What Bonesaw is
Bonesaw is a turn-based strategy game where you and your opponent gamble fingers against the devil and his saw. The aim of each round is to be the first to eliminate both of your opponent's hands. A hand leaves play when its finger total is reached or when the saw severs it. Rounds are short and sharp, and the first player to take 3 rounds wins the match. The tone is dark and gory: first-person, realistic, with a horror and psychological edge, and it leans on tabletop-style play with cards, chips and a bell on the table.
How a group plays it
You can play solo against different opponents across 3 distinct game modes, or face a friend in local multiplayer. Online, you can also play together through Steam Remote Play, so one person owns the game and the rest join in over the connection. On your turn you play chips and power cards to gain special abilities, then attack an opponent's hand by adding the finger count of your attacking hand to theirs. If the total overshoots the hand's finger count, the count resets and the remainder carries over. You can also attack the bell instead, which activates the saw. Hitting the bell again moves the blade clockwise around the active hands so it targets a different hand.
The saw, the skeleton and the abilities
The saw is the chaos element: when active, it has a chance to sever a hand at the end of each turn, and the gauge around the bell shows the odds of it cutting. Ringing the bell deliberately is a gamble — you can use the blade against your opponent, or against yourself. The skeleton sits at the table as a passive side player, and whoever eliminates him first earns a power card with a unique, game-changing ability. Cards also let you steal from your opponent or stack item effects for an edge.
Before you start
Every finger you lose changes the balance of the following rounds, so expect the strategy to shift constantly rather than settle into a fixed plan. It is a game of skill mixed with luck, with PvP at its core and a heavy gore and horror presentation — worth knowing if anyone in your group is sensitive to that.