In Narabi, players are dealt 3-4 cards at the start of the round, with those cards bearing either a blank or a number from 0 to 9. Each card is sleeved, and within the sleeve on its back is a rule explaining how this card can be swapped with another card: swap it with a red card, a card with an even number, a card with a higher number, and so on. You can look at all the rules on cards in front of you, but you cannot communicate to others what those rules are. You cannot change the order of cards in front of you.

On a turn, a player must swap one of their cards (following that card’s rule) with another player’s card, then someone records that move on a chart. Blanks are considered to be 0 and an even number for the purpose of swaps. When one of your cards is swapped, you can look at the rule on the card you receive. You can suggest moves to others or ask questions of them, and they can respond with "yes" or "no" answers as long as they don’t identify the rule on any of their cards.

If you place all the numbers in numerical order (disregarding blanks) in either clockwise or counterclockwise order before you would need to make a 25th move, you all win the game. Your team’s score is "Great", "Good", "Horrible", etc. based on how many moves it took you to win. If you don’t win, then you must all be worse than horrible, which is very bad indeed.

In the game’s expert mode, you cannot speak at all and you cannot undo a player’s swap on your next turn.