Fat Fish Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• Your Big Catch: Victory and Penalty Points
• Rule Violations
• End of the Game
• Fishing Licenses

Goal of the Game

During the game each player collects cards and places them into one of two piles: a pile of fresh fish (cards with victory points) or a pile of fish bones (cards with penalty points). At the end of the game each player calculates the difference between the victory points and the penalty points they collected, and receives that final score. The player who scores the most points at the end of the game wins.

Components

• 100 fish cards (five colors)
• 9 fishing licenses
• 1 fiasco card

Setup

Set aside the fiasco card and the fishing license cards; they will be needed later. Shuffle the fish cards and deal them to the players as follows.

• Personal stack. Each player receives 12 fish cards and places them face down in a stack in front of them. Then each player takes 4 cards from their stack into hand. The remaining cards form each player's personal stack.
• Three rows of cards. Place 3 fish cards face up in a column in the center of the table. These cards are the first cards of the three rows in which you will fish during the game.
• Reserve stack of cards for the rows. Depending on the number of players, take the required number of fish cards from those remaining and form from them a separate stack (face down). Place this stack beneath the three rows of cards. This stack is called the reserve, and the rows will be replenished from it.

Players	Cards in reserve
2	3
3	6
4	9
5	12
6	15

Remove the remaining fish cards from the game; they will not be needed in this round. Place the fiasco card beside the reserve stack beneath the three rows of cards. The first few games of Big Catch are recommended to be played without the fishing licenses. However, once all players are well oriented in the rules, these cards will help to considerably diversify the game.

Playing the Game

The game begins with the youngest participant, and then turns pass clockwise. On their turn, a player must choose one of the rows on the table and lay cards from their hand into it. Cards are always laid out from left to right. Each row begins with the first card, lying face up.

The following rules apply to laying out cards:

• On your turn you may lay cards into only one of the three rows.

• You may lay out from 1 to 4 cards from your hand per turn.

• You must always lay cards one at a time at the end of the chosen row.

• The card laid must be either the same color as the last card in the chosen row, or a color on which none of the rows ends.

• As soon as a row receives its 5th card, it is considered complete, and the player who laid the last card into that row must take all the cards from that row and distribute them between the score piles (see below).

Example 1: At the start of her turn, Kata has a yellow, a green, a blue and a red card in hand. She chooses row I. Since this row ends with a yellow card, she lays down her card of that same color. Then she lays a green card in row I, since no row ends with green. Kata cannot lay a blue or a red card, because those are the colors that rows II and III end with, respectively, and she chose row I.

Your Big Catch: Victory and Penalty Points

On your turn, if you have completed a row, you must take all 5 cards from that row. They become your victory points and penalty points:

• Place one card of each color, face up, in a separate pile in front of you. These are your victory points (победные очки).
• Turn the remaining cards face down and place them in a separate pile beside it. These are your penalty points (штрафные очки).

Note: the number on a card shows how many points it adds or subtracts.

Exception: if you take 5 cards of one color, you may place 2 cards, not 1, into the victory points pile. The remaining cards are placed face down in the penalty points pile, as usual.

At the end of your turn, draw cards from your personal stack into your hand so that you again have 4 cards. If you completed a row this turn, turn over the top card of the reserve stack face up and place it in the place of the row whose cards you took. The turn passes to the next player.

Example 1: Katya lays the fourth and fifth cards in row I (yellow 6 and green 1). Since the row is now complete, she takes the 5 cards from row I and places the red 5, the yellow 6 and the green 1 into her victory points pile, which gives her 12 points. She then places the remaining cards (red 2 and yellow 3) into her penalty points pile, which costs her 5 points.

Example 2: Karl lays three cards, forming a row of 5 blue cards. He places two cards (5 and 4) into his victory points pile, and the remaining cards (4, 2 and 1) into his penalty points pile. This move gives him plus 9 and minus 7 points.

Fiasco card: The player who on their turn fishes not according to the rules must take back all the cards laid out on that turn and place the fiasco card in front of them. Then they must immediately take their turn again, this time following all the rules.

The fiasco card remains lying in front of a player until another player makes a mistake and takes it for themselves. The player who has the fiasco card at the end of the game receives 5 penalty points.

Rule Violations

Example 1: Sonya lays a blue 4 at the end of row I. This is forbidden by the rules, since a blue card can now be laid only in row III. As a penalty, Sonya receives the fiasco card and takes her card back into her hand. Then she must play again, laying cards into the correct row.

Example 2: Misha lays a red 5 in row III. This is forbidden by the rules, since a red card can now be laid only in row II. As a penalty, Misha receives the fiasco card and takes his card back into his hand. Then he must play again, laying cards into the correct row.

End of the Game

After a player has run out of cards in their personal stack and in their hand, they leave the game. The other players continue playing until all players have run out of cards in their stacks and hands.

Note: cards remaining in the rows at the end of the game stay in place and are not used when counting points. Remove them from the game.

At the end of the game each player calculates the sum of their victory points and subtracts from it all their penalty points. The player who received the fiasco card last subtracts 5 additional points. The player who scores the most points wins.

Fishing Licenses

Before going fishing in the deepest waters, it is recommended that players first play a few games of Big Catch to become familiar with the basic rules, and only then move on to the advanced rules and add the fishing licenses. All basic rules remain unchanged. Each fishing license is issued to a player under certain conditions and gives its holder additional victory points.

Shuffle the fishing license cards marked with the letters А, Б and В (A, B and V), draw one at random, and place it face up on the table so that all players can see it. Set aside the remaining 2 cards; they will not be needed in this round. Then place the fishing license cards marked with the letters Г through И (Cyrillic letters Г to И), face up next to the previous card. To obtain a fishing license card, you must fulfill the condition written on it. A player who receives a fishing license places it next to their victory points pile. Points for the cards А, Б and В are counted at the end of the game.

Rules for receiving licenses. License card А can pass from player to player during the game. Cards Б and В are issued to players only at the end of the game. Cards Г through И are issued to players only once, and after that are not passed to other players. During your turn, if you meet the conditions of several available fishing license cards at once, you may choose only one.

• Card А is passed between players. As soon as a player places a card with value 1 into their victory points pile, they immediately receive this license. If later a card with value 1 also appears in another player's victory points pile, this license passes to that player. The player holding this license at the end of the game receives an additional 10 victory points.

• Card Б is issued at the end of the game. It is received by the player with the fewest cards in their victory points pile. The player holding this license at the end of the game receives an additional 10 victory points. If several players are tied, the leading players receive 5 points each.

• Card В is issued at the end of the game. It is received by the player with the most cards with value 1 in their victory points pile. The player holding this license at the end of the game receives an additional 10 victory points. If several players are tied, the leading players receive 5 points each.

• Card Г. This license is received by the first player who completes a row containing cards with four consecutive values (1, 2, 3, 4, or 2, 3, 4, 5, or 3, 4, 5, 6), plus any fifth card. These four cards need not lie in the row in the correct order, and their color does not matter. This license brings 10 victory points.

• Card Д. This license is received by the first player who, when completing a row, takes from that row. This license brings .