Night of the Ninja logo

In Night of the Ninja, your mission is to kill the leader of your enemy’s ninja house...if you can figure out who they are! Each round, you choose your ninja role: a Spy or Fortune Teller gains valuable information, but only an Assassin or Blind Assassin can cut down an opponent. To win, you’ll have to trick your opponents, figure out who can’t be trusted, and fight for your clan!

While Night of the Ninja is primarily designed for 4-11 players, the designers have also created a 2-player variant! This fast-paced game is an entirely different experience from the core game, but it will still challenge your skills of bluffing and deduction.

Night of the Ninja package preview with game box and cards from the game

Two Player Rules

In a 2 player game, each person playing will be referred to as a Leader. Leaders will control three HOUSE cards as their team, which are treated as separate "players" (see below for details).

SET-UP

  • One person is assigned to be the Leader of House Crane and the other is the Leader of the House Lotus.

  • Each Leader gets 3 HOUSE cards, numbered 1, 2, and 3 for their House.

  • Deal 5 NINJA cards to each Leader.

DRAFT PHASE

  • Each Leader drafts one of their five initial NINJA cards and places it face down in front of them, then passes the remaining 4 cards to the other Leader.

  • Each Leader then selects two cards from the four they were handed, keeping one face down in front of them and discarding the other face down to the side.

  • Finally, each Leader passes the last two cards, selects one of them to keep and one to discard (both face down).

Night of the Ninja 2P variant setup

PLAY PHASE

  • Leaders place their 3 HOUSE Cards in any order face down in front of them, then assign one NINJA card to each HOUSE card just as though each was a separate player in the normal game.

  • Resolve the play phase just as you would in the regular game, with each individual HOUSE card being treated as a separate player. Just as in the regular game, if one player is killed before revealing their NINJA, the NINJA will not be revealed during that round and they will not count towards final scoring.

SCORING PHASE

Reveal all Players (House cards) who have not been killed this round. If the highest rank surviving HOUSE is Crane House, the Crane House Leader gains an honor token. If the highest rank surviving HOUSE is Lotus House, the Lotus House Leader gains an honor token.

WINNING THE GAME

The Game Ends when a Leader gets 10 Honor points from tokens.