Houston, We Have a Dolphin!
Houston, We Have a Dolphin! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Here's what you should find in the box:
- 20 Astronaut cards including
- 10 Engineers
- 5 Heroes
- 2 Observers
- 2 Dolphins
- 1 Captain
- 4 Separate Cards to unlock during the game
- 16 PANIC Tokens (flashs)
- 1 Spaceship board
- 5 team badges
- 1 Cheat sheet: space walk combos
- 1 Cheat sheet: Advanced heroes (Advanced mode)
- 1 Wee little rule book
- Search for "Houston, we have a dolphin!" in google play store (see FAQs for technical details). Download the app!
Goal of the game
As a human astronaut team (including monkeys and dogs) you win the game by either
- repairing the spaceship on dangerous spacewalk missions and a final reset command of the captain.
- or you eliminate all traitor teams - those who are infiltrated by murderous dolphins! Don't panic!
If your team includes a dolphin at any point during the game, you are and stay dolphinized. You win by
- taking over power and flooding the whole spaceship
- or decimating all human teams to zero.
Watchout Dolphin: Try to be a dolphin in disguise! Keep your true intentions secret as long as possible!
Setup
Setup the board, and put your device on it. The void is your discard pile. Get the tokens ready.
Start the "Houston, we have a Dolphin!" app! Use the in app guide to start easily!
Crewing:
Each player selects a destination and takes the corresponding badge to represent his team. Scan it by holding the card face down, about 10 cm above your devices front camera (see FAQs for scanning tips).
Boarding:
Deal the astronaut cards according to the instructions in the app. They also fill the blank fields = the 3 modules and the void. Mind the module number.
You can be sure that there's at least one dolphin somewhere on the ship. (Two dolphins in case of 4 or 5 players.)
Keep your role secret and don't show your hand to anyone!
Captain's appearance:
The player who has the Captain (Cpt. E. Glue) reveals him. He puts the card face up in front of him. It can still be played openly throughout the game.
Have a close look at your captain. He seems anything but trustworthy. Give one PANIC TOKEN to each other team.
If the captain is not under the teams, the one player to shout "Don't panic!" first may be announced a temporary captain. Captain E. Glue waits in one of the modules on the table. If you save him, he regains control! This may be not so nice for the current leader.
Astronauts abilities
Heroes sacrifice themselves to detach a module. However, they need the support of 2 surrounding engineers.
Engineers use their wrenches to:
- A: help opening modules
- B: attack other astronauts
Combine 2 engineers to make them work.
Dolphins can eliminate other astronauts all by themselves. (...and make you a traitor team!)
Doggo can not be eliminated by human astronauts because he's a cutie. Asteroids and Dolphins will make his life dangerous nonetheless. Unlockable!
Observers can find out their neighbour's identity.
Mr. Microwave can be activated by two wrenches, just like a hero, only with a tragic consequence: All astronauts on the spacewalk die. Unlockable!
Game overview
The game consists of two alternating phases.
On spacewalks the humans try to detach modules to prepare for the reset. Therefore they need to create certain card constellations. Meanwhile the Dolphins secretly undermine that mission.
Spacewalks are also very suitable to get rid of unpleasant coworkers.
The following Captain's phase then decides about the fate of the crew members. He can sacrifice an astronaut, flood the spaceship or reset the board computer.
However, the crew can easily overthrow his shifty captain and send him to the void. They use their PANIC tokens to vote.
Phase 1: Spacewalks
Use your astronauts abilities on spacewalks to get closer to your goal. Spacewalks consist of 3 main steps:
- Send astronauts out
- Report of the incidents
- Return of the astronauts
1. Send astronauts out
You all, as a crew send 3 (and always 3) astronauts on a spacewalk. The turns are not taken around the table! Instead each player is called out before selecting one astronaut out of his hand.
Open Modules
The typical thing to do on a first spacewalk is to open a module and detach it from the inside.
Therefore you need a sacrificing Hero and two engineers. The hero card needs to be surrounded by Engineers, acting towards him.
Good to know: Engineers kill the same way. They encircle their victim.
The captain calls out the team to initiate the spacewalk.
The selected player chooses an astronaut from his hand to send him through the airlock. Without revealing it, he scans the card and puts it at card Slot A. He then calls out the next team.
This second player selects an astronaut of his team, scans and puts it at Slot B. He then calls out the last team, who then again selects an astronaut, scans it and puts it at Slot C.
After the third player has scanned his card, the spacewalk takes place.
Please note that you can never call out your own team. BUT you can call a team that has been called out before to make it appear twice (except when the called out player has no more astronauts left on his hand). However not involved players will later draw a Panic token!
Please also mind that revealed cards, like the Captain Card are to be played openly. After scanning, put it face up at the card slot.
Example: Sgt. Dowell is encircled by wrenches and opens a module! Detachment is triggered. Read: Detaching a module. (Max acts to the right. Number 5 acts to the left.)
Strategy tip: The whole crew makes plans. Discuss on how you can contribute to the detachment of a module or how to check the identity of a suspicious player. But careful, the dolphin listens to all of it and may thwart your plans.
Mind that it is not allowed to speak about details of your card (it can be named though) and that you mustn't read out all your cards at once. (Check the FAQs for more.)
Watch out Dolphin: If you're part of this plan, think twice whether you support your colleagues to gain trust (and screw them later) or choose another astronaut than anticipated, to keep the humans from coming closer to their goal.
2. Report of the incidents
What happens on a spacewalk stays on a spacewalk.
Whatever constellation of astronauts was hideously arranged by all players now has consequences.
The app reveals what happened on the spacewalk but will not tell you how it happened.
It's on you to find out!
Therefore it is important to know the combos that can be triggered and their hierarchy of occurence. You also find them on the Space Combos sheet.
The app checks the incidents outside the spaceship in the following hierarchy:
Hierarchy of actions
1st Asteroids
With a chance of roughly 20%, an astronaut is hit by an asteroid and thrown straight to the void. You're not told if there was an asteroid.
Example: "Astronaut A disappeared in the void."
Good to know: If there are no dolphins among the teams, the rate of asteroids increases significantly.
2nd Observe
Unless hit by an asteroid, the observer looks in the shown direction and identifies his neighbour. The discovered astronaut is named, however its location stays secret.
Example: "The dolphin was seen."
Good to know: For the rare case that the observer looks at an astronaut, who was just hit by an asteroid, he sees the asteroid instead.
3rd Engineering
Engineers can be used to open and detach a module, OR to attack another astronaut.
You always need two engineers, to hit the target from both sides, left AND right. The hit astronaut is then sent into the void. If the encircled card is a hero the module detachment is triggered (also see: Detaching a module).
Example: "Astronaut A disappeared in the void." or: "A module was opened."
4th Dolphin Attack
Finally, the dolphin may act on the situation. Being strong and malicious, he can kill his left or right neighbour without any help.
The attacked neighbour card will therefore disappear in the void.
Mind that the dolphin can only act if he was not killed before (no shit sherlock!)!
Example: "Astronaut A disappeared in the void."
If the captain dies during a spacewalk, the team with most astronauts provides the new captain. The player chooses an astronaut and puts it face up in front of him.
In case of multiple players with the same number of cards, the former captain decides on its successor.
Examples
The following Examples show you how the app checks the possible events. You will not be given this information during the actual game. Also you will not see the played cards.
Example 1: An Observer is killed
What you don't know is:
- 1st - In this mission, no asteroids appear.
- 2nd - The observer looks to the left. He sees an engineer hitting to the right.
- 3rd - The engineers encircle the observer. He's eliminated.
- 4th - No dolphins, so no dolphin attack.
The app informs the players about the result: "Lou was seen and Astronaut B disappears in the void."
Example 2: The dolphin gets his turn
What you don't know is:
- 1st - No asteroids appear.
- 2nd - No observer was played.
- 3rd - No astronaut is targeted by both of his neighbours.
- 4th - The dolphin wasn't killed and can therefore act. He eliminates his right neighbour, the right hitting captain.
The app informs the players about the result: "Astronaut C disappeared in the void." (The dolphin player hopefully has a good excuse!)
Detaching a module
The modules are not empty. The team of the sacrificed hero now has the choice:
- A: Save the astronaut in the module, scan the card and include him into your team (without showing it to anyone). The module is detached automatically.
- B: OR Raise the PANIC on ship. Take 3 PANIC tokens and send the victim in the module into the void. The module is detached automatically.
Now send the sacrificed hero into the void as well.
Good to know: If you save Captain E. Glue from a module, he INSTANTLY becomes the new captain of the spaceship. The former captain is sent into the void.
3. Return of the astronauts
After all actions have been resolved, all living astronauts return to their teams. Teams that were not involved in the spacewalk feel futile and take one PANIC token.
The astronaut cards that disappeared in the void must be put on the void field.
Strategy tip: Now is the moment to discuss what could have happened. Try to find out who played which astronaut and why. Did all players do what they said they would? Was there a fishy incident? Who's on your side? Who is not?
Phase 2: Captain's Phase
The Captain's Phase consists of 2 steps:
- Captain's Order
- Voting on revolt
After the astronauts return to the bridge, they discuss the incidents of the spacewalk. The captain may announce his order. He chooses between the following:
- SACRIFICE ASTRONAUT — Somebody must be held responsible for all the trouble! Sacrifice an astronaut! Choose the threatened team. The according player picks the astronaut to be sacrificed freely, scans him, and sends him to the void.
- FLOOD SPACESHIP — Flooding the spaceship is usually only a good option if you can live underwater - like a dolphin, who then wins the game.
- RESET SPACESHIP — The captain can only reset the spaceship, when 3 modules have successfully been detached from the spaceship. This is the finisher move for humans.
Before the order is executed, the captain needs to wait and see if the crew is in panic.
Panic check
"With great panic comes great responsibilty."
If the crew does not agree with their captain, they can revolt. Therefore they do a PANIC vote. Each player except the captain team, takes all of his PANIC tokens and hides both hands.
Decide freely how many tokens you want to invest to overthrow the captain. Take them in one hand and put it closed on the center of the table. All players open their hands at the same time. Count the PANIC tokens in all hands. If the number is equal or higher than the number of voters, the crew overthrows its captain and sends him into the void.
E.g. in a game of 4 players, 3 players are voting. Therefore, they need to collect 3 or more panic tokens to revolt.
If a revolt took place, send the captain to the void. The team who panicked most (the player who invested most panic tokens) provides a new captain. He chooses an astronaut from his team, scans it and puts it face up in front of him.
In case of a tie, the player of those who panicked most, with most cards provides a new captain, as he is the most powerful.
If there's another tie: f**k it, the game is over! Just kidding, then the former captain decides upon his successor (out of the most panicking, powerful teams).
If there's no revolt because the number of PANIC tokens in all hands is smaller than the number of voters, the captain stays captain and his order is executed.
In both cases all revealed PANIC tokens, are put back to the tray.
End of the Game
The game ends when one faction achieved its goal.
For dolphinized teams: Flooding the spaceship or eliminating all human teams.
Human teams: Resetting the spaceship or eliminating all dolphinised teams.
The app tells you when any of these events occurred!
FAQs
Are we allowed to talk about or show our hand?
No, you may not show your cards.
Furthermore you are not allowed to ask for or tell your complete hand (e.g. "Tell me every single card you have!" "Jimmy, Sheila, Max and Paul!") or point out details of the illustration ("I have Sheila, trust me, how else would I know she has very small earrings?").
BUT you can ask if someone can hit to the left or the right. Keep in mind that fibbing ist part of the game! You may claim to have any card you can think of and you never have to answer (a good argument is to keep information from the listening dolphin).
Scanning doesn't work!
Mind that there are no QR Codes in this game. Card identification only works via our self-developed image detection algorithm!
These 5 things may help you to improve your scanning speed:
- Aim for the front camera of your device, not the screen.
- Hold your cards with a distance of roughly 12cm. For reference, 12 cm is roughly, the height of your playing cards. :)
- Hold still! Just one sec, Pleaase.
- Check if there's any other obstacles in the focus of the camera. It might even be your head. Honestly, it is hard to play this game whilst standing because our algorithm tries to find images in your faces. Sorry!
- Turn up the screen brightness and turn off the ceiling lights. Lighting can be an issue.
Can my device play HwhaD? Does it work with a gameboy?
No. If your smartphone has a front camera, android 5.0, iOS 10 or younger, you will almost certainly be able to play. If it doesn't work on your phone, ask your richest friend for his/her phone. Otherwise contact us for bug fixing/refund and a big sorry!