SLAPZI Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of SLAPZI is to be the first player to get rid of all five of your picture cards.

Setup

Randomly deal five picture cards to each player. You should place your cards face up in front of you.
Shuffle the deck of clue cards. Place the cards face down in the center of the table.
You can choose to either pick one player who will flip over the clue cards throughout the game, or you can choose to take turns flipping over the clue cards.

How to Play SLAPZI

You will play SLAPZI over a number of round. Each round begins with a player flipping over the top clue card. On the clue card there will be a phrase. The objective is to find one of your picture cards that matches the clue.

Reveal clue card for the round — A clue card has been revealed. All of the players race to try and find something in their hand that is often found in a refrigerator.

Playing a Card

When looking at your cards you can look at both sides. Whenever you find a card that fits, you will pick it up and slap it on top of the clue card.

Only the first player to slap one of their cards onto the clue cards gets to discard their card.

Playing a card that matches the current clue card — One of the players played an ice cream cone for something that is often found in a refrigerator. As long as none of the players challenge the card, the player successfully got rid of one of their cards.

When you are trying to find a match, you must go off of the picture on the card. What is pictured on the card has to match the clue. You cannot use the card and say that another version of the object fits the clue. For example you are looking for a card that is mostly red. You can’t play a card of an object that can be red, but is orange in the picture. The object in the picture has to be red, or you can’t play the card.

After someone plays a card, the next round begins. You will flip over a new clue card to start the next round.

SLAPZI Cards

There are two unique clue cards in the game. Should a player turn over a SLAPZI card, every picture card in the game matches it. The players have to race to slap a card on it as quickly as possible in order to win the round.

Challenging

If any player thinks the played card doesn’t match, they can challenge it. Should a majority of the players think the card doesn’t fit, the player that played it has to take it back. They also have to take another picture card from the deck as a penalty for playing an incorrect card.

Winning the Game

The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins the game.

Variant SLAPZI Games

There are a number of different variant games that you can play with the cards. Below are the different variant games and how their rules differ from the main game.

Either-Or SLAPZI

You will play this variant the same as the normal game except that you will flip over two clue cards each round.

When looking for a card to play, you can play one that matches either of the two face up clue cards.

Either-Or SLAPZI — One of the players found the paper clips card in their hand. This matches the clue card where you can fit five of them in your pocket.

You can play this variant in two different ways. You can play where a picture card can only be played to one of the two clue cards. Otherwise you can play where a card has to be played to both clue cards before the next round begins.

Twisted SLAPZI

This version of the game uses two clue cards each round.

When looking for a picture card to play, you are still looking for one that matches one of the clue cards. The difference is that the picture cannot match the other clue card. You can only play a picture card if it matches only one of the two clue cards.

Twisted SLAPZI — One of the players played the fire truck card. This card can be played because it runs on gas, but it does not have a head.

Super SLAPZI

For this variant game spread out all of the clue cards face down on the table. Each player draws five picture cards.

When everyone is ready, all of the players will start flipping over clue cards at the same time. Each player is trying to find matches for their picture cards. If the clue card you flip over does not match any of your picture cards, you will flip it back over. You must flip the card back before you can flip over another clue card.

Super SLAPZI — A player flipped over the clue card that says “can sometimes be very loud.” They have an elephant card in their hand which they play since it matches the card.

The first player to get rid of all their cards, wins the game.

Double SLAPZI

You will flip over two clue cards each round.

When you look at your picture cards you need to find one that matches both clue cards. You can only play a card if it matches both cards.

Double SLAPZI example — The two face-up clue cards are “starts with a p” and “breakfast or dessert”. A player plays their pancakes card since it matches both clue cards.

Opposite SLAPZI

You will play this variant the same as the normal game except in reverse. One clue card is flipped over. When you look at your picture cards, you are looking for one that doesn’t match the clue card.

Double Opposite SLAPZI

In this game you will flip over two clue cards each round. You can only play picture cards that don’t match either of the cards that are flipped over.

Reverse SLAPZI

In this version all of the players place five clue cards face up in front of themselves instead of picture cards.

For each round a player reveals one picture card. Each player looks for one of their clue cards that match the round’s picture card.

Reverse SLAPZI example — The bowling ball card was face-up on the table. One of the players played the clue card “used in a sport” since it matches the bowling ball card.

SLAPZI 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

120 Picture Cards
65 Clue Cards
Instructions

Year: 2015 | Publisher: Carma Games

Genres: Children’s, Family, Speed

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-8 | Length of Game: 10-15 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

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.