Bullfrogs Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Play Sequence
• 1. Play a Lily Pad Card
• 2. Take Actions
  • Deploy
  • Sabotage
• 3. Score Lily Pad Cards
  • Count Frogs/Bullfrogs
  • Jump Frogs/Bullfrogs
  • Remove Lily Pad Cards
  • Slide Lily Pad Cards
• 4. Draw a Lily Pad Card
  • Notes About the Log Card
• Game End
• Final Scoring
• Gameplay Example
• Credits

Components

• Rulebook
• 49 Cards
  • 10 Lily Pad Cards in each player color
  • 4 Player Aid Cards
  • 5 Starting Cards
    • 1 Log Card
    • 4 Lily Pad Cards with 6 spaces
• 64 Markers
  • 14 Frogs in each player color
  • 2 Bullfrogs in each player color

Setup

1. Each player chooses a player color and takes the corresponding deck of 10 Lily Pad Cards, 14 Frogs and 2 Bullfrogs.

   Note: When playing with 4 players, remove one "3 action" card from each player's deck.

2. Each player receives one Player Aid Card.

3. Place the Log Card in the middle of the table. Then arrange each of the four starting Lily Pad Cards on each side of the Log Card.

4. Each player shuffles their deck of Lily Pad Cards and places it face down near their area to create a draw pile.

5. Each player draws 3 Lily Pad Cards from their draw pile as a starting hand.

6. The youngest player takes the first turn.

Play Sequence

1. Play a Lily Pad Card
2. Take Actions
3. Score Lily Pad Cards
   • Count Frogs/Bullfrogs
   • Jump Frogs/Bullfrogs
   • Remove Lily Pad Card
   • Slide Lily Pad Cards
4. Draw a Lily Pad Card

1. Play a Lily Pad Card

At the start of a turn, the active player plays a Lily Pad Card from their hand onto the table. It must be placed face up and adjacent to the Log Card or another Lily Pad Card already in play.

Cards are considered adjacent when they are touching on one side. Cards diagonal to one another are not considered adjacent.

2. Take Actions

The number of Lily Pad Icons in the upper left-hand corner of the Lily Pad Card played in the "Play a Lily Pad Card" step determines the number of actions the player may take. There are two types of actions: deploy and sabotage. Each type can be taken multiple times during a turn and in any combination as long as the number of actions taken does not exceed the number of Lily Pad Icons on the card played in the "Play a Lily Pad Card" step.

Deploy

Add a Frog or Bullfrog of the player's color to any open space on a Lily Pad Card in the same row (horizontally) or column (vertically) as the card played in the "Play a Lily Pad Card" step.

• A Frog or Bullfrog may not be deployed to the card played in the "Play a Lily Pad Card" step.
• A Frog or Bullfrog may not be deployed to the Log Card.
• A player may never deploy more than 2 Frogs or Bullfrogs (in any combination) to a single card during a turn.
• If the player does not have Frogs or Bullfrogs left in their supply to deploy, the player may take a Frog of their color from a previously played Lily Pad Card or the Log Card and deploy it in the same row or column as the card played in the "Play a Lily Pad Card" step, following the rules above. Bullfrogs cannot be redeployed this way.

Sabotage

Jump an opponent's Frog from any Lily Pad Card located in the same row (horizontally) or column (vertically) as the card played in the "Play a Lily Pad Card" step to an adjacent Lily Pad Card with an open space or the Log Card.

• Bullfrogs can never be sabotaged.
• Frogs on the Log Card may not be sabotaged.

3. Score Lily Pad Cards

If any Lily Pad Cards are full after the active player has completed all of their actions, the battle on those cards is decided. They are then scored to determine the winner of the battle. If there are multiple Lily Pad Cards to score, the active player chooses the order in which the Lily Pad Cards are scored.

Count Frogs/Bullfrogs

Add up the Strength of each player's pieces on the full Lily Pad Card:

• Frogs have a Strength of 1.
• Bullfrogs have a Strength of 2.

The player with the highest Strength on the Lily Pad Card is the winner of the battle. If no single player has the highest Strength, there is a tie and no one wins the battle.

For example, the green player is the active player. The highlighted Lily Pad Card with 6 spaces is full. It must now be scored. The green player has a Strength of 4 (1+1+2). The blue player has a Strength of 3 (1+1+1). The green player wins the battle.

Jump Frogs/Bullfrogs

Each time a battle is decided, the Lily Pad Card sinks. The active player jumps 1 Frog or 1 Bullfrog from the sinking Lily Pad Card to each adjacent card, as long as it is either the Log Card or a Lily Pad Card with an open space, using the following priority:

• All frogs from the losing players.
• All bullfrogs from the losing players.
• All frogs from the winning player.
• All bullfrogs from the winning player.

If the battle ended in a tie, the active player is considered the winning player for purposes of jumping priority.

No more than 4 Frogs/Bullfrogs will ever jump when scoring a Lily Pad Card, since you cannot jump more than 1 Frog or Bullfrog to any one card, and every card has a maximum of 4 adjacent cards.

Any remaining Frogs on the sinking Lily Pad Card are returned to their respective players' supplies, while remaining bullfrogs are removed from the game and placed on their player's Player Aid Card.

Continuing the previous example, the green player must jump his opponent's 3 blue Frogs first because the blue player is the losing player. He chooses to jump the blue player's Frogs to the cards above, below and left of the sinking Lily Pad Card. He then has an opportunity to jump 1 Frog of his own color. He jumps his green Frog to the Log Card to the right.

A green Frog and a green Bullfrog remain on the sinking Lily Pad Card. The remaining Frog returns to the green player's supply and the remaining Bullfrog is removed from the game.

Then, because he won the battle, the green player removes the sinking Lily Pad Card and places it in his score pile, gaining him 6 Victory Points.

Remove Lily Pad Cards

After jumping the Frogs and Bullfrogs from the sinking Lily Pad Card, the winner of the battle receives the Lily Pad Card and places it face up in their play area as part of a score pile. If there is no winner of the battle due to a tie, the Lily Pad Card is removed from the game and no player gains points for the card.

The jumping of Frogs and Bullfrogs may have a ripple effect, causing additional Lily Pad Cards to fill and require scoring.

Be sure to check for other Lily Pad Cards that have filled and score them before moving to the "Slide Lily Pad Cards" step.

Slide Lily Pad Cards

After all full Lily Pad Cards have been scored and removed from the play area, there may be Lily Pad Cards that are no longer adjacent to the grouping of Lily Pad Cards that includes the Log Card. The active player must slide these cards into position so that all Lily Pad Cards on the table form one cohesive grouping.

• The Log Card cannot slide.
• Lily Pad Cards slide 1 at a time, in any order.
• Lily Pad Cards can slide any number of spaces to become adjacent to the grouping of Lily Pad Cards that includes the Log Card.
• When sliding multiple Lily Pad Cards, the active player chooses the order in which they slide.
• Sliding a single Lily Pad Card will often create another small separate grouping of cards. These must slide 1 at a time until all Lily Pad Cards are adjacent to one another.
• If possible, after sliding Lily Pad Cards, the grouping of cards should not form a straight line.
• Once all cards form one cohesive grouping as a result of sliding, this step is complete.

Continuing the previous example, there are no more Lily Pad Cards to score, but the Lily Pad Cards on the table do not form 1 group.

The highlighted Lily Pad Card is disconnected and must slide so it is adjacent to the grouping with the Log Card. The green player chooses to position it adjacent to the main grouping in the spot shown.

The green player draws a card from his draw pile and his turn is complete.

4. Draw a Lily Pad Card

The active player draws one Lily Pad Card from their draw pile to bring their hand back up to 3 cards. If the player's draw pile is empty, this step is skipped.

Play continues with the player on the left.

Notes About the Log Card

• Frogs and Bullfrogs get to the Log Card only if jumped to it when a Lily Pad Card is scored or if an opponent moves them to it via the Sabotage action.
• There is no limit to the number of Frogs or Bullfrogs that can be on the Log Card.
• The Log Card is not scored until after the game ends.

Game End

The game ends at the end of the active player's turn if all of the Lily Pad Cards of every player have been played.

Final Scoring

• Each player totals the Victory Points on the Lily Pad Cards in their score pile.
• Each Lily Pad Card of the player's color in their score pile is worth 1 additional Victory Point.
• Each Frog of the player's color on the Log Card is worth 1 Victory Point.
• Each Bullfrog of the player's color on the Log Card is worth 2 Victory Points.
• The player with the highest Strength on the Log Card earns 3 additional Victory Points. If there is a tie for highest Strength on the Log Card, no additional Victory Points are given.

The player with the most Victory Points wins. If there is a tie, the tied players score their Frogs (1 Victory Point) and Bullfrogs (2 Victory Points) on any Lily Pad Cards still in play.

If there is still a tie, rejoice in your shared victory or play again!

Gameplay Example

In this example, it's the red player's turn in a three-player game. For the "Play a Lily Pad Card" step, he chooses to play a card with four Lily Pad Icons to the highlighted spot.

For the "Take Actions" step, he first deploys 1 Frog to the lower Lily Pad Card two spots away. For his second action, he deploys 1 Frog to the Lily Pad Card to the right. For his third and fourth actions, he sabotages both the green Frog and the blue Frog on that card, pushing them to the adjacent card further to the right.

In the "Score Lily Pad Cards" step, the two highlighted cards will be scored.

For the upper highlighted card, the red player wins the battle. He has a Strength of 2 (1+1), while the blue and green players both have a Strength of 1. Next, the losers' Frogs must be jumped. The red player decides to jump the green player's Frog to the left and the blue player's Frog to the right. There are no other Frogs on the card from losing players, so the red player jumps one red Frog to the Lily Pad Card below.

His remaining Frog on the card is returned to his supply. The red player then removes the scored card from the play area and places it face up in his score pile.

For the lower highlighted card, the red player also wins the battle. He has a Strength of 2 (1+1), while the blue and green players both have a Strength of 1. He must jump either the green or the blue Frog to the Lily Pad Card to the right. The red player chooses to jump the green Frog. His 2 Frogs and the blue player's Frog are returned to their respective players' supplies. He then removes this card from the play area and places it face up in his score pile. This jumping has caused multiple chain reactions, causing 2 additional cards to become filled.

Now, the two highlighted cards need to be scored. The red player chooses to score the card to the right of the Log Card first.

The red player again wins this battle with a Strength of 4 (1+1+2). The blue player has a Strength of 2 and the green player has a Strength of 1. The green player's Frog must be jumped first, so the red player decides to jump it to the Log Card. Since the only other adjacent card is to the right, the red player must jump the blue player's Bullfrog there.

The red player's 2 Frogs are returned to his supply, while his Bullfrog is removed from the game. He then removes this card from the play area and places it in his score pile.

Next, the red player scores the Lily Pad Card below the Log Card. The blue and green players both have a Strength of 2, so the battle is a tie. The active player decides where the Frogs will jump, so the red player jumps the green player's Frog to the Log Card. The blue player's 2 Frogs and the green player's other Frog are returned to their respective players' supplies and the Lily Pad Card is removed from the game.

Scoring is complete, and now the red player must slide Lily Pad Cards so they all connect to the main grouping of cards that includes the Log Card. He chooses to slide the red card to the left and then up, connecting the green card to the main grouping. Next, he slides the blue card left and then up to the position to the left of the Log Card.

It's now the "Draw a Lily Pad Card" step. The red player draws a card from his draw deck and his turn is complete.

This was a particularly successful turn for the red player. He scored 14 points by winning battles on 3 cards and he denied the green and blue players the blue Lily Pad Card worth 4 Victory Points. Additionally, he positioned the green player to take away the blue player's control of the Log Card.

Credits

• Game Design: Keith Matejka
• Graphic Design: Luis Francisco
• Cover and Card Illustrations: John Ariosa
• Editors: Shelagh Redding, Cole Busse, Melissa Spors, Todd Walden, Corrie Walden and Huan-Hua Chye
• Special Thanks: To all the people who helped playtest and provided great feedback throughout development: Claire Matejka, Eric Schlautman, Kane Klenko, Ryan Danz, Brett Myers, Gregory Shives, Daniel Menard, Jason Sloan, Mario Giombi, Amy Stevenson, Eric Rasmussen, Rob Bradley, Thomas Leitner, Matt Stankey, Jeff Schigiel, Owen Schigiel, Jim Hansen, Dan Harwood, Thomas Hand, Vadim Nuniyants, Riley Bina, Eric Willes, Ryan Ries, Ryne Petersen, Cole Busse, Ryan Butts, Ryan Graff, Cindy Zuleger and Mitch Zuleger.

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