Fritanga Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Playing Modes
• Components
• Setup
• How to Play
• A Player's Turn
  • Play Cards
  • Movement
• The Playing Area
• The Cards
• Frying Is Not Always the End
• End of the Game
• Glossary of Card Effects

Playing Modes

Fritanga has three playing modes, each of which has something particular to give your games a special touch. These modes have special rules that you can identify in the rulebook thanks to the following icons:

• Versus (icon): From 3 to 6 players. A fight to the death, Free-for-all, with only one food left raw (and uneaten) at the end.
• Versus Teams (icon): From 3 to 6 players: 2 against 2 or 3 against 3 (you can also play 3 against 2, or 2 against 1, if you are playing with an uneven number of players). It is not required to wear team jerseys or uniforms.
• Everyone Against the Chef (icon): From 3 to 7 players. One player is the chef and must fry all the food in order to win. Don't blame him. He's just doing his job. The other players are the food and work together over eight rounds (plus one additional turn for each food) so that at least one of them escapes and is not fried and eaten.

Components

• 6 food pieces (with plastic bases)
• 6 Food cards (illustrated on both sides)
• 1 rulebook
• 106 cards (some of which are only used in specific playing modes, which you can identify using the color icon in the top left corner):
  • 8 (orange) Fritos cards and 24 basket cards
  • 35 (orange) basic maneuvers: maintenance, a little break, breadcrumbs, F-rays, cold water geyser, no frying way! and trampoline (5 of each)
  • 25 (purple) maneuver cards for Versus mode: unbattered, switch, boom!, crack, and oil geyser (5 of each)
  • 14 maneuver cards for Everyone Against the Chef mode: 9 (black) chef's skill and 5 (green) splatter cards.

Source note: the component list above prints the purple Versus card as "crack"; the card glossary below describes the card as "Fissure (+chef)". The text is transcribed as printed.

Setup

To set up the game, carry out these steps:

1. Each player chooses a food to play with (or they can be randomly assigned), takes their piece and their own food card, as well as 1 Fritos card that they will use as their starting point in the game (see step 4).

2. In order to create the playing area, you must first prepare a deck of cards. For the deck, you will need the following:

   • A. 4 basket cards per player, and
   • B. 1 of each basic maneuver card per player (up to a maximum of 5 each).
   • In Versus mode and Versus Teams mode, add 1 Fritos card for every 3 players (rounding down) and 1 of each Versus mode maneuver card per player (up to a maximum of 5 each).
   • In Everyone Against the Chef mode, the player who will be the chef takes their 9 (black) skill cards. Add 1 (green) Splatter card per player to the deck (up to a maximum of 5).

3. Once the deck has been created, shuffle it thoroughly. Then, create a grid by placing the cards face down on the table. This is your playing area and it must be as square as possible, with at least 3 rows and 3 columns of cards. Important: You can choose the dimensions you prefer for your playing area, but you must always have at least 3 rows and 3 columns!

4. Each player places their Fritos card face up in the playing area alongside any card in an outside row or column. Then, place your piece on top of that Fritos card. Players start without any cards in their hand but acquire them as the game moves forward.

5. In Versus Teams, it is important that the members of each team are seated alternating around the table so that no team plays 2 or more turns in a row.

   The player who most recently ate fried foods will be the first player, and then the players take turns clockwise around the table. In Everyone Against the Chef mode, the player seated to the left of the chef is the first player, and then the players take turns clockwise around the table.

The rulebook includes an example 3-player game setup in Versus mode (49 cards): a 7-column by 7-row grid of face-down cards, with each player's Fritos card placed along an outside edge.

How to Play

During the game, the players move their pieces from one card to another and react to the effects activated by them, both when the cards are revealed and when a piece leaves them. If a food is surrounded by oil and has nowhere to go, or if it is pushed into an empty space, it falls into the boiling oil and it is possible that it will be eliminated from the game (see "Frying is not always the end"). Below, the general rules of the game are presented, but keep in mind that the effects on the cards overrule the general rules when they do not coincide.

• In Versus mode and Versus Teams mode, the players play an unlimited number of turns. The players take their turns one after another until there is only a single player (or the members of a single team) left standing. As soon as that happens, the game immediately ends.

• In Everyone Against the Chef mode, the players play 8 rounds as determined by the cards in the chef's hand with a golden icon (9 black cards, 8 of which have a golden icon). When it is the chef's turn, the chef plays a card with a golden icon and then the other players take their turns normally, going clockwise around the table and starting with whoever is seated to the left of the chef. When the chef plays the final card with a golden icon from their hand, the game will end.

A Player's Turn

No matter which mode you are playing, your turn as a player is made up of 2 phases: Play Cards and Movement.

Play Cards

In this phase, you can play as many cards as you want so long as they are used to change your location in the playing area or to cause problems and attack your rivals. When you no longer wish to or are no longer able to play any more cards, you go on to the Movement phase.

Movement

You must move your piece a distance of 1 or 2 cards either horizontally or vertically (or both but never diagonally). So, you can move over 2 cards in the same direction, or 1 horizontally and then the other vertically (or vertically and then horizontally). Each card you move your piece to must be adjacent (so that two sides touch between the cards) to the card you are on at that moment. So, you cannot cross an empty space between one card and another. Your piece cannot end its movement on a card that is occupied by another piece, but it can pass through other cards that have pieces on them.

When you have completed your movement and placed your piece on its destination card, turn that card over and apply its effect (if necessary).

• Cards with the hand icon enter your hand as soon as your piece leaves them. You can play them in any of your subsequent turns, after which they are placed in the discard pile.
• As soon as these are turned over, cards with the immediate-effect icon are immediately activated (and their effect is applied). When your piece leaves the card, it is then placed in the discard pile.

Once you have applied the effect of your destination card, your turn is over and it becomes the turn of the next player to your left.

In Versus Teams mode and Everyone Against the Chef mode, when a player falls into the oil, they can opt to leave their food there frying in the oil, knocked over flat between the cards to serve as a "bridge" that only that player's teammates may use. Pieces can pass over the top of these fallen bridge pieces, but they can never end their movement on these pieces.

If you reach the end of your Movement phase and you could not move your piece to another card, then you have no option but to fall into the oil! If you cannot play a Fritos card at that moment, you are eliminated from the game!

• In Everyone Against the Chef mode, the food players' turns are played normally, but the chef plays in a special way. The chef starts the game with a hand of 9 cards and plays 1 of the cards with a golden icon each turn. The 8 cards bearing the golden icon can only be played during the chef's turn. The other card can be played in reaction during any turn of the food players or even on the chef's own turn. This means the chef will play a total of 8 turns (1 card per turn). When there are no more cards in the chef's hand, it means the others will play 1 more turn each, and then the game will be over.

Once the chef has played a card and applied the effect on it, the chef's turn is over. Check whether there is still food in the playing area that has not yet fried. If there is, keep playing normally. If not, the chef has won!

The Playing Area

The playing area is made up of the cards placed on the table during setup, based on the number of players and the playing mode. Players move their pieces over the playing area and turn over cards to reveal and apply their effects. If the playing area is split into two or more "islands", neither of them are eliminated from the game, since players can still move from one island to the other using a card effect.

The Cards

• Card Backs: At the start of the game, the cards are face down and the back is showing. As the players move their pieces from card to card, those cards are turned over to reveal and apply their effects.
• Card Fronts: The color of the icon in the top left shows which playing mode each card is used in. Purple is only used in Versus and Versus Teams mode. Black and green are used in the Everyone Against the Chef mode.
• Effect: All of the effects on these cards are explained in detail in the effects glossary (see the Glossary of Card Effects below).
• Execution Icon: This shows when the effect of the card is applied. As soon as a piece leaves this card, it goes into that player's hand (hand icon). The effect of the card is applied as soon as it is turned over (immediate-effect icon).

Frying Is Not Always the End

Pieces can fall into the oil due to the effects of the cards or they may end up without any card they can move onto and drop to their doom. When your piece falls into the oil, you can bring it back into the game by playing a Fritos card from your hand. If you do, place your piece on top of any unoccupied card in the playing area, turn it over, and continue playing as normal. Crispy on the edges but still alive!

If your piece falls in the oil and you do not have a Fritos card in your hand, you are out of play for that round. On your next turn, you have one last chance to escape being eaten! This is achieved by turning any unoccupied card in the playing area face up. If, when it is revealed, it is a basket card, then you are back in the game (place your piece on top of that card). Otherwise, you are fried: put the card you just turned over on the discard pile and you are definitively eliminated from the game (turn over your food card so you do not have to witness the grizzly but tasty end).

End of the Game

• In Versus mode and Versus Teams mode, the game ends when there is only 1 food left (or only food from the same team) that is not fried. The last player or team standing is the winner.

• In Everyone Against the Chef mode, the game ends when there is no unfried food in the playing area or after 8 rounds have been played (plus 1 extra turn per food player after the chef has run out of golden icon cards). If there is no more food to fry in the playing area, the chef wins. If there is at least 1 food left, the other players win.

Glossary of Card Effects

• Fritos: Discard this card when you have fallen into the oil. Then you can place your piece on any empty card in the playing area. If there are no available cards, take a basket card from the discard pile and place it adjacent to another card already in play (see "Frying is not always the end").

• A Little Break: Discard this card to skip your next Movement phase. This allows you to avoid falling into the oil.

• Breadcrumbs: Discard this card then take 2 basket cards from the discard pile and place them face down adjacent to any other cards in the playing area (the 2 cards taken do not need to be placed adjacent to one another). If there are no available basket cards, you cannot play this card.

• F-Rays: Discard this card and you can look at the faces of 2 different face-down cards before putting them back where they were. Then, eliminate 1 card that does not have a piece on top of it from the game (it can be one of the cards you looked at or any other card).

• Trampoline: Discard this card to place your piece on any unoccupied card in the playing area of your choice that is still face down, then turn it over to reveal it.

• Maintenance: Discard this card then take 3 cards from the playing area that are still face down and, without revealing their faces, move them to other places of your choosing (that are adjacent to existing cards, they do not need to be adjacent to one another).

• Unbattered: Discard this card then choose a player who has 2 or more cards in their hand and steal 1 random card from them.