Five Deadly Venoms

Five Deadly Venoms is a 3-player 18-card game that plays in 15-25 minutes. Each round, one player will face off against the other 2, attempting to earn coins by winning precisely the number of hands that they bid. The first player to win 7 coins wins the game.

The name and theme come from a classic (1978) martial arts movie by the same name. It featured 5 evenly-matched deadly assassins whose techniques were based on venomous creatures. No one assassin could beat another but by teaming up, two might beat one.

The special features of the game are:

 Every hand pits one player against the other two.
 The deck is comprised of one wild card (the Student), and 17 cards split among 5 suits with a carefully-crafted uneven distribution of card values among the suits.
 Hands are resolved by comparing the two cards played by the lone player against two cards played (one each) by the other two players.

The game is presented as a free print-and-play. The rules reference a bid token, but it is optional. The bid token is a disc with a numeral "3" on one side and a "4" on the other. It indicates who bid and how many hands they bid. The rules also mention 21 tokens/coins. These are used for tracking the score. Use any tokens you prefer or keep track of the score with paper and pencil.

I recommend keeping a copy of the card distribution (the last page of the rulebook) out in front of players. It helps players keep track of the unconventional distribution of the cards among the suits.

I really hope you enjoy the game. It's small and quick, but it has some depth in the play. If you're familiar with Euchre, it's a bit like a 3-player version in which one player always goes alone.

It's a nice filler for when you're waiting for other players to arrive.