Yellowstone Party Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Shuffle the Crisis Cards and place them facedown in the middle of the table.
Place the Yellow Card Decoder next to the Crisis Cards.
Deal one Character Card face up to each player. Players should look at their Character Card to see what special ability they will have in the game.
You will use a number of Brown Decoders equal to the number of players. Of the decoders you end up using, two of them have to be Disloyal Brown Decoders while the rest will be for Loyal players. Since the decoders for Loyal and Disloyal players look the same, you will have to insert a Crisis Card into each one to see if it is for Loyal or Disloyal players. To find the two Disloyal decoders, look for the two that show no readable text. Take these two decoders and shuffle them with a number of Loyal decoders so there is one decoder for each player.

Loyal vs Disloyal Decoders — The Card Decoder on the left shows text from the Crisis Card while the Card Decoder on the right does not show any text. The Card Decoder on the left is for a Loyal player while the Card Decoder on the right is for a Disloyal player.

Deal each player a Brown Card Decoder.
Place the two Voting Tokens in the middle of the table.
Shuffle the Solution Cards. Deal three to each player. Players can look at their own cards, but shouldn’t show them to the other players. Place the remaining Solution Cards facedown on the table.

How to Play Yellowstone Party Game

Looking At the Crisis Card

One of the players draws the top Crisis Card from the middle of the table. After drawing the Crisis Card, they will insert it into their Brown Card Decoder. Once they insert the card into their decoder, one of two things will happen.

If the player is Loyal, they can read the card. They will know what the crisis is, and can act accordingly throughout the rest of the round.

Loyal player — This player has a Loyal Card Decoder. They can see that the current crisis is that there is a fight in the bunkhouse.

If the player is Disloyal, they won’t be be able to read the card. They need to pretend that they can read the card though, or the other players will know that they are Disloyal.

This player can’t see any of the text on the Crisis Card. Therefore they are a Disloyal player that needs to pretend that they can read the card.

Whether you are Loyal or Disloyal, you cannot reveal this information at this time.

After the player has looked at the Crisis Card in their Card Decoder, they will pass the card to the player on their left. Each player takes the card when it is passed to them, and inserts it into their own Card Decoder. After all of the players have looked at the Crisis Card in their Card Decoder, the last player to look at the card places the card face down in the middle of the table.

Playing a Solution Card

After everyone has looked at the Crisis Card, all of the players will choose one Solution Card to play from their hand. You will pick a card that you think best fits as a response to the crisis.

If you are a Loyal player, you know what the crisis is. Therefore you should be able to pick the card from your hand that best fits the crisis.

Playing a Solution card as a Loyal player — This player is a Loyal player so they know that the crisis is a fight in the bunkhouse. Of their three cards, they decide to pick the top card as it is the most relevant to a fight.

If you are a Disloyal player, you do not know what the crisis is. Therefore you will have to pick a Solution Card that you think might work for a couple different situations. This increases the odds that the other players might not be able to figure out that you are Disloyal.

When you have picked a card to play, you will play it face down in front of you.

Once everyone has played a Solution Card, a random player picks up the Crisis Card used this round and places it in the Yellow Card Decoder. They will read out what is printed on the card twice so all of the players can hear what the crisis is. They will then place the card (inside the Yellow Card Decoder) in the middle of the table so everyone can read it.

Using the Yellow Card Decoder — All of the players have chosen a Solution Card so the Crisis Card is placed in the Yellow Card Decoder. All of the players now know that there is a fight in the bunkhouse.

Each player then flips over the Solution Card they played, and reads it out to the rest of the players.

Played Solution Cards in Yellowstone Party Game — These five Solution Cards were played by the players in response to a fight in the bunkhouse. The players now have to try and figure out who didn’t know what the crisis was and are Disloyal.

Finding the Disloyal Players

After everyone has revealed their Solution Card, the game opens up into a debate. The players are trying to figure out who is Loyal and who is Disloyal. Players will try to defend why they are Loyal. Players can ask each other questions and call out each other when they have suspicions. If the Solution Card that a player played is suspicious, they may have to defend why the played the card.

During the debate, players can use their Character’s Special Ability. Each player can only use their Special Ability once during the round.

Using a Character Card — This player has chosen to use their Character’s Special Ability. They will choose another player and look at the Crisis Card in their Card Decoder. This will tell the player whether the player they chose is Loyal or Disloyal.

At any point during the debate, a player can accuse another player of being Disloyal. They pick up one of the Voting Tokens and place it on the Solution Card played by the player they are accusing. They will then try to convince the other players that they are right about the player being Disloyal. If a majority of the players agree with the accusing player, the token remains in place.

Accusing another player of being Disloyal — One of the players decided to accuse the player that played this Solution Card of being Disloyal. The players will vote and the accused player can defend themselves of the accusation.

The accused player then has 20 seconds to try and defend themselves. They will try to persuade the players to change their vote. If they do not sway enough players where a majority still thinks they are Disloyal, they are deemed Disloyal. They can still debate with the other players, and still vote on who they think is the other Disloyal player.

The players will keep debating and voting until two players are voted as being Disloyal. If a majority of the players can’t agree on two players as Disloyal, the round is voided and no points are given out.

After the two Disloyal players have been chosen, the two chosen players place the Crisis Card in their Card Decoder to show the other players if they were Loyal or Disloyal.

Accused player was actually Disloyal — One of the accused players placed the Crisis Card in their Card Decoder. It turns out that they were Disloyal as no text is visible.

Scoring

The two players accused of being Disloyal both lose a point. It does not matter if the player was Loyal or Disloyal. They should take one of the played Solution Cards and place it in front of them to indicate that they have received a negative point.

To prepare for the next round, all played Solution Cards (outside of those used to indicate score) are put in a Discard Pile. Players also discard all of the Solution Cards from their hand.

Each player turns in their Character Card and Card Decoder. The Card Decoders and Character Cards are shuffled and dealt out to the players for the next round. Each player also receives three new Solution Cards.

Draw a new Crisis Card for the next round.

Winning Yellowstone Party Game

The game ends once one of the players have reached -5 points. All of the players compare their scores. The player with the most points (least negative points) wins the game.

Components

12 Character Cards
50 Crisis Cards
100 Solution Cards
Yellow Card Decoder
8 Brown Card Decoders (6 Loyal/2 Disloyal)
2 Voting Tokens
Instructions

Year: 2023 | Publisher: Wilder Toys

Genres: Bluffing, Deduction, Party

Ages: 17+ | Number of Players: 4-8 | Length of Game: 30-60 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.