CATS: a sad but necessary cycle of violent predatory behavior
CATS: a sad but necessary cycle of violent predatory behavior Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Basic Game
OBJECTIVE: Have your cat catch, steal and eat birds!
SETUP: Find the deck of bird cards and place "FLIP" on the bottom of the Bird deck so that he is the last card revealed. Deal a bird card next to each side of the Locale card. In a 3-4 player game do not use the Fence (5 player only).
Each player takes a Cat deck and places the Main Cat Card in front of them so that the side with the Cat's special abilities is face down. Remove the Taunt cards. The rest of the cards are kept in their hand. (Taunt cards and Special Abilities are used in the advanced version of the game).
(Illustration: Typical 3-4 Player Setup — the Locale Card in the centre with a bird card on each side, and the Bird Deck beside it.)
BIRD CARDS – Each bird has an enjoyment point value of 1 thru 4 (Square box in upper right-hand corner). The number of Stalk and Catch Cards required to take the bird are based on the icons on the bottom of the bird card. The paw represents the Catch Card, the Cat head/leg represents a Stalk card.
(Example: Jessica Albatross is worth 2 points; it will take 1 Stalk and 1 Catch to capture Jessica.)
How to Play
- All players will each secretly select a Target and an Action card and place it face down in front of them. Cards will simultaneously be flipped from side to side to reveal the target and action each player selected. The locale or cat that is targeted is facing the center of play and is readable to the player that played it). If the Action card is a STALK or CATCH, the Targeting Card should point to a Locale (the bird at that locale really). If the Action Card is a STEAL, the targeting card should be a cat. If it is a PLAY or EAT, any Targeting Card will do.
- *Players may not coordinate with other players ahead of time to agree upon placing certain cards.
- All players reveal their Cards simultaneously and every card of the same type is resolved in the order indicated below.
- All cards (other than placed Stalks) are picked up and the next round is played.
(Illustration: Cards are placed as follows and flipped to reveal the target and action.)
Actions are resolved in the following order
- TAUNT*
- STALK
- CATCH
- EAT
- STEAL
- PLAY
- New birds are flipped into place to replace birds that have flown away or have been caught.
*Advanced Rules only
All players place their Stalk Cards, then all Catches happen, then Eats, Steals and Plays. Conflicts are resolved using the rules below.
Stalk Card
Stalk cards are placed next to the targeted bird and are left in play until the bird is captured, flies away, or the cat that placed them chooses to pick them up. 2-point birds must have 1 Stalk card and 3-point birds must have 2 Stalk cards played on them by the same cat before being caught. Stalk cards played by more than one cat do not cause the bird to fly away. You must use your own Stalk cards to catch a bird. Stalks may only be used by the cat that placed them.
Catch Card
On a successful catch, place the bird face up next to the Main Cat card of the cat that made the catch. If more than one Catch card is played on the same bird in the same turn, the bird flies away (see Fly Away rule).
Eat Card
Playing an eat card means that you will collect the value of the bird eaten. Set the birds under your Cat card, so that your total points can be seen by all players. Once a bird has been eaten, it cannot be stolen.
(Illustration: Eaten bird layout. Katrina has 6 points. The value of the top bird has been doubled by her playing with it before she ate the bird.)
Steal Card
Steal cards target another cat in order to take a bird. If successful, the bird card is moved in front of the cat that performed the steal. When a Steal is played on a cat that does not have a bird, no Steal occurs. If more than one Steal card is played on the same cat, the bird flies away. If a bird with its value doubled is stolen, the bird is reduced to its base value. If a bird is stolen by one cat and stolen back by the first cat, the bird is still reduced to its base value.
If there are multiple Steal cards played on one turn on different cats, successful Steals occurs first until there can be no more successful steals. For example - Otis Steals from Katrina, Katrina steals from Elvis. Elvis plays a Catch. Katrina would steal from Elvis and Otis would steal that same bird from Katrina.
Play Card
After catching a bird, each player has the option of playing with their food. If the cat successfully plays with the bird without it being stolen the value of the bird will double. Rotate the bird card so that the doubled value is now on top.
Other Rules
BIRD FLIES AWAY – The bird card is removed from play (place under the Locale card). This typically happens when two or more players try to act upon the same bird. All Stalk cards associated with that bird are returned to players.
A BIRD IN THE HAND – Players are not allowed to have more than one bird in front of them at any one time. If they successfully Steal or Catch another bird before eating the bird in front of them, the first bird Flies Away and the second bird is now placed in front of them.
INVALID PLAY – If a player plays a Catch card on a bird where there are not enough Stalk cards present, a Stalk is played on a bird that does not require one, or an Eat card is played when the player does not have a [bird] in front of them, nothing happens for the player in that round.
UNTRUSTWORTHY CATS! (This happens rarely) If a Steal card is played on a cat that already has a bird AND that same cat is playing a steal card on another player, both steals will be successful. This order is important in that Katrina's original bird does not fly away. In other words, Steals happen before "Birds Fly Away". Otis steals the bird from Katrina, Katrina steals a new bird from Elvis.
END GAME – The game ends when all the birds have been eaten or have flown away. The Cat with the most points wins. On ties the player with the most bird cards wins. If it is still a tie, the player with the highest value bird wins, if it is still a tie, the game ends in a tie.
Optional Advanced Rules
(Add the Taunt Cards into each cat deck.)
TAUNT CARD – (Target Cat) this card is used to nullify a card that an opponent has revealed. Taunt cards cancel the action of all cards. If a "circle" of Taunt cards played on each other - Elvis taunts Katrina, Katrina taunts Otis, Otis taunts Elvis, then all Taunts cancel each other out. When multiple Taunts are played, only "unnullified" Taunts will work - Elvis taunts Katrina (successful), Katrina taunts Otis (does not work), Otis taunts Simone (successful), Simone taunts Carl (does not work), Carl catches a bird (successful).
SPECIAL CAT ABILITIES – Each cat has an ability that can be used once per game. After using this ability, flip the Main Cat card over to indicate that the ability has been used. If more than one cat uses their ability in one turn, they are resolved in the order in which they were declared.
The game is broken into turns which consists of 2 rounds. Each turn, players will select a targeting card for a Locale and a Cat (the location and cat are selected for both rounds at this time.). Place the 2 Targeting Cards face down. Players will also select 3 action cards to play. Place 2 Action cards from left to right. This is the order in which they will be played. Also, place another Action Card below the 2nd Round Action card. After Round 1 has been resolved, players will decide and declare which one of the two Round 2 face down cards they wish to play. Players then reveal their choice all at once. Players may not change the cards placed, but may peek at their cards to remind themselves what was placed.
All 1ST-ROUND actions are resolved before moving on to the 2ND-ROUND.
At the end of the TURN pick up your Action and Targeting cards and put them back into your hand.
You MAY pick up your Stalk cards or leave them by the bird you are stalking.
(Illustrated example: Elvis places his Main Cat Card, two Targeting Cards, an Action Card for Round 1 and two Action Cards for Round 2. The Bird Bath is targeted for Catch and Stalks this turn; Carl is targeted for Steal and Taunt cards this turn. Round 1 – Elvis tries to Catch the bird on the Bird Bath. Round 2 – After Round 1 has been completed each player will choose one of the 2 cards they placed to play in Round 2. In this case Elvis tries to Steal from Carl.)
Video directions can be found on the publisher's website: dphgames.com