Reminds me of a novel I read which in passing mentioned a kind of board game where when you picked up a piece it might suddenly turn out to belong to the other player, in which case it would give you a nasty bite on the thumb...

Is it scary that I remember that scene as from one of the Lone Wolf novels-of-the-gamebooks series? Is it scarier that I remember it as about book 7?

Some how, this reminds me of Jumani