Castle Climbing Frog Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Before the First Game: Building the Royal Tower
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• End of the Game
• Variants
• Team Game (3–4 Players)
• Solo Game

Components

• Game board
• Tower walls A, B and V (printed А, Б and В) — 3 walls
• 4 dividers and the box bottom (the grid)
• Pond (on the board)
• Garden (the area labelled "сад" in the original, where the portrait deck is placed)
• Hourglass
• 10 colored balls (the 10 items that fell into the pond)
• 4 paper clips
• Frog figure on a string, with 2 beads
• 20 portrait cards
• 10 castle resident tokens

Before the First Game: Building the Royal Tower

Tip for parents: help your children prepare for the game.

1. Take the game board and the 3 tower walls out of the box, and carefully press out of them the elements marked with the special symbol (on the right), as well as all the elements that cover the windows in the tower. Note that some stones in the wall masonry do not have this symbol, but they can still be pressed out. Do not press these out if you are playing for the first time or want to play the basic version of the game. Elements with the special symbol (on the right) can be thrown away. Pressed-out elements without this symbol will be useful for the rest of the game.
2. Take all the components out of the box and place the empty box bottom in front of you. Take the dividers and join them as shown in the illustration below. Place the resulting grid in the box.
3. Place the game board on top of the dividers.
4. Assemble the tower walls as shown in the illustration: first lay wall V on the table, then wall B on top of it, and finally wall A. Fasten the walls together with 4 paper clips at the places marked with a yellow dot.
5. Stand the fastened tower walls up in a "house" shape and insert them into the slots on the game board, as shown in the illustration.
6. Take the frog figure. Thread the ends of the string through the metal loops of both paper clips at the top of the tower. The frog figure must end up on the side of the tower that shows the throne. Put one bead on each end of the string, then tie each end with a double knot.

The Royal Tower is built!

To put the game back into the box, take the tower out of the slots in the board and lift the board off the grid. Place the portrait cards, castle resident tokens, balls and hourglass in the centre of the box, between the dividers. You do not need to take the Royal Tower apart: just bend the paper clip tabs inward and place the tower on top of the grid, face down, so that the frog figure and the string ends are inside the box. Cover the folded tower with the game board. Place the rulebook on top of the board.

If you are playing for the first time

Before starting, try moving the frog figure so that it goes exactly where you want. To do this, take one of the colored balls, place it on the frog's upper paws, and take one end of the string in each hand. Alternately pull the ends harder and softer to carefully lift the frog figure to the top of the tower. Try to bring the ball all the way to the top without letting it drop into any of the holes in the wall.

Setup

Place the Royal Tower in the centre of the table so that all players can see it clearly.

Randomly choose 1 castle resident token and find 2 portrait cards with the same picture among the portrait cards. Look carefully at the cards and the token: what colour is the item this castle resident is holding in their hands? Find the ball of the same colour and place it next to the cards and the token. This is the castle resident's set, which you must put into the box lid, because you will not need it in this game.

Example of a castle resident's set:

• 2 portrait cards and a token showing the royal cook;
• a ball the same colour as the cabbage in his hands on the portrait.

Shuffle the remaining 9 castle resident tokens, place them face down (with the castle resident picture facing down), and insert them into the windows of the tower without looking at their faces.

Shuffle the 18 remaining portrait cards thoroughly and place the resulting deck face down on the garden, in front of the tower. Place the remaining 9 balls into the holes in the pond. Place the hourglass beside them.

Playing the Game

Turns pass clockwise. The first player is the participant who croaks the loudest.

Turn the top card of the portrait deck face up. The castle resident pictured on the portrait has dropped an item out of a window and now asks the postman Little Frog to fish it out of the pond and bring it back up.

Each player's turn consists of the following 2 phases:

1. Finding the owner of the item that fell into the pond.
2. Delivering the item to its owner.

Phase 1: Finding the owner of the item that fell into the pond

Which window does the room of the castle resident you need lie behind? Choose one of the castle resident tokens inserted in the windows of the tower and turn it face up.

• If you did not guess correctly, and the token and the portrait show different castle residents, turn the token face down again and insert it into another free window of the tower. Then repeat the attempt.
• If you guessed correctly, return the token, face up, to the same window it came from (do not move it to a different window). Then proceed to phase 2.

Phase 2: Delivering the item to the castle resident (lifting the ball to the right window)

To return the item to its owner, choose 1 ball from those lying in the pond. It must be the same colour as the item shown on the castle resident's portrait. This is the ball you must lift to the right window.

To start, place the frog figure on the picture of the throne and place the chosen ball between the frog's raised paws. Then take the ends of the string in your hands and lift the figure toward the right window. As soon as the ball is in the hole beneath the right window, the item is considered delivered.

You have not returned the item to its owner if:

• you did not get the ball up to the right window before time ran out;
• the ball went into the wrong hole in the wall;
• the ball fell out of the frog's paws.

In any of these cases, turn the castle resident token face down in the same window where it is (do not move the token). Remove the revealed portrait of this castle resident from the game (put it into the box lid).

You have returned the lost item if:

• the ball ended up in the hole beneath the window of the right castle resident before time ran out.

When you deliver the ball to its owner, take the portrait as your reward. Then turn the castle resident token face down, without moving it to another window. Take the ball out of the hole in the tower wall and return it to the pond.

Then the next player's turn begins, clockwise: they turn over 1 card from the top of the portrait deck and place it face up in front of the tower. After this they begin phase 1 and start searching for the window of the castle resident pictured on the portrait.

Keeper of Time

The player sitting to your left receives the hourglass and the title of Keeper of Time. In this round he has a special task: he watches whether you manage to deliver the item within the allotted time. On the command "Ribbit-ribbit!" this player turns the hourglass over, and you begin lifting the ball to the right window.

The Keeper of Time must watch the time closely and, when the last grain of sand falls, shout "Stop!" (the other participants may remind him of his duty if he is distracted).

Tip: if you are playing for the first time or with small children, you can play without the Keeper of Time and the hourglass (do not time how long it takes to lift the ball to the right window).

End of the Game

As soon as the portrait deck runs out, the game ends. The participant with the most portraits is declared the winner. If several players are tied, each of them is a winner.

Variants

To make the game faster, before starting remove several cards from the portrait deck and put them into the box lid.

To make the game harder, press out additional elements from the masonry of wall A. This creates new holes in the tower wall. If you later want to play the basic version of the game, you can put these elements back into the wall of the tower.

Team Game (3–4 Players)

If you want to play as a team, the following changes to the rules apply.

Setup

• Press out half of the stones from the masonry in wall A.
• Shuffle the portrait cards thoroughly, count out 12 of them, and place them on the garden in front of the Royal Tower. Remove the other portraits from the game (put them into the box lid).
• Shuffle the 10 castle resident tokens and place them face up in the windows of the tower.
• Place the balls into the holes in the pond.
• Agree whether you want to play against the clock.

Playing the game

• The round now consists only of phase 2 (delivering the item).
• Turn the top card of the portrait deck face up and place it in front of the tower. In this variant, players lift the ball to the right window as a team of 2 participants. Choose which players form the first such team. Each participant of the pair must take 1 end of the string in hand. Then both participants must lift the frog figure together toward the right hole in the wall. To do this, they must act in coordination.
• If they manage to return the lost item to its owner, they take the portrait as a reward.
• If they fail, the revealed portrait card must be removed from the game.
• Then the turn passes to the next team: its participants turn over the top card of the portrait deck and try to lift the ball to the right window.
• Each time you form teams, keep in mind that over the course of the game every participant must play in a pair with every other participant the same number of times.

End of the game

As soon as the portrait deck runs out, the game ends. How many portraits did you manage to collect?

• 7–12 portraits: your delivery service is the best in the kingdom!
• 3–6 portraits: well done, but you need a little more practice!
• 0–3 portraits: next time, try harder.

Solo Game

You can also play Castle Climbing Frog on your own. In that case, to win, try to collect as many portraits as possible as rewards for deliveries before the last grain of sand falls in the hourglass.