| Players: | 2 - 5 |
| Age: | 8+ |
| Time: | 10 - 20 minutes |
Virulence: An Infectious Card Game is an addictively quick and simple card game focused on viruses infecting a host cell - and how they assemble and replicate inside that host cell.
Virulence has players take on the role of viruses competing to infect a host cell in order to replicate their own viral components, thus scoring points.
Each round, players secretly choose one Virus card from their hand, place it face down on the table, then simultaneously flip these Virus cards to reveal each player's (and thus each virus') virulence. In order from the highest to the lowest virulence, players then take turns selecting from the available Viral Component cards, each awarding points in a variety of ways, or allowing that player to build their hand of Virus Cards allowing them to win critical components later.
Virulence is addictively simple and competitive because it combines blind bidding/bluffing, with engine building, a bit of luck and, most importantly, it can be taught in 30 seconds, and played 10 minutes.