FlipToons: Season 2 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Credits
• Components
• Toon Card Anatomy
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Flip
  • 2. Check Fame
  • 3. Market
  • 4. Cleanup
• Final Flip
• Keywords
• Key Concepts
• FAQ
• Solo Play Rules
  • Solo Setup
  • Solo: How to Play
  • Adjusting Solo Difficulty
• Combining Games
  • Setup Changes
  • Gameplay Changes
• Solo: Combining Games
  • Combined Solo Setup Changes
  • Combined Solo Difficulty

Objective

In FlipToons: Season 2, players compete to have the most fame in their grid of toon cards.

Each turn, players shuffle their toon cards, flip them into a grid, and use their fame to hire new toons or dismiss cards in their grid.

Once any player's flip generates 30 fame, all players do a Final Flip, and the player with the most fame wins the game!

Credits

Game Design: Jordy Adan & Renato Simões Development: Harrison Dunn & Keith Matejka Illustration: Diego Sá Graphic Design: Stephen Kerr Editing: Jon Healey UX Design Consultant: Shy Lev-Ari

Special Thanks: Paul Berkbigler, Jess Carrier, Cosko, Steven Dast, Lauren Dunn, Pete Hoerl, Jim Kangas, Kane Klenko, Claire Matejka, Jeremy Roper, Jessica Shrestha, Eric Tague, Jennifer Tague, Adam Waldorf, and many more.

Components

• 24 starting cards
• 53 toon cards
• 5 price cards
• 4 reference cards
• 4 fame cards
• 1 critic's choice card
• 1 first player card

Toon Card Anatomy

Each toon card shows: the card's Name, its Rank (top left), the number of copies of that card in the deck (Card Count, top right), the Fame it generates (bottom left), a Special Effect icon, and an Ability describing what the card does in words.

Setup

1. Give each player a reference card and a fame card.

2. Give each player a deck of six starting cards: 2 mosquitoes, 1 spider, 1 grasshopper, 1 ladybug, and 1 firefly. Leave space for your dismissed cards.

   All starting cards are gray and have a rank of 0.

   Return all unused starting cards, reference cards, and fame cards to the game box.

3. Place the five price cards in the center of the table, in ascending order from left to right. If playing with 1-2 players, place the 3 and 15 price cards with the "x" side face up.

4. Shuffle the toon cards and place them face down to create the toon deck.

5. Reveal and place the top five cards from the toon deck to create the market. Sort them by rank, placing one card below each price card, so that the toon card with the lowest rank is below the leftmost price card, and the toon card with the highest rank is below the rightmost price card.

6. Place the critic's choice card face up near the toon deck.

7. Give the player who most recently watched a cartoon the first player card.

The game is ready to begin!

2-player setup example: the diagram shows a player's deck and grid space, the critic's choice card, the five price cards in ascending order (3, 4, 7, 10, 15), five market toon cards sorted beneath them, the player's reference and fame cards, and the first player card — each element numbered to match the setup steps above.

How to Play

FlipToons: Season 2 is played over a series of rounds. Each round is divided into the following four phases: Flip, Check Fame, Market, Cleanup.

1. Flip

All players do this phase simultaneously.

First, each player shuffles their deck face down. Next, they reveal cards from the top of their deck one at a time and place them in a 3-by-2 grid, from left to right, top row followed by bottom row.

Some toon cards have abilities that activate when placed, before the next card is revealed. If more than one card would activate at the same time, activate them in the order they were flipped.

Each player reveals and places cards until all six slots of the player's grid are occupied. Any remaining cards stay in their deck, face down in their play area.

If a player does not have enough cards in their deck to complete their grid, they reveal and place as many as possible.

Some abilities may change the total number of cards played in a player's grid.

Unless otherwise stated, special effects and abilities in a player's grid affect only that player's grid and deck.

2. Check Fame

All players simultaneously review each toon in their grid to determine how much fame they have generated. Each player marks their fame by overlaying their reference card on their fame card so the arrow points to their total.

Once calculated, this amount does not change until spent during the Market phase.

Example: Jordy generates 13 fame in his grid.

• Mosquitoes: 0.
• Capybara: 6 (2+4 as there are four cards left in his deck).
• Rat: 1.
• Grasshopper (beneath Rat): 2 (1 plus 1 per each card above).
• Firefly: 1 (since he does not have the least fame).
• Groundhog: 3.

If any player generated at least 30 fame, the player who generated the most fame takes the critic's choice card, which will generate an additional 3 fame during the Final Flip. If multiple players generated at least 30 fame and are tied for the most fame, return the critic's choice card to the game box instead. This triggers the end of the game (see Final Flip).

3. Market

Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player spends their fame to perform up to two actions. There are two types of actions: Hire a Toon or Dismiss a Toon.

A player may perform both actions once or one action twice. They may also choose to skip one or both of their actions.

Hire a Toon: Take one toon card in the market, spending fame earned in the Check Fame phase equal to the cost on the price card above the card. Add the hired card to the player's deck of unrevealed toon cards.

Dismiss a Toon: Dismiss one toon card in that player's revealed grid for 5 fame. A dismissed card is set aside and not shuffled into the player's deck during the Flip phase. Place the dismissed card face up next to the player's deck.

If there are multiple card abilities that resolve at the same time, they are resolved left to right, starting with the top row.

Cards in the player's deck or face down in the player's grid cannot be dismissed.

Unless a card ability says otherwise, players may dismiss cards only in their own grid.

Players may not dismiss a toon if they have fewer than four cards in their deck and grid.

Fame is not recalculated during this phase. Unspent fame is not carried over to the next round.

Refill the Market: Once a player has completed their actions, if there are fewer than five cards in the market, reveal cards from the toon deck until there are five available and rearrange the cards in the market so that they are ordered by rank (lowest to the left and highest to the right).

Some cards have abilities that cause the market to be refilled immediately after hiring a toon.

The next player in clockwise order completes the Market phase. Once all players have completed the Market phase, proceed to the Cleanup phase.

If the toon deck is ever depleted, do not add additional cards to the market. Any remaining cards in the market are arranged under the highest price cards, in order by rank.

If the market is also depleted, complete the round and proceed to the Final Flip.

Market phase example: Jordy has 13 fame. For his first action, he hires the raccoon in the market for 4 fame. He places it on top of his deck. The raccoon allows him to hire any dismissed card for free, so he moves a crow from his neighbor's dismissed pile to his deck.

For his second action, Jordy dismisses a grasshopper from a stack with a rat card and moves it to his dismissed pile. While a card typically costs 5 fame to dismiss, the rat's special effect allows cards in its stack to be dismissed for 4 fame instead. This leaves him with 5 fame remaining, but he has no more actions available.

Finally, the groundhog's ability triggers and Jordy must dismiss it.

4. Cleanup

All players collect the cards in their grid and add them to their deck.

If playing with one or two players, after refilling the market during the last player's Market phase, discard the leftmost and rightmost cards in the market. Refill the market again and rearrange the cards by rank, as needed.

If no player generated at least 30 fame during the Check Fame phase, pass the first player card to the next player in clockwise order and begin a new round.

If any player generated at least 30 fame during the previous Check Fame phase, the end of the game is triggered. Proceed to the Final Flip.

Final Flip

All players complete one last Flip and Check Fame phase. If a player has the critic's choice card, they add 3 fame to their total.

The player who generated the most fame on the Final Flip has assembled the best cast of characters and wins the game!

If players are tied for the most fame, the tied players collect all the cards in their grid and deck, shuffle their deck, Flip, and Check Fame again. The tied player who generated the most fame wins. Repeat this procedure until a winner is determined.

Keywords

Some toon cards have special effects or abilities with keywords:

• Adjacent: Cards next to each other in a player's grid that share a side (left, right, top, or bottom) are considered adjacent. Cards that are diagonal from one another are not adjacent.
• Dismiss: Remove a card from a player's grid and place it face up next to their deck.
• Flip: Turn over a card in a player's grid.
• Return: Place a card face down on the bottom of a player's deck. If a player's deck has no cards when a card is returned, the returned card becomes the player's deck and they continue their Flip phase if any empty slots remain in their grid.
• Stack: Place a card on top of another card in a player's grid so that the special effects and abilities of all cards in the stack are visible. If an ability stacks a card on another card that already has a card stacked on it, the new card is added to the top of the stack.

Key Concepts

Ability/Special Effect Timing: If a card's ability affects the next revealed card, resolve its ability fully before the newly revealed card's ability. If two or more abilities activate in the same stack, resolve them starting with the topmost card. If two or more abilities activate outside a player's grid, that player resolves them in the order of their choice. If any "When Hired" or "When Dismissed" abilities are activated during the Flip phase, resolve them at the end of the Flip phase in clockwise order starting with the player with the first player card.

Dismissed Cards: A player may examine any player's dismissed cards at any time.

Face-down Cards: A face-down card has no name, rank, special effects, or abilities and does not generate fame, but is still a card and still takes a slot in a player's grid. A face-down card may be flipped face up again by another card's ability, but does not activate any of its abilities.

Fish Cards: A fish card has a fish icon on the right side of the special effect banner. The goldfish, starfish, clownfish, and swordfish are considered fish cards. The shark is not considered a fish card.

Lowest Rank Card: If there is more than one card with the lowest rank, the card with lowest rank is the leftmost card in the topmost row of the grid. If there is still a tie between stacked cards, the lowest rank is the topmost of the tied cards in the stack. A face-down card has no rank and will never be the lowest rank card in a grid.

Next Revealed Card: If a card placed in the last slot of a player's grid refers to the next revealed card, ignore that part of its ability. A card's ability applies only once, even if the next revealed card moves or is returned after being placed. Fully resolve the ability affecting the next revealed card before any abilities on that card. If the next revealed card is flipped or returned, do not resolve any of its abilities.

Player Deck: A player may examine their own deck during the Market phase. A player may count the cards in any player's deck at any time.

Previous Placed Card: If a card placed in the first slot of a player's grid refers to a previous placed card, ignore that part of its ability. When a card refers to a previous placed card, it affects the card last added to the grid, even if that card has moved to a new position. If the previous placed card was returned, the ability affects the card last added to the grid instead.

Stack Adjacency: Cards within a stack are not adjacent to one another. All cards in a stack are considered adjacent to cards in neighboring spaces in a player's grid.

Stacked Cards: Stacked cards share a slot in a player's grid. The name, fame, rank, special effects, and abilities of all face-up cards in the stack are active.

FAQ

Firefly (0): Only one player can benefit from the firefly's ability each round, even if that player no longer has the lowest fame after benefitting from the ability. In case of a tie, the firefly has no effect.

Spider, Grasshopper (0): Only cards in the same column as the spider or grasshopper are counted for the ability. Face-down cards in the same column are counted for the ability. Stacked cards in the same column are counted, but cards in the same stack as the spider or grasshopper are not.

Groundhog (2): This ability is mandatory and does not cost an action. The groundhog considers only the six grid slots when checking for its ability and does not consider cards in additional rows outside of the 3-by-2 grid. The groundhog is dismissed even if it is in a stack in the first or last slot of the grid.

Rat (3): If a rat is face down or no longer in the player's grid during the Market phase, the special effect that reduces the fame cost of the dismiss action is ignored. The cost to dismiss a card cannot be reduced below 0 fame.

Raccoon (8): If a player hires a raccoon, the player may immediately hire a card from their own or another player's dismiss pile for 0 fame. This ability is optional and does not cost an action.

Panther (9): If a player hires a panther, they immediately dismiss a face-up card in their grid for 0 fame. This ability is mandatory and does not cost an action.

Opossum (10): Each dismissed card can be counted towards only one pair. For example, if a player has three mosquitos in their dismiss pile, the opossum scores only +2 fame.

Mongoose (11): If the card on the bottom of the player's deck cannot be dismissed, or if the player's deck is depleted after placing the mongoose, the player still adds a card from the toon deck, even though they did not dismiss a card. If the mongoose dismisses a card with a "When Dismissed" ability, resolve that ability after the Flip phase is complete. If more than one player has a mongoose and dismisses a card with a "When Dismissed" ability, resolve them in clockwise order starting from the player with the first player card. If a card with a "When Hired" ability is placed on top of the player's deck, the "When Hired" ability is ignored.

Capybara (12): Fame generated by this card is not affected by changes to the player's deck during the Market phase.

Crow (13): If a crow is dismissed during the Market phase, the player may immediately hire a card from the market for 0 fame and refill the market. If a crow is dismissed during the Flip phase, resolve its ability after the Flip phase is complete. If more than one player dismisses a crow during the Flip phase, resolve them in clockwise order starting from the player with the first player card. Hiring a card with this ability is optional and does not cost an action.

Coyote (14): If the previous placed card cannot be returned, stack the coyote with it instead.

Fox (16): The rooster card is from FlipToons and is not contained in FlipToons: Season 2. Fame generated by this card is not affected by changes to the market in the Market phase.

Crab (17): The crab is returned if placed anywhere in the middle column, including in a new row above a gorilla or stacked on another card. If a crab is returned when the player's deck is depleted or contains only crab cards, they immediately end their Flip phase, leaving the crab(s) in their deck.

Gorilla (19): When a gorilla is placed in the upper row of a player's grid, the next revealed card is placed above the gorilla, creating an additional row. An additional row is considered part of a player's grid, but does not fill one of the six grid slots and is not considered the "upper row". If there is already a card above gorilla, create an additional row above that card instead.

Vulture (20): A face-down card has no rank and cannot be dismissed. The dismiss ability is mandatory and does not cost an action. If the vulture is no longer in the player's grid at the end of the Market phase, this ability is ignored and does not dismiss a card.

Zebra (21): If a zebra is placed as the first card of a player's grid, ignore its ability. A face-down card has no rank and will never be returned by a zebra. If the lowest rank card cannot be returned, stack the zebra with that card instead.

Hippopotamus (24): Fame generated by this card is not affected by changes to the player's deck during the Market phase.

Solo Play Rules

To win a solo play game, you must generate 30 fame in a single Check Fame phase before the toon deck runs out.

Solo Setup

• Use a starting deck containing: 1 spider, 1 grasshopper, 1 ladybug and 3 mosquitos (instead of 2 as in the multiplayer game).

  The firefly is not used in solo play.

• After completing setup, discard 20 cards from the toon deck to a face-up discard pile.

• The first player card and the critic's choice card are not used in solo play.

Solo: How to Play

During each turn, complete the Flip, Check Fame, Market, and Cleanup phases as in the multiplayer game.

After refilling the market at the end of the Market phase, discard the leftmost and rightmost cards in the market. Refill the market again and rearrange the cards by rank, as needed.

When refilling the market, if there are not enough cards in the toon deck to refill it completely, the game is over, and you have lost.

After the Check Fame phase, if you have generated at least 30 fame, you win the game!

Adjusting Solo Difficulty

To adjust the difficulty of solo play, change the number of cards discarded during setup:

• Slapstick Starter (Easy): 17 cards
• Wacky Workload (Normal): 20 cards
• Maniacal Mayhem (Hard): 23 cards

Combining Games

FlipToons: Season 2 may be combined with the original FlipToons for more variety and to support up to 8 players.

Setup Changes

1. Randomly give each player a deck of six starting cards from either game:

   FlipToons: 2 caterpillars, 1 skunk, 1 dragonfly, 1 bee, and 1 snail

   FlipToons: Season 2: 2 mosquitos, 1 spider, 1 grasshopper, 1 ladybug, and 1 firefly

   Return all unused starting cards, reference cards, and fame cards to their game boxes.

2. Place the five price cards from FlipToons in the center of the table, in ascending order from left to right. Then from FlipToons: Season 2, place another 3 price card on the left side of those cards and another 15 price card on the right, leaving the market with seven price cards numbered 3, 3, 4, 7, 10, 15, and 15. If playing with four or fewer players, place the 3 and 15 price cards from FlipToons: Season 2 with the "x" side face up.

3. Shuffle the toon cards from FlipToons and FlipToons: Season 2 and place them face down to create the toon deck.

4. Reveal and place the top seven cards from the toon deck one at a time to create the market, sorting them by rank. If any card shares a rank with one or more cards already in the market, place it below the price card to the right of the rightmost card with the same rank.

The game is ready to begin!

Gameplay Changes

When refilling the market, reveal cards from the toon deck one at a time until there are seven cards available. Place cards that share a rank with an existing card in the market below the price card to the right of the rightmost card with the same rank.

Cleanup Phase: If playing with four or fewer players, after refilling the market during the last player's Market phase, discard the leftmost and rightmost cards in the market. Refill the market again and rearrange the cards by rank, as needed.

Solo: Combining Games

FlipToons: Season 2 may be combined with FlipToons for more variety and challenge in solo play!

Combined Solo Setup Changes

• Use a starting deck containing: 1 spider, 1 grasshopper, 1 ladybug and 3 mosquitos (instead of 2 as in the multiplayer game). OR 1 dragonfly, 1 bee, 1 snail, and 3 caterpillars (instead of 2 as in the multiplayer game).
• Return the pig toon card to the game box.
• Follow the additional setup changes above to form a market with seven cards.
• After completing setup, discard 70 cards from the toon deck to a face-up discard pile (or count out 28 cards and discard the rest).

Combined Solo Difficulty

To adjust the difficulty of solo play, change the number of cards discarded during setup:

• Slapstick Starter (Easy): 67 cards
• Wacky Workload (Normal): 70 cards
• Maniacal Mayhem (Hard): 73 cards

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