Go Gecko Go!
Go Gecko Go! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 gameboard
- 4 crocodiles
- 4 turtles
- 4 frogs
- 4 geckos
- 54 water tiles
- 4 bridge piers
- 4 bridge bars
- 1 tree trunk
- 2 holders
- 2 color dice
- 1 weather die
- 2 labels
How You Set the Game Up
- Fix the tree trunk by using both holders at the end of the gameboard.
- Put each pier, with the groove upwards, into one of the four recesses.
- Choose any two bridge bars. Stick them into the piers so that two bridges are built. Note: Depending on the bars you use, the bridges will be either high or low.
- Fill all 4 river courses with water tiles until only the (depicted) starting stones remain visible.
- Keep the dice and the remaining water tiles at hand, next to the gameboard.
- Before the first game, stick the two labels onto the two blank sides of the weather die.
- Take one crocodile, one turtle, one frog, and one gecko and place them in that order, one after the other, right at the beginning of one of the river courses. This is now your river course.
What the Game is About
Be the first to get your 4 animals onto the tree trunk at the end of the river!
How the Game is Played
The player who last was in the water begins. After that, players play in turn.
On your turn, first check whether (at least) one of your animals is sitting directly before a bridge:
- YES! One of your animals is sitting before a bridge. In this case, you choose whether you roll the dice or shove. You never do both. (Illus.: Your crocodile is sitting before a bridge. You may shove. If you don't want to shove, you roll the dice.)
- NO! None of your animals is sitting before a bridge. In this case, you roll the dice. (Illus.: None of your animals is sitting before a bridge. You may not shove. You have to roll the dice.)
1. If you roll the dice, you roll all three of them.
First look at the weather die:
Does the weather die show sunshine? In this case, all of you benefit from it! Each player moves his animals that are sitting in the shade one space forward. If you leave any of your own animals in the shade, you have unfortunately missed the sunshine. What a pity! Animals that are sitting in the shade on top of each other jump one after the other, so they arrive at the next space in reverse order.
(Illus.: All spaces between blue banks are in the shade. If there is sunshine, the crocodile, the frog, and the turtle may move one space ahead, out of the shade. The crocodile (on the middle river course) jumps off the frog and moves to the next space, and then the frog lands on that space on top of the crocodile. The geckos remain where they are since they are not in the shade.)
After that, you take your game turn, using your color dice (which you have already rolled!). See "The color dice" below.
Does the weather die show a lightning bolt? In this case, you have two options. Choose one of them:
- You may advance one animal of your choice to the space immediately behind your next animal. If you do so, you don't take your game turn with your color dice (as an exception); or
- You ignore the lightning bolt and, instead, carry out a game turn with your color dice.
(Illus.: The lightning bolt lets your gecko move up to the space before the turtle. The gecko stops behind the turtle.)
Does the weather die show a rainbow? In this case, you now carry out a game turn with your color dice. In doing so, you may include the rainbow as a color of your choice.
The color dice: Off you go!
Move one animal forward. To do so, choose one color from the dice rolled. Move your animal of this color ahead. For each die showing this color, you may advance this animal one space. If the weather die shows a rainbow, you add it to the color of your choice, if you want to. And if you want to choose a color that is shown only on the rainbow, you may do this, too.
(Illus.: You rolled green, yellow, and the rainbow. If you choose green, you may move the frog two spaces forward. Your frog advances two spaces.)
(Illus.: All three dice show the color red. You may move your red animal (the crocodile) 3 spaces ahead. But since the rainbow shows all colors, you may, instead of the crocodile, move the turtle or the frog or the gecko one space ahead.)
Always observe all 7 golden river rules!
The 7 Golden River Rules
River rule #1: Animals can pass under bridges, never by dice-rolling but only by shoving. If you have rolled the dice, you may not move any animal underneath a bridge. Leave any animal you are moving on the space before the next bridge until you can shove it past the bridge (on a later game turn).
(Illus.: By using the two blue dice, you may advance your turtle two spaces, but not underneath the bridge. Therefore, you move the turtle only one space so that it lands on the space before the bridge.)
(Illus.: By using the lightning bolt, your gecko can only move to the space before the bridge, since the crocodile in front of it is already on the other side of the bridge. The gecko could get there only by shoving.)
River rule #2: If an animal ends up on an occupied space, you put it on top of the animal(s) lying there. (Illus.: The turtle lands on the frog and the gecko.)
River rule #3: Along your way, you may jump over other animals. (Illus.: The crocodile jumps over the other animals.)
River rule #4: The animal you are moving takes all smaller animals lying on top of it along with it. (Illus.: Here, your turtle can take the gecko and the frog with it, since both of them are smaller than the turtle.)
River rule #5: You may (by using the dice rolled) not move an animal with one or more bigger animals lying on top of it. (Illus.: Neither the frog nor the gecko can move. The (bigger) turtle is lying on top of them.)
River rule #6: You may let dice (moves) go to waste. (Illus.: Your gecko could jump over the turtle. But you would rather put it on the turtle's back. Therefore, you let one yellow die go to waste.)
River rule #7: By using the lightning bolt, you may not move up to an animal that already is on the tree trunk. (Illus.: You cannot use the lightning bolt for your crocodile, since there is no animal left in the river in front of the crocodile. The turtle and the frog have already crossed the finish line. You can use the lightning bolt only for moving the gecko up to the crocodile.)
2. If you shove ...
... you take a water tile that is lying next to the gameboard and shove it over the starting stone into your river course. Keep shoving until the starting stone becomes visible again and a water tile slips out at the far end of your river course. With shoving, your animals move ahead on the river. And at least one animal is shoved under a bridge.
Running into a bridge and getting stuck
During the shoving, animals can run into a bridge. If this happens, they fall off the animal they have been lying on and come to lie (on the water tile behind it) before the bridge.
- Make sure that any "fallen-off" animals remain "stacked" in unchanged order. (In most cases, this happens automatically when you shove. Otherwise help them along with your hands.)
- If there are animals on the water tile behind the tile that meets the bridge, place the "fallen-off" animals, in unchanged order, on top of these animals. In most cases, this does not happen automatically when you shove, since the "fallen-off" animals bump against the subsequent animals. So, if necessary, help them along with your hands.
(Illus.: The turtle and the frog fit underneath this bridge. The gecko and the crocodile fall off and come to lie before the bridge, with the gecko staying underneath the crocodile.)
(Illus.: The crocodile fits underneath this bridge. The "fallen-off" turtle ends up on top of the gecko sitting on the frog.)
Ending and Winning the Game
If you are the first player to get your four animals (no matter in what order) onto the tree trunk, you win the game.