9 Lives
9 Lives Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 36 Cards
- 4 Cats Tokens
- 4 Score Track Cubes
- 4 Trick Tracking Cubes
- 1 Score Tracker
- 1 Start Player Marker
- 1 Trick Betting Rug
Setup
- Place the bidding rug and score track so all players can see them.
- Give each player a cat and matching reference token.
- Place trick tracking cubes below the 1 space next to the rug.
- Give the start player token to a random player.
- Shuffle the cards and deal 9 to each player. In a 3-player game, remove the fish suit cards.
Prediction
Starting with the start player and proceeding clockwise, each player predicts how many tricks they will win by placing their cat token horizontally next to one number or vertically across two numbers on the bidding rug. You may place your cat token on either side of the numbers on the rug. Once a cat occupies one side of a number no other cat can be placed next to that number on that side.
The red player has no legal way to bid next to the 3/7 space. Each space has two numbers. You will place your cat token in the same place if you think you are going to win 1 or 5 tricks.
Tricks
The start player reveals the "lead suit" by playing a card. In clockwise order the other players must play a lead suit card. Otherwise, they can play any card.
If a cat-suit card is played, then the player who plays the highest cat-suit wins the trick. Otherwise, the highest lead suit card wins the trick.
The player who wins the trick takes one card from the trick, other than the card they played, and adds it to their hand. The player then discards the other cards.
The winner advances their trick tracking cube one space on the prediction rug. If their cube was on the 4 spot it wraps around to the 1 spot.
The winner starts the next trick by playing a card from their hand.
Continue playing tricks until one player runs out of cards (9-12 tricks).
Scoring
If your cat is next to one space, and you won the number of tricks shown on that space, then you get 4 points.
If your cat is next to two spaces, and you won the number of tricks shown on either of those spaces, then you get 2 points.
Otherwise, lose 1 point for every space between your trick tracking cube and your cat token remembering the betting track wraps from 4 to 5. Your score cannot be reduced below zero.
Examples:
- Make 2-Space Bid: 2 points
- Make 1-Space Bid: 4 points
- Miss: -1 per short/over w/ wrapping
Play 4 Rounds
Pass the start player token clockwise.
Repeat the Deal, Prediction, Tricks, and Scoring steps three more times or until someone has 9 points or more.
High score wins. There is no tiebreaker.
Quick Overview
- Deal all cards
- Follow Suit
- Cat is trump
- Win new card
- Round ends
- Play 4 rounds