Cheating Moth Multilingual Version

- Multilingual Game
 
- Number of players: 3 - 5
 
- Duration: 30 min
 
- Suggested age: 7+

Cheating is forbidden? Not in this nasty card game – in fact, you’ll probably have to cheat to win.

In Mogel Motte, you want to get rid of all the cards in hand before everyone else. Each player starts the round with a hand of eight cards, one player (the oldest) receiving the guard bug – which remains on the table throughout the game – and one card being turned face up to start a discard pile. Cards are numbered from 1 to 5, the majority of them having only one number; some cards have special abilities that come into play when added to the discard or a player’s hand.

On their turn, a player places a card from their hand onto the discard; this card must be numbered exactly one greater or one less than the one on top of the discard. (Numbers wrap, so a 1 can be played on a 5 and vice versa.) If a player cannot play a card, they draw one from the pile and their turn ends.

But there’s another way to get rid of cards: by cheating! Throughout the round, you can make cards disappear by dropping them on the floor, hiding them in your sleeve, etc. You must keep your hand of cards above the table at all times, you cannot make more than one card disappear at a time, and you cannot get rid of your last card in this way. The player with the guard bug – and only they! – can call out other players for cheating, and no one can cheat while the accusation is being resolved. If the accusation is false, the guard must draw a card; otherwise, the cheating player takes back the card they tried to lose, receives a card from the guard's hand as extra punishment, and becomes the new guard.

Cheating is a necessity because “Cheating” cards cannot be played onto the discard pile but must disappear through cheating. (The Guard, however, can play these cards because the Guard is not allowed to cheat).

Action cards work as follows:

Ant: After playing an ant, everyone must take a card from the draw pile, except the active player.
Cockroach: After a cockroach has been played, everyone races to play a card of the same number on top of it. Only the fastest player can leave their card in place.
Mosquito: After a mosquito has been played, everyone except the active player must tap on the card pile. The slowest player receives one card from every other player's hand.
Spider: After playing this card, give another player a card from your hand that is not a moth.
When a player has no cards left in hand, the round ends. All other players get 10 points for each cheating moth in hand, 5 points for each action card, and 1 point for each numbered card. After a number of rounds equal to the number of players, the game ends, and the player with the lowest score wins.