to their hand. The role of reader passes to a new player. The instructions don’t specify if the role passes to the left or the right.

Winning the Game

The first player to collect their third Doom card wins Bucket of Doom.

Winning Bucket of Doom — This player has acquired three Doom Cards. They have won the game.

Bucket of Doom Variant Rules

To change up the gameplay there are a couple of additional rules that you can choose to use.

Flip Rule

If you ever get into a situation where none of the Object cards in your hand work, you can use the flip rule. You can turn the Object cards in your hand to the other side and see if these items work better for the current Doom card.

MacGyver Rule

When you choose to use the MacGyver rule, you have the option of using multiple Object cards on your turn to plan your escape. At the end of the turn you will draw as many cards as you played during the turn.

Playing multiple cards in the same round — For this round the player decided to play three cards. To escape being buried alive, the player will first call their mom. Then they will use the T-Rex leg bone to pry open the coffin. Finally they will play the Ukulele to make noise once people arrive so they know where to dig to rescue them.

Firesale Rule

Should you choose to use the firesale rule, each player is dealt ten cards to start the game. On each turn you can use as many cards as you want. Unlike the normal game though, you cannot draw any new cards until you have played all of the cards from your hand.

Bucket of Doom FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

280 Object Cards
70 Scenario Cards
Instructions

Year: 2014 | Publisher: Big Potato Games | Artist: Ben Drummond

Genres: Party

Ages: 17+ | Number of Players: 3+ | Length of Game: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.