Carnival (2023)
Carnival (2023) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 70 Creature cards
- 9 Mask cards
Creature cards consist of 5 different creatures, they can be easily identified by their background colors, symbols and, of course, the Creatures themselves! There are 14 cards of each Creature type. Twelve display a positive number of Creatures, ranging from 1 to 6. There are two cards of each number. Also, there are two cards with a negative number: −2 and −4. They count negatively for the corresponding Creature type.
Creature cards with negative values represent Creatures that are not impressed with the Carnival and are leaving.
Game Overview
Carnival is a quick, tactical card game with a memory element. The game is played over 2 rounds.
In Carnival, you start with a handful of Creature cards. You can use these as spectators or contribute them to the Carnival. Spectators will earn you points, but only if there are more of the same type of Creatures in the Carnival stack. How many Creatures are you going to contribute to the Carnival?
Setup
Deal one Mask card to each player. Add the remaining Masks to the deck and shuffle it well.
Randomly discard the following number of cards based on the number of players:
| Number of players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cards to discard | 38 | 21 | 14 | 8 | 0 |
Deal each player the following number of cards based on the number of players:
| Number of players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cards to deal | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
After this, players might have more than one Mask in their hand.
Place the remaining cards face down on the table to form a draw deck. Then turn the top card face up and place it next to the draw deck to start the Carnival stack.
The player who last saw or participated in a Carnival starts!
How to Play
During your turn, you must draw one card from the draw deck and then play a card from your hand face up:
- A onto the Carnival stack,
- B on the table in front of you (as your Spectator), or
- C in front of another player (as their Spectator).
If you play a card onto the Carnival stack A, make sure this card covers all previously played cards in this stack.
If you play a card on the table in front of you B, it will become one of your spectators. Spectators (Creature cards) must be sorted by Creature type and must be visible to all players at all times.
If you play a card in front of another player (following the same placement rules) C, it will become one of their Spectator cards.
After you have played a card, your turn ends and the game continues clockwise.
Mask Cards
You can use a Mask card to hide Creatures from other players. When playing a Mask card, slide another card from your hand face down under it. This way, the Mask card hides the Creature you played from your opponents. Mask cards can be used to play hidden Creature cards in the Carnival stack, as your Spectator, or in front of another player as their Spectator. In this case, you play two cards in one turn, reducing the size of your hand by one.
When you play a Mask card as a Spectator in front of yourself or another player, you do not have to sort it based on the Creature type of the card underneath.
Once a Mask card has been played, players cannot look underneath it. (Even if a player placed the Mask card with the Creature underneath as their own Spectator, they are not allowed to view again what they have placed).
End of a Round
The round ends when the draw pile is empty. However the player still gets to complete their turn. Players must now add the remaining Creature cards from their hands as Spectators to the cards they already have on the table in front of them.
Next, one player takes the Carnival stack and displays it openly on the table, sorting it by Creature type. Any Mask cards must be put away to the side, they do not influence the score.
Reveal all Creature cards hidden under Masks in your Spectator row and add them to their respective Creature type stack in front of you. Now determine if the Creatures you have played as Spectators in front of you are happy with the Carnival or not. To do so, count the values of every Creature type participating in the Carnival and compare them to the sum of Creatures of that type in your Spectators row. This includes any cards with a negative value.
Your Creatures are only happy if there are more Creatures of their type in the Carnival than there are in the Spectator rows in front of you. Turn all cards of the Creature types that are not happy face down, they do not contribute to your score.
Finally, you add up the number of Creatures on all remaining face up Spectator cards in front of you. The total is your score for the round.
Example — Carnival stack and Spectator row:
- There are more creatures of this type in the Carnival than in Abby's Spectator row: Abby scores 4 points!
- There are more creatures of a certain type in Abby's Spectator row than in the Carnival: Abby scores no points, and flips these cards face down.
Example — scoring Abby's Spectator row:
- The same number of creatures in the Carnival and in Abby's Spectator row. Abby scores no points and flips these cards face down.
- There are more creatures of this type in the Carnival than in Abby's Spectator row, but the Spectator sum value is negative: Abby loses 1 point.
- There are more creatures of this type in the Carnival than in Abby's Spectator row: Abby scores 6 points!
Total score for Abby: 4−1+6=9
Write down the results for the round and play a second round using the same rules. The player who would have gone next in the previous round starts the next round.
End of the Game
After the second round, count your points using the same rules. The winner is the player who scores the most points over 2 rounds combined. In the event of a tie, the player with the most scoring cards in the second round is the winner. If players are still tied, they share the victory.
For Younger Players
Younger players can play an easier version of the game. In this version, you follow the base rules, except for the following change: You are not allowed to play cards in front of other players. You can only play Creatures in the Carnival stack or as your Spectators. You can still play mask cards to hide Creatures you play.