Straw (card game)

Straw, also sold as Straw: The Game that Broke the Camel's Back, is an Arabian-nights-themed card game designed by Richard James of Evertide Games and published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2008, after an earlier Evertide Games edition in 2006. Artwork is by Octographics, and the cards use numbers and symbols rather than text, so the rule book is packaged in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Players share a draw deck and each keep a hand of four cards that stand for items of different weight. On each turn a player places one card onto the camel and draws a replacement, and play continues until someone adds the load that breaks the camel's back. That player scores nothing for the round, while everyone else scores the total weight still in their hand, so the game rewards careful hand management over several rounds of survival-style play. It received a Major Fun Award in 2006.