Help Me!
Help Me! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Presentation of the contents
- Creature tiles representing the spirits of Nature: the Baobab, the Cherry tree, the Palm tree, the Bamboo, the Willow, the Oak.
- 30 Avatar tiles (5 tiles numbered 1 to 5 for each of the 6 creatures in the game).
Object of the Game
Score more points than your opponent by placing your creatures on top of stacks of tiles which will be made during the game.
Setup
Shuffle the 30 Avatar tiles and place them randomly on the table, face-up, in order to make a rectangle of 5 tiles by 6.
The 6 Creature tiles are turned face-down then shuffled. Each player draws 2 Creature tiles, looks at them secretly and places them in front of him or herself, face down. The remaining tiles are returned to the box without either of the players looking at them.
Note: the Creature tiles must remain hidden during the entire game and only the player to whom they belong can consult them. The players must not give away which creatures they protect.
The younger of the two players begins the game.
Game overview
On their turn, a player must move an Avatar tile or a stack of multiple Avatar tiles.
The movement rules are the following:
- A tile or stack of tiles can be moved to a space to the right, left, above or below of its starting position.
- Diagonal movements are forbidden.
- Tiles (or stacks) must move onto an adjacent tile (or stack).
- It is forbidden to move to an empty space.
- When a stack is moved, it must be moved complete and cannot be split into multiple parts.
In the example, the Baobab Avatar tile in the center can be moved in four possible directions. At the end of its movement, it will have to cover an adjacent tile or stack of tiles. The starting space of the Baobab tile will now be empty and no movement will be allowed into it from that point on.
Note: Only the tile at the top of a stack is visible, checking the tiles inside a stack is forbidden.
As soon as a player has finished their movement action, it's their opponent's turn to play.
End of the game and scoring
The game ends when no Avatar tile or stack of tiles may be moved.
Once that happens, both players reveal their Creature tiles. Any Avatar tile or stack of tiles showing (on its top) one of the players' creatures is claimed by that player.
Each player then starts totaling their score:
- A stack of tiles is worth as many points as the number of tiles of which it is made.
- A tile by itself is worth 1 point to its owner.
- A tile can be worth the number of bonus points indicated in its upper right corner. For that, the tile must:
- not be the top tile in the stack.
- match the creature on top of its stack.
- match one of the creatures of the player who owns the stack.
The player with the most points wins the game.
Score example
Player A reveals her two Creature tiles: the Cherry tree and the Baobab. He thus becomes the owner of the following tiles and stacks of tiles (stacks 1, 2 and 3 in the illustration):
- This stack contains 7 tiles and is thus worth 7 points for player A.
- This lone tile is worth 1 point for player A.
- This stack contains 3 tiles and is thus worth 3 points for player A. In addition, that player also gets 5 Bonus points because of the Baobab tile in stack 3 as it corresponds to the tile found on top of that very stack. In total, this stack is worth 8 points (3+5) for player A.
Player A's final score is therefore 16 points (7+1+8).
Variants
Help Me! can be played with 3 or 4 players with the following changes:
- With 3 players, each player gets 2 face-down Creature tiles at the beginning of the game. Play proceeds clockwise starting with the youngest player. The rest of the rules remain unchanged.
- With 4 players, each player gets a single Creature tile at the beginning of the game. The remaining Creature tiles are returned face-down to the box. Play proceeds clockwise starting with the youngest player. The rest of the rules remain unchanged.