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In Exploding Kittens, how do you know that another player got the exploding kitten? I mean what's to say if I draw it I don't reveal it. Is it like "go fish" where you have to trust your opponent?

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There's certainly nothing stopping a player from cheating and not revealing a drawn Exploding Kitten, but since (at least in the base game) there's no way to put a card from your hand back into the deck you will eventually reach a point where the draw pile is exhausted but more than one player is left in the game, at which point you can look at each player's hands to see who cheated.

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  • But you can wait until you have a matched pair, steal a card from an opponent, and then reveal the Exploding Kitten and claim that that was the card that you stole, and claim that your opponent cheated. Or, conversely, wait until an opponent steals a card from you and hope they steal the Exploding Kitten (or, if they use a Favor, hand them the Exploding Kitten).
    – Acccumulation
    Jul 29, 2022 at 2:48
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It is nowhere stated in the rules, but our group has always played the game with the variant where the currently drawn card is briefly revealed for everyone to see and announced by name. This lets everyone confirm that the card is not in fact an Exploding Kitten and lets players have an estimation about the hands of other players ("Hey, don't steal from me, she has already drawn 3 Defuses, pick her instead!"). With even moderately many players it quickly gets infeasible to know each player's hand, in addition to the uncertainty caused by the initial deal and all the stolen cards, so nobody knows exactly what the others have and cheating (at least by holding an Exploding Kitten) is nipped in the bud.

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    That sounds like you don't trust each other to play honestly and allows you to target people based on knowing information that you should not know.
    – Joe W
    Jul 25, 2022 at 15:54
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    @JoeW yes, it does - and indeed, our group was always engaging in a friendly competition in finding creative ways to cheat and staying on our toes in order to catch the cheaters. It is a way of playing, admittedly not for everyone but quite fun for us. Independently, the additional information does not unbalance the game, as everyone gets the same amount, while opening up new dimensions in strategizing and diplomacy, as detailed in my answer.
    – zovits
    Jul 25, 2022 at 16:05
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    Personally I wouldn't play with a group that cheated on a regular basis like that. Your answer is based on people knowingly cheating which isn't helpful at all in my mind.
    – Joe W
    Jul 25, 2022 at 16:09
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    @JoeW my answer, as clearly stated, reflects a personal decision and experience. It offers one possible solution to the problem described by OP, which can be adopted, adapted or ignored by anyone as they see fit.
    – zovits
    Jul 25, 2022 at 20:05
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    And I am pointing out that if you are changing the rules because you can't trust people to not cheat and actually expect them to cheat that isn't a good basis for suggesting how others should be playing.
    – Joe W
    Jul 25, 2022 at 20:24

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