Bag of Butts
Bag of Butts Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 12 player butts (3 per player color)
- 1 butt bag
- 1 butt point (BP) pad
- 1 pencil
- 6 special butts:
- 2 black No Touchy Butts
- 2 gray Bonus Point Butts
- 1 white Extra Turn Butt
- 1 khaki Catch up Butt
Setup
Place one player butt in front of each player to show who is playing which color (pink, yellow, blue, or green). If you are fewer than four players, remove a single player butt of each unused player color from the game. Regardless of the player count, throw two player butts of each color into the bag. You always start the game with eight player butts in the bag.
Place the six special butts wherever they are within easy reach for everyone. If you are the scorekeeper, take the butt point (BP) pad and pencil. Decide on a starting player. You will take turns, one after the other, in clockwise order.
One Turn
If it is your turn, you will always draw all the butts from the bag and you will always draw precisely three butt groups (one after the other).
Your first choice is how many butts you want to draw for each group. Announce the size of each of the three groups before you start drawing the first group. You do not have to do math; the third group can simply be "the rest." However, no group can consist of zero butts. Place the three groups clearly separated from one another in front of yourself.
Your second choice is which of the three groups that you just drew you want to score. Each player butt in that group scores its owner 1 butt point (BP) during the first turn. In other words, everybody can earn BPs even when it is not their turn. Basically you are trying to draw the player butts in a way that one of the three groups scores you more BPs than you have to hand out to the other players. You can not score a group that only consists of special butts. (More on special butts later.)
Special case: In a two or three player game, you can score a butt group that only has player butts that do not belong to anybody. If you do, nobody gets any BPs.
Once the scorekeeper has done their job, throw the butts back into the bag and add one random special butt. It is the next player's turn.
Example: Ali's player color is green. He is the starting player and says, "One, five, and the rest!"
Ali scores the third group. He and the pink player each get 1 BP. The yellow and the blue player get nothing. Ali takes all special butts into both hands, shakes them, and lets the white special butt fall out randomly. He throws the Extra Turn Butt as well as the player butts into the bag.
Then it is Bella's turn. Her player color is blue and she says, "Two, three, the rest!"
Bella scores the second group. She gets 4 BPs and the pink player gets 2 BPs. Bella adds another random special butt to the bag and hands it on to the next player.
The special butts mainly do two things. Firstly, they each change the rules just a little. (Details later.) Secondly, for each special butt that you add to the bag the value of each scored player butt increases by 1 BP. In other words, each scored player butt is worth 1 BP during the first round, 2 BPs during second, 3 BPs during the third, and so on. Like this, the scores will continuously increase until a reset happens.
Special case: If you ever run out of special butts to add to the bag, simply continue to play and to increase the BPs per scored player butt with each turn regardless (until the next reset).
Reset
A reset happens when you draw the three butt groups and there is at least one special butt in each of the groups. During that turn nobody scores any BPs. Remove all special butts from the bag again. It is the next player's turn and each scored player butt is worth only 1 BP once more.
End Game
The "end game" begins after the first player has reached 28 or more BPs. However, this player does not automatically win as the game does not end immediately. Instead, you continue to play until the next reset. This often means that play continues until there is at least one special butt in each of the three butt groups. Whoever has the most BPs then wins.
Alternatively, a player can also force a reset. What this means is that when the bag reaches a player who is the BP leader already (beyond the 28 BPs threshold), they can end and win the game immediately, without having to draw butt groups.
In case of a tie, the tied players play a quick additional game until the next reset. The tied player who would have played next starts the tie breaker game. The player who has the most BPs after the additional game wins. In case of another tie, all tied players win.
Special Butts
No Touchy Butts (2x) You can not score a butt group that has a black special butt in it.
Bonus Point Butts (2x) Each player butt in a scored group is worth 1 additional BP for each gray special butt in that group.
Extra Turn Butt (1x) If you score a butt group that has the white special butt in it, you immediately get to take another turn after the current one. Do not forget to score and to add another special butt after both turns.
Catch up Butt (1x) The khaki special butt counts as a player butt of the player who has or the players who have the fewest BPs. You can not score a group that consists of just the khaki special butt. Also, as far as resets are concerned the khaki butt is a special butt.
An extra-complicated example: It is Frida's turn. Her player color is pink. Currently, she (alone) has the fewest BPs. As she can also tell from the five special butts which are already in the bag, each scored player butt is worth 6 BPs.
Due to the No Touchy Butt Frida can not score this butt group.
Since there is no special butt in this group, there is no reset. However, Frida would give 6 BPs to the yellow player and 12 BPs to the green player, without getting any herself.
Frida scores this butt group and gets a total of 16 BPs. She only has one pink butt in this group but the Catch up Butt counts as a second player butt for her. Usually, that would mean 12 BPs. However, each of the two Bonus Point Butts makes each of the player butts in this group worth 1 additional BP. In other words, each player butt is worth 8 BPs. For the same reason, the blue player also scores 16 BPs.
Since the Extra Turn Butt is in this group, Frida gets to add another special butt and go again straight away.
Butt Point Pad
The first column (with the butt icon above it) is meant for you to keep track of how much each scored player butt is worth during any given turn. Basically, write down each turn's "BP multiplier" here.
By the way, you can download additional butt point pad sheets online.