Card Game Playtest Page

Welcome! Please take a few minutes to read the following rules. You cannot probably play the game all by yourself.

First of all, the game has yet to have a title. You can propose a title if you like.:) After reading the rules, click on the link at the bottom to acquire the playtest cards (version 3). Thanks again!

Rules

This game (I'll call it "Hoarders" for now) is good for three to four players. You can experiment with other numbers of players, although two would be quite imbalanced, and anything more than six would be too much (based on the number of cards).

Aside from the demo cards (which you have to print out yourself) that compose the Draw deck, you also need counters to mark Yellow, Blue and Red tokens. About 30 pieces for each color is okay. Naturally, you will need to play on a flat surface.

Objective

Each player is given a Goal card which he/she attempts to fulfill. Each player's Goal card is a secret -- only the owner may naturally know what it says (some card abilities may allow other players to know your goal!). There are three different goals, each requiring 20 tokens of a specific color. Through Hoarders, which are cards that allow players to collect colored tokens, a player attempts to complete his Goal before other players do. The player may also wish to hinder his/her opponents' way to victory, by trying to discover their goals and playing cards against them.

Only one player can win each game.

Setup

Have a print-out of the playtest cards. Cut through the lines to turn each page into eight cards. There are 72 cards in all. The extra sheet of cards is for making your own cards, if you want to have it your way.

Separate the Goal cards from the other cards. There are 12 Goal cards, labelled "Goal A" "Goal B" and "Goal C". Shuffle the Goal cards and randomly give each player one. After the owner sees and understands it, he/she puts it face down if front of him/her. Anyway, he/she may look at it anytime. Remember, only the owner can know what his/her Goal card is, except when a card explicitly allows other players to discover it. Remaining Goal cards are then combined with the other cards and shuffled thoroughly.

Randomly deal seven cards from the shuffled Draw pile to each player. This comprises their starting Hand. Only the owner can see the cards in his hand, but other players may know the number of cards in any other player's hand.

Set the remaining cards of the draw pile in the center of the table, face down. Set a Discard pile beside it. All discarded cards from any player's hand and cards removed from play go here face up. Set the tokens beside it. It is currently uncontrolled.

Determine who goes first. Rolling the lowest in a die is okay, but you can find other means. The player who rolled the lowest starts, and turns move to the left (clockwise).

Example: Albert, Bart, and Carlo have printed the playtest version of Hoarders and are ready to play. They've collected 30 yellow tokens, 30 blue tokens, and 30 red tokens. Albert separates the 12 Goal cards, shuffles them, and dealt one Goal to each player. Carlo received Goal C, Bart received Goal B, and Albert received Goal A. Each of them places his goal card face down on the table. Albert takes the other cards and shuffles the rest of the undealt Goals with it. This becomes their draw deck. After shuffling, he dealt seven cards to each player for their starting hand, and then set the draw pile in the middle of a table. Now they're set.

Phases of a turn

Each player's turn consists of a number of phases. Please pay attention to the sequence because this must be followed in order.

1. Draw a card from the draw pile. Only the turn player must draw the card. If at any time a player needs to draw and the draw pile is empty, shuffle the discard pile and make it the new draw pile.
2. HOARDING. If you have a Hoarder in play, you may use that Hoarder to perform one of its abilities (if there is more than one; otherwise, you may perform whatever is stated there). Hoarding usually allows you to gain colored tokens on your way to victory. If you gain tokens, take them from the pool of tokens in the middle of the table. The tokens each player controls are public information. Again, only the turn player may use his/her hoarders. Italicized texts aren't hoarding abilities. If the circumstances allow it, you may use it anytime. Using any Hoarder is optional.
   
   Example 1: Carlo has an Assassin in play. It has two abilities--"Gain 1 RED token", or "Pay 6 Red tokens. Remove a hoarder of your choice from play." He already has six Red tokens, but there are no other hoarders in play. So he used the first ability instead, and gained 1 Red token.
   
   He also may have chosen not to gain any token at this time.
   
   Example 2: Bart has an Artificer in play. It has two abilities--"Exchange 3 tokens of one color you control with three tokens of any color(s) another player controls", and "Remove this card from play to draw five cards from the Draw pile." He used the first ability of the Artificer, and replaced his three blue tokens with one red token and two yellow tokens. Albert has both red and yellow tokens, that's why Bart was able to replace his blue tokens with these colors.
   
   On his next hoarding phase, Bart plans to use the second ability instead, which will place his Artificer to the discard pile, in exchange for drawing five cards.
   
   
3. PLAY CARDS. You may play cards from your hand. There are some rules for specific cards:
   • Only one Hoarder can be played per turn. When the Hoarder comes into play, you may not use its abilities this turn because the HOARDING phase is over. Only the turn player can play a hoarder. The hoarder is permanent -- that is, it stays in play until a card or ability removes it.
   • Only the turn player can play Restrictions. The restrictions are permanent, too. Only one restriction could be played on each player (as stated on the text of the card).
     
     Example: Albert played Restriction A on Bart. So during Bart's hoarding phase, he may not gain any more yellow tokens, regardless of his hoarders' abilities. Even exchanges from one color to another disallows him to have further yellow tokens (even with False Security).
     
     
   • Each card that does something as it is played gets resolved immediately before another card can be played. All other cards that isn't a Goal, Restriction, or Hoarder are resolved immediately when played and is discarded after resolution.
   • Cards with costs must be payed before being played.
   • Another goal card can be played if there is any in the player's hand. Remove the older goal card (put it in the discard pile). The new goal card will be the one to fulfill now. Goal cards are, of course, permanent.
   • Other players may play cards that explicitly states they are playable on another player's turn. They may play their cards after the turn player has played all the cards he wishes to play on this turn.
4. END. Discard down to seven cards, if your hand is more than seven. Put it in the discard pile, face up. Declare that the turn has ended. At this time, if the turn player has fulfilled his goal, he can reveal it so other players can check if he/she indeed completed it. If so, he/she wins!
   
   Bart already has 20 yellow counters. His face down goal has been changed to Goal A, and now he is about to end his turn. He discards down to seven cards, and finally reveals his goal to the other players. He wins the game!

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The hoarders picked by the players are not yet in play. It is placed in a "holding" area and are played liked hoarders from their hands. So, only one hoarder is played per turn. However, the holding area is NOT part of the players' hands. Players are dealt with five cards for their hands now (the maximum hand size for this variant). The players may not use the hoarders in their holding area to discard, except to use the Leprechaun's ability (this is the only exception to this rule). All removed hoarders from play still go to the discard pile, and gets reshuffled if the draw pile is exhausted.

THE CARDS

Click HERE to get a copy of the Cards(currently version 3! I added colors even if it just a demo set to distinguish that these colored cards are permanent). You'll need these to play the game =).

Game by Jeremiah Faustino.