Beetle to the Bubble Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Play 1 or 2 cards
  • Bonus action
  • Bonus card
  • End of turn - draw 1 card
  • Example
• General Moving Rules
  • Moving
  • Spaces change colour
  • Piggy-backing
  • Beetle stack limit
  • Stuck
  • Examples
• Milk Carton Office Tile
• Game End
  • Examples
• Terrain Tiles
• Team Variant
• Card Actions
• Bonus Actions

Components

• 12 double-sided track tiles
• 1 start tile (the Milk carton office) and 1 finish tile (the Bubble Bar)
• 15 (5x3) Beetles in 5 distinct colours (orange, blue, yellow, pink, green). Before your first game, place one sticker on each wooden disc to transform them into Beetles. You can decide which sticker goes on which colour disc.
• 54 action cards
• 6 player colour cards
• These Game Rules

Setup

1. Shuffle the action cards and make a face-down draw pile.
2. Deal all players 3 cards.
3. Choose player colours: each player takes a number of Beetles in one colour, according to the number of players in the game:
   • 2 or 3 player game: 3 Beetles per player
   • 4 or 5 player game: 2 Beetles per player
4. Also take the corresponding player colour card to keep track of which colour you are playing with. The White Beetle card is purely decorative, for now. Keep it somewhere safe ;).
5. Place the Milk carton office tile on the table and put all players' Beetles on it.
6. Lay out the track. The spaces that the Beetles can occupy during the race are marked by coloured flowers on the track tiles. They are connected by paths. For your first game, you can use the example track in the rulebook, or if you want to create your own track, it is recommended to only use the front side of the track tiles (the pink side). The back sides of the tiles (teal, orange, purple and magenta) offer different terrains that add new rules to the game. A description of these tiles can be found in the Terrain Tiles section at the end of this rulebook.
7. When creating a track, please consider the following guidelines:
   • Start with the Milk carton office tile.
   • There should be at least two tiles bordering the Milk carton office tile.
   • All tiles must be connected.
   • End with the bubble bar (finish) tile.
   • The number of track tiles between start and finish determines the game length:
     • Less than 6 tiles: Short game
     • 6 to 9 tiles: Medium game
     • More than 9 tiles: Long game

Playing the Game

Beetle to the Bubble is played in turns. On your turn, you take the following actions in order:

• Play 1 or 2 cards.
• End of turn - draw 1 card.

After this, the turn passes to the player to your left.

Play 1 or 2 cards

Play a card from your hand and perform the corresponding action. This usually involves moving one of your own or one of your opponent's Beetles. The individual actions are explained in the action table at the end of these Game Rules.

After resolving your first played card, you may choose to play a second card and perform its action.

After you've performed your action(s), discard the card(s) played face-up on the discard pile.

Bonus action

If you move a Beetle and it ends its move on a space that displays a bonus action symbol - and this space is not yet occupied by one or more Beetles - you may immediately perform the corresponding bonus action. Regardless of whether you moved one of your own or one of your opponent's Beetles.

The individual bonus actions are explained in the action table at the end of this rule sheet.

Bonus card

If you move a Beetle and it ends its move on a space that already contains one or more Beetles, you place this Beetle on top of the Beetle that was already there. Then you immediately draw an action card from the draw pile. Regardless of whether you moved one of your own or one of your opponent's Beetles.

End of turn - draw 1 card

At the end of your turn, draw 1 card from the draw pile. Whenever the draw pile is empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

You always draw just 1 card, even if you played 2 cards during your turn!

There is no hand size limit.

Example

Jill (orange) moves her Beetle to the space containing the bonus action 'Rotate a tile 1 turn'. Because she ends her move there she can rotate 1 of the tiles of the track. Fred (blue) plays an orange card moving Nikki's (yellow) Beetle on top of Jill's Beetle, this will not grant him the 'rotate a tile' action. Because he ends his move on top of another Beetle he gets to draw 1 bonus card.

General Moving Rules

The following rules apply when moving:

Moving

Beetles are allowed to move in any direction over the track formed by the paths on the tiles. Beetles must always end their move on a coloured space or on top of another Beetle.

Spaces change colour

Each space on the track displays one or more colours. However, in this game spaces are magical: whenever a space is occupied with a Beetle its colour changes to the colour of said Beetle (or the Beetle on top if more than 1 Beetle occupies the space).

Piggy-backing

When you move a Beetle, you must move any Beetles that are on top of it along with it. This holds for regular card action moves as well as for bonus action moves.

Beetle stack limit

A stack of Beetles may never exceed the Beetle stack limit. The Beetle stack limit for regular terrain tiles is 3. While moving a Beetle:

• It is not allowed to overtake another Beetle/stack of Beetles if during the overtaking the Beetle stack limit would be exceeded.
• It is not allowed to end at a space if that would cause the total height of the Beetle stack to exceed the Beetle stack limit.

Stuck

In the unlikely case that the cards in your hand do not allow you to perform a valid action, you have to discard 1 card, and then end your turn by drawing 1 card.

Examples

Jill (orange) wants to get to the bonus action. She plays a blue card. She cannot move past the stack of 3 Beetles above her, since that move would exceed the Beetle stack limit. She will have to move to take another path. She chooses to move all the way around the tile.

Fred (blue) plays a blue card to move his Beetle. He has to take Nikki's (yellow) Beetle along. He cannot move past the stack of 2 beetles above him, the stacking limit will be exceeded. He can move past the single green beetle ending his move on the next space.

Milk Carton Office Tile

The Milk carton office tile is the start space for the race. It counts as 1 space of all colours that forms part of the track. It is allowed to move a Beetle back onto the Milk carton office tile or pass over it to another tile.

Whenever a stack of Beetles ends its move on the Milk carton office tile, it must be de-stacked. The Milk carton office tile has an infinite capacity for holding Beetles. Whenever a Beetle passes over the Milk carton office tile, the Beetles that are already occupying this tile do not impact the Beetle stack limit.

Game End

The Bubble bar tile is the finish for the race. You win directly and the game ends immediately when all your Beetles have reached the Bubble bar tile. If 2 or more players reach it at the same time, the player whose final Beetle is bottommost of the stack wins the game.

The Bubble bar tile is the final tile of the track. It counts as one space of all colours that can be reached in the same way as any other space on the track. Once a Beetle or a stack of Beetles has reached the Bubble bar tile, they cannot be moved again. The Bubble bar tile has an infinite capacity for holding Beetles.

Examples

Jill (orange) plays the card 'Move your Beetle three spaces' to move her final Beetle onto the Bubble bar tile. She has to take Fred's (blue) and Nikki's (yellow) Beetles along, as these are placed on top of her own Beetle. This results in both Nikki and Jill having all their Beetles at the finish tile. Because Jill's Beetle was at the bottom of the stack, she wins the game.

Fred (blue) plays the card to move his Beetle to the next terrain tile. He can move to the first space on tile E or, to the Milk carton office tile. He cannot move to tile A because that is blocked by 3 Beetles and he is not allowed to traverse other tiles when making this move.

Terrain Tiles

The backsides of the tiles consist of different terrains and have a different colour (teal, orange, purple and magenta) that add new rules to the game. The icons on these tiles show the impact on the rules:

• The Beetle stack limit is 4 instead of 3.
• The Beetle stack limit is 2 instead of 3.
• The Beetle stack limit is 1 instead of 3.
• It is not allowed to overtake another Beetle / stack of Beetles (you can still land on another Beetle / a stack of Beetles).

(The source lists these four effects in this order, next to icons; the colour-to-effect pairing is shown only by the icons.)

Team Variant

When you are playing Beetle to the Bubble with 4 players, it is a fun variant to play in teams of 2 instead of individually. For the team variant, team members are not allowed to sit next to each other. As a result, turns alternate between teams.

The rules for playing the team variant are the same as for the regular game, with one exception: as soon as all your Beetles have finished, you continue the game playing with the Beetles of your team-mate during your turn as if they were your own Beetles. I.E. cards that let you move your own Beetles now can be used on the Beetles of your team-mate. You can continue to use the cards in your hand.

In the team variant you win, as a team, if you are the first team for which all Beetles have reached the Bubble bar tile.

Card Actions

Here's a description of the cards and their corresponding actions:

• Move 1 of your own Beetles until it reaches a Beetle of the indicated colour or a space that contains the indicated colour.
  • This action is not allowed if there is no path available to a space or Beetle of the indicated colour.
• Move any Beetle until it reaches a Beetle of the indicated colour or a space that contains the indicated colour.
  • This can be one of your own or someone else's Beetle.
  • This action is not allowed if there is no path available to a space or Beetle of the indicated colour.
• Move your own Beetle to a colour of your choice.
• Move 1 of your own Beetles 3 spaces.
  • This action is not allowed if the Beetle cannot move the full 3 spaces.
  • It is not allowed to visit the same space twice.
• Move any Beetle 1 or 2 spaces (depending on the card).
  • This action is not allowed if the Beetle cannot move the full 2 spaces.
  • This can be one of your own or someone else's Beetle.
  • It is not allowed to visit the same space twice.
• Move 1 of your own Beetles until it reaches the first space on a neighbouring tile, taking into account the Beetle stack limit (see the example under Game End).

Bonus Actions

Here's an explanation of the action symbols found on the tiles:

• Move 1 of your own Beetles 2 spaces.
  • This action is not allowed if the Beetle cannot move the full 2 spaces.
  • It is not allowed to visit the same space twice.
• Move any Beetle 1 space.
  • This can be one of your own or someone else's Beetle.
• Move any Beetle 2 spaces.
  • This can be one of your own or someone else's Beetle.
  • This action is not allowed if the Beetle cannot move the full 2 spaces.
  • It is not allowed to visit the same space twice.
• Rearrange the order in any stack of Beetles.
• Rotate any terrain tile 1 turn in either direction.
• Take 1 card from the draw pile and put it in your hand.