Animocrazy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set Up
  • Candies
  • Vote Cards
  • Players' Hands
  • Draw Deck
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Propose a Law
  • 2. Vote
    • The Basic Rule of Voting
    • Exception: Wild Vote Cards
  • 3. Play or Discard the Proposed Law
    • On Drawing and Losing Candies
  • 4. Draw a Card
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Carte Blanche Variant
• Voracious Variant

Components

• 60 chips representing candies (15 in each of red, yellow, blue and green)
• 1 cloth bag
• 30 Vote cards
  • 10 Yes cards
  • 10 No cards
  • 10 Wild cards (4 Definite Yes, 4 Definite No and 2 Scam cards)
• 95 Law cards (including 1 End card)
• 10 blank Law cards (for use in the "Carte Blanche" variant)

Set Up

Candies

Place all candies in the bag. According to the total number of players, each player randomly draws a certain number of candies and keeps them in front of themselves, visible to one another.

Total number of players	Number of candies/hand cards per player
4, 5 or 6	6
7 or 8	5
9 or 10	4

Vote Cards

Each player takes a Yes and a No vote card. Shuffle all the Wild cards and deal one, face down, to each player. All remaining Wild cards should be returned to the box.

Players' Hands

Set the End card aside. Shuffle all Law cards (except for the blank cards which are not used in the basic game) and deal each player a hand of cards, face down, as many as the candies they have just drawn.

Draw Deck

Randomly draw 25 cards from the rest of the Law cards and return the remaining unused ones to the box. Shuffle the End card into 10 of the 25 cards, and place the other 15 on top of them. The draw deck is formed.

Playing the Game

Players take turns clockwise, starting with a player chosen randomly. A player's turn consists of the following steps:

1. Propose a law
2. Vote
3. Play or discard the proposed law
4. Draw a card

1. Propose a Law

The player chooses a Law card from their hand, reads it out loud and places it face up in front of them.

There are three types of law, indicated by the background colour:

• Red laws have an instant effect when adopted.
• Blue laws have a lasting effect on the game.
• Yellow laws have an effect on scoring at the end of the game.

2. Vote

The proposed law is now put to a vote. All players pick one of their Vote cards and hold it face down in front of them. The Vote cards are simultaneously revealed once everyone has chosen a card. Then the issue of the vote is determined.

The Basic Rule of Voting

• If there are a majority of Yes votes, the law is adopted. If there are a majority of No, the law is rejected.
• In the case of a tie between the Yes and No votes, look at the balance scale on the top of the Law card. If the balance is at equilibrium, the law is adopted; if not, the law is rejected.

Exception: Wild Vote Cards

The Wild vote cards change the basic rule of voting as follows:

• If a player plays a Definite YES, the law is always adopted.
• If a player plays a Definite NO, the law is always rejected.
• When both Definite Yes and Definite No cards have been played, the law is adopted if there is a majority of Definite Yes cards and rejected if there is a majority of Definite No. The balance scale is used as a tie-breaker.
• If one or more Scam card is played, the normal result of the vote based on the above principles is reversed. If the law would have been adopted, it is rejected; if it would have been rejected, it is adopted instead.

After the vote, players take their Yes and No cards back to their hand for use but discard any Wild cards they have played.

3. Play or Discard the Proposed Law

If the law is rejected, it is discarded with no effect.

If the law is adopted, take actions depending on the background colour of the card (red, blue or yellow):

• When a red law is adopted, its effect is immediately applied once and the card is then discarded.
• When a blue or yellow law is adopted, the card is placed face up in the centre of the table. A blue law will take effect from the start of the next player's turn. The effects of all yellow laws will only be considered for scoring at the end of the game.

Some of the blue and yellow law cards carry a symbol at the bottom. Among the laws in effect in the centre of the table, there can only be at most one card with a given symbol at a time. If another law with the same symbol is adopted, it replaces the first one, which card is now discarded.

There can never be more than six blue or yellow laws in effect at a time. When a player proposes the seventh blue or yellow law, and there is no card with a matching symbol already on the table, they must specify before the vote which existing law will be replaced if their proposed law is adopted.

On Drawing and Losing Candies

• Some laws require a player to "draw a candy" - this means the player shall reach into the bag and draw a random candy; some laws require a player to "lose a candy" - this means the player shall choose one of his candies and return it to the bag. If a player has to do both actions when a law takes effect, they lose the candies first.
• If the player order matters, which is rarely the case, players must apply a law in the clockwise direction, starting with the player whose turn it is.

4. Draw a Card

The player draws one Law card from the top of the draw deck and places it in their hand. The game continues with the next player's turn.

(Refer to the next part if the End card is drawn.)

End of the Game

The game may end in two different ways and players then proceed to the scoring of the game:

• As soon as a player draws the End card, the game ends immediately;
• When the last candy in the bag is drawn, the game ends immediately.

Scoring

The basic scoring rule is that each candy is worth 1 point.

However, this rule is usually modified by the yellow laws that are still in force at the end of the game. These laws can modify the value of candies in some colours or give bonus points to some players.

The player with the highest total score wins.

Note: Do not confuse "points" with "candies" in the text of the laws. "Candies" are the wooden markers first placed in the cloth bag at the beginning the game, and "points" have no physical existence but are only scored at the end of the game.

Carte Blanche Variant

During the set-up of the game, shuffle the 10 blank cards with the Law cards before dealing them to each player. During the game, a player may play a blank card to propose a law of his own invention. The law must be clearly stated, and not contrary to the spirit of the game. If it is a blue or yellow law and is adopted, it must be written down for easy reference, somewhere other than on the card.

Voracious Variant

How could the animals resist the voracious lure of the luscious candies? At anytime if a player has 5 or more candies of the same colour, they can only keep 4 of them and return the extra to the box, which will be out of the play for the rest of the game.