A Midsummer Night's Dream Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setting Up the Game
• Setting Up the Round
• Card Ranks
• How to Play
• Game End

Contents

• 48 Character Cards
• 12 Love-in Idleness Cards
• 2 Player Reference Cards
• 10 Score Chips

Setting Up the Game

• Player token: Each player takes two tokens of the same color, and the remaining markers are returned to the box and not used again.
• Scoring setup: Flip two reference cards to different sides. All players start with 30 points. Flip the player markers to the +20 side and place them at the 10-point position, while the other player marker is placed in front of themselves.

Setting Up the Round

• Dealing cards:
  • For a 2-player game: Remove 2 of each character card, shuffle and deal 14 cards to each player. Remove the rest character cards and 6 love-in idleness cards.
  • For a 3-player game: Remove 1 of each character card, add 2 love-in idleness cards, shuffle, and deal 14 cards to each player.
  • For a 4-player game: Deal 12 character cards to each player.
  • For a 5-player game: Add 2 love-in idleness cards to the character cards, shuffle, and deal 14 cards to each player.
• Card deck: The remaining love-in idleness cards are placed aside as the card deck.
• Determining the starting player: In the first round, the player who has recently been in love becomes the start player. Otherwise, the player with the lowest score becomes the start player.

Card Ranks

• A set of cards consists of 2 to 5 cards, ranked from highest to lowest as follows:
  • Five of a Kind: 5 cards with the same number.
  • Straight: 5 cards with consecutive numbers.
  • Four of a Kind: 4 cards with the same number.
  • Straight in 4: Four cards with consecutive numbers.
  • Three of a Kind: 3 cards with the same number.
  • Straight in 3: 3 cards with consecutive numbers.
  • Pair: 2 cards with the same number.
• Single or two consecutive numbers cannot be played.
• Some character cards have two numbers and can be freely flipped.
• Love-in idleness cards are considered as any number from 0 to 8, but each set of cards can have at most one love-in idleness card.
• In a set of consecutive numbers, 0 and 8 are not adjacent.

How to Play

• The start player begins by playing a pair from their hand.
• Then the players take turns clockwise and choose to PASS or PLAY:
  • PASS and draw a love-in idleness card from the deck.
  • PLAY a higher set of cards:
    • Cards of the same rank with higher numbers (e.g., 77 > 33).
    • Exactly one rank higher: Straight in 3 > a pair.
      • Special case: A pair of 0s > a straight or five of a kind.
• All players take turns clockwise. If all players, except the player who played the last set, choose to PASS, the cards on the table are removed, and they can play any set of cards (or choose to PASS and draw a card, allowing the player to their left to play any set of cards).

Game End

• The round ends immediately under any of the following conditions:
• Any player plays their last card, ending the round immediately. Remaining players lose points based on their remaining hand cards.
• Any player chooses to PASS when there are no love-in idleness cards left in the card deck to draw. The round ends immediately, and all players lose points based on their remaining hand cards. Additionally, the player who last passed loses an additional 10 points.
• The whole game ends if any player's score drops to 0 or below. The player with the highest score wins. Otherwise, start a new round of the game.

Example: Hand card negative points = 0+1+2+2+3+3 = 11. If the player's initial point is 30, then adjust to 19. (Change the score chip to the +10 side and place it at the position of 9.)