Fish'n'Stones
Fish'n'Stones Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 53 cards
- 36 pond cards
- 12 equipment cards
- 4 buckets
- 1 starting player card (float)
The Aim of the Game
Your aim is to catch more fish than your opponents (each fish is worth one point), and as few stones as possible (with each stone you lose one point).
Game Set-up
Each player is given three equipment cards in one color (1 cat, 2 blank cards) plus his bucket. The bucket is placed in front of you, the other three cards (1 cat, 2 blank) are held in the hand.
All the pond cards (fishes and stones) are shuffled, and placed face-down on the table.
The youngest player becomes the starting player, and gets the starting player card.
Game Turn
One game consists of four rounds.
Each round consists of five phases:
- Phase 1: Fill the pond
- Phase 2: Cast fishing rod
- Phase 3: Baiting (optional)
- Phase 4: Fishing (mandatory)
- Phase 5: Pass starting player card
Phase 1: Fill the pond
At the beginning of each round, the nine top cards from the pile are laid out (by the starting player) in the middle of the table face-up, like a 3x3 square pond. Each edge of the pond corresponds to a shore for fishing. Each of the nine cards marks one precise fishing spot.
Phase 2: Cast fishing rod
Each player secretly places one fishing card in front of each column on his fishing shore. The card with the cat determines the column in which he wants to go fishing in this round. The two blank cards are used to hide his intentions. When all players have done this, they may not look at them again until phase 4 (Fishing).
Phase 3: Baiting
Baiting means to move exactly one vertically or horizontally (not diagonally!) adjacent card and place it on top of the actually targeted fishing spot.
The card with the cat determines the column from which to bait from. If during the game a fishing spot holds more than one card, all the cards are prey to the bait and will be moved to the targeted fishing spot. It is not allowed to look at the cards underneath while baiting! Once the starting player has baited, the player on his left baits next until all players have done so. This clockwise baiting can actually make a fishing spot move around more than once during the same round.
Baiting is optional and must not be performed if deemed unsuitable i.e. because the baiting spot contains (only) stones (and/or water).
If a player makes a mistake while baiting, i.e. because he forgot where he placed his cat, he may not undo his choice afterwards.
Phase 4: Fishing
Fishing means to lure exactly 1 fishing spot from the targeted column into your bucket. The card with the cat determines the column which must be fished from. The player with the starting player card fishes first, meaning that for now only he reveals his 3 cards.
Like baiting, fishing is done in turn in a clockwise direction. So it can happen that once a player gets to fish, all the fishing spots in his targeted column are empty, or even worse, they hold only stones and/or empty water. But, who can fish must fish!
Each card that is not fished during a round remains in the pond, and is covered by one of the nine new cards at the beginning of the next round. So over the course of the game, a fishing spot can hold several cards. However you cannot look at a card once it is covered by another!
Phase 5: Pass starting player card
Once all the players have fished, the starting player card is passed round clockwise.
End of the Game
The game ends after four consecutive rounds.
Scoring
Each player counts the fish he has caught, minus the number of stones in his bucket. The player with the highest score wins.
In the event of a draw, the player with the fewest stones in his bucket wins.