In the game, players control a character with fifteen "health" points, and draw a hand of five cards.
Each is distinguished by a different background color to the artwork: for example, the images on Defense cards have a blue tint.
Basic Attack cards do a set amount of damage (i.e., take away health points) if not countered.
Weapons, like Basic Attacks, do simple damage (always three points) without additional harmful effects to the target, but unlike all other cards, they are not discarded when played.
[2] Butcher comments that "Lunch Money succeeds at what it sets out to do, which is to provide a quick, fun-packed combat game that takes virtually no preparation and can be learnt in five minutes.
"[2] In 1997, Lunch Money jointly won the Origins Award for Best Card Game of 1996 in a three-way tie with Legend of the Five Rings: Battle of Beiden Pass and Mythos.
[3] In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Lunch Money as one of The Millennium's Best Card Games.
[4] Editor Scott Haring said that "what puts it on this list is the twisted sensibility of using arty photographs of innocent young girls in spooky settings, juxtaposed with the cruel whimsy on the card text.