Cat Lady
Cat Lady Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Your game of Cat Lady should include the following. If it does not, contact [email protected] for assistance.
- 102 Game cards
- 13 Stray cat cards
- 6 Victory point tokens (VP)
- 1 Cat token
- 60 Food cubes (20 red, 20 blue, 15 white, 5 purple)
- 1 Rulebook
The food cubes represent the three types of food — chicken, milk, and tuna — plus wild food.
Setup
- Shuffle the 13 stray cat cards to form a face down stray cat deck.
- Game cards form the main deck and will have a different number of cards depending on the number of players:
- 2-player game: Remove all cards with a number 3+ and 4 in the top right corner and return them to the box. Then remove 2 cards at random and return them to the box without looking at them.
- 3-player game: Remove all cards with a number 4 in the top right corner and return them to the box. Then remove 2 cards at random and return them to the box without looking at them.
- 4-player game: No cards are removed.
- Shuffle the main deck face down and deal 9 cards face up in the center of the table to form a 3x3 grid.
- Deal 3 stray cat cards face up off to the side. Place the cat token and all wooden food cubes off to the side.
- The player who has the most cats in real life is the starting player and takes the first turn of the game. The player sitting counterclockwise from them takes the cat token and places it next to one of the rows or columns. The starting player is now ready to take the first turn!
How to Play
When a player finishes their turn, the next player clockwise around the table takes a turn. Players continue taking turns until the end of the game.
Taking a Turn
During your turn, you must take an entire row OR column of three cards from the grid of 3x3 face up game cards (you cannot take a diagonal row). However, you cannot take the row or column that the cat token is next to. Effects of the various card types are explained below.
Move the cat token next to the row or column that you took cards from.
Then refill the row or column with three cards face up, drawn from the main deck.
You may play Lost Cat and Spray Bottle cards anytime during your turn.
Your turn then ends and the next player clockwise takes a turn.
Example: On Julie's turn, the cat token is on the bottom row so she cannot take that row. She decides to take the 3 cards from the leftmost column. She collects a toy mouse, which she places into her hand; the cat Sir Cuddleface, which she places in front of her; and a tuna, which she discards and takes a blue cube. The column of cards is refilled and the cat token is then placed at the top of the leftmost column since that was the row that she took cards from.
End of the Game
The game ends when an empty row or column needs to be refilled and there are no cards remaining in the deck.
The player with the most leftover food after feeding their cats must lose 2 VP. If two or more players tie for the most leftover food, they each lose 2 VP.
Players now add up all of their VP from cats, stray cats, costumes, catnip, toys, and VP tokens including any penalties.
The player with the highest total VP wins the game! If two or more players are tied for the highest total, the player who has the most fed cats is the winner. If there is still a tie, the first player to win the next game of Cat Lady is the winner.
A summary of each scoring item is posted below for reference:
- Fed Cats
- Food Penalty
- Score Costumes
- Score Catnip
- Score Toys
- VP Tokens
Card Types
Cats
When you take a cat card, place it face up in front of you.
Feeding Needs
At the end of the game, all of your cats need to be fed, represented by the food symbol(s) on the bottom of the card.
If the cat is fully fed, you gain VP equal to the number on the left side of the card.
If the cat is not fed, you lose 2 VP regardless of the number on the left side of the card.
Example: If Bronte is fed 2 tuna the player gains 3 VP. There are no partial points for feeding the cat part of its needs. If Bronte is not fully fed, the player will lose 2 VP.
Cat Colors
Cats also have one or more colors (black, orange, or white). Some cats may reward VP for having other cats of certain colors.
If players have difficulty distinguishing the colors, the top left corner of the cat card shows a reference of its color: B = black, O = orange, W = white.
Food
Food cards are needed to feed your cats at the end of the game. There are three types of food: chicken, tuna, and milk. When you take a food card, you must immediately discard it and collect a food cube of that color which you keep until the end of the game.
There are also x2 chicken, x2 tuna, and x2 milk cards. When you take one of these cards, you collect 2 food cubes of that color.
If you take a wild food card, you must discard it and take a wild (purple) cube. Wilds can be used as any type of food (chicken, tuna, and milk).
Note: The player with the most leftover food after feeding their cats must lose 2 VP, so be careful to only take enough food to feed your cats!
Costumes
When you take a costume card, keep it in your hand until the end of the game.
At the end of the game, the player that has the most costumes gains 6 VP. If two or more players tie for the most, they divide the VP among them evenly.
If you do not have at least one costume at the end of the game, you lose 2 VP.
Catnip
When you take a catnip card, keep it in your hand until the end of the game.
At the end of the game, if you only have 1 catnip you lose 2 VP. If you have 2 or 3 catnip, you gain 1 VP for each of your fully fed cats. If you have 4 or more catnip, you gain 2 VP for each of your fully fed cats.
Toys
When you take a toy card, keep it in your hand until the end of the game.
You gain VP based on the number of different toys you have. You may score for multiple sets.
Example: Kat ends the game with 1 feather wand, 2 cat towers, and 3 mouse toys. She has one set of 3 unique toys and scores 5 VP. The set of a cat tower and mouse toy scores 3 VP. The single mouse toy scores 1 VP.
Lost Cat
When you take lost cat cards, keep them in your hand until you choose to play them during one of your turns.
Finding Stray Cats
You may discard 2 lost cat cards from your hand to "find" one of the face up stray cats cards and add it to your cat area in front of you.
Stray cats are like regular cat cards and must be fully fed at the end of the game or you lose 2 VP.
When a stray cat is taken, do not replace it by drawing another stray cat card. Only three face up stray cats are available during a game.
Gain VP
You may also discard 2 lost cat cards from your hand to take a victory point token, which is worth 2 VP at the end of the game.
Lost cat cards remaining in your hand at the end of the game have no value.
Spray Bottles
When you take a spray bottle card, keep it in your hand until you choose to play it during one of your turns.
Playing a spray bottle allows you to move the cat token. This allows you to block the next player from taking cards from that row or column, or to help yourself by revealing a blocked row or column for you to take cards from.
Spray bottle cards remaining in your hand at the end of the game have no value.
Cat Clarifications
Florence, Antoinette, Eliot
Florence is orange and therefore scores for herself when fed. The same holds true for Antoinette (who is white) and Eliot (who is black).
LeVar Purrton
Multi-colored cats may count as both color of cats.
Zoroaster
A player's costumes score normally in addition to Zoroaster's ability.
Macak
If fully fed, Macak counts as an extra catnip.
Waffle
Waffle may only eat one type of food.
Hemingway
If you tie for the most fed cats, he is only worth 3 VP.
Credits
Game Design: Josh Wood Development: John Goodenough Art: Josh Wood Layout: Marco Morte Editing: Nicolas Bongiu Production: Dave Lepore
© 2017 Alderac Entertainment Group.