ICECOOL2 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview
• Game Setup — It's Easy
• Before Your First Game
  • Flicking Techniques
• Playing the Game
  • Phase 1 — Round Setup
  • Phase 2 — Playing the Round
    • Events that can happen in a player's turn:
  • Card Special Abilities
    • Ice Skates
    • Tasks
    • Two Fish, Move Fish
  • Phase 3 — The End of the Round
• The End of the Game
• Special Situations and Clarifications
  • Orange Lines
  • Getting Stuck in the Door
  • Events Outside a Player's Turn
  • Ending Your Turn Out of the Game
  • Accidentally Moving Another Player's Penguin
• Changes in a 2 Player Game
• Tournament Scoring
• Credits

Components

• 4 Plastic Penguins
• 5 Cardboard Boxes (rooms)
• 16 plastic Fish tokens (12 fish in 4 player colors and 4 fish in white color)
• 54 Fish cards (each showing 1, 2, or 3 victory points)
• 4 Color Reminder cards
• 4 Penguin ID cards

Overview

In each round one of the players takes the role of the Hall Monitor (the Catcher) — his aim is to catch the other penguins (the Runners), who will try to collect fish hanging from the doors. Players gain victory points for catching others or for collecting fish. When either the Catcher has caught all the Runners or any of the Runners has collected their 3 color fish, the round is over. The game is over when every player has been the Catcher once. The player with the most victory points is declared the winner!

Game Setup — It's Easy

1. Arrange the 5 boxes by matching the same color dots on the bottom of the doorframes.
2. Put the 4 white fish tokens on the 4 marked spaces to hold the board.
3. Choose a color and take the penguin, reminder card, ID card, and 3 fish tokens of that color. Put your color reminder card and ID card on the table in front of you. Unused components are put aside.
4. Shuffle all the fish cards and put them in a face down draw pile within easy reach.
5. The player who saw a penguin most recently becomes the Catcher for the first round.

Before Your First Game

Hey, I see you're ready to begin the game. I want to help you understand how we move, so I suggest you take a warm up run around the school. Yes, just like in gym class.

Wanna see some cool moves?

Take your penguin and start on the red circle in the Classroom (box nr. 1). Flick your penguin around the school until it's back in the Classroom again. Once you're done, let the next player get in some practice.

Flicking Techniques

1. Straight line. If you want the penguin to move in a straight line, put your finger in front of it and make a push on the very center — it will move in a straight line.
2. Turning. If you want the penguin to run around corners or make crazy turns, flick it on the same side you want it to turn. So if you flick its right side it will rotate to the right.
3. Jumping. Believe it or not, but the penguin can also jump! Flick the penguin on the very top of its head, it will make the penguin jump. Use this to jump over walls! It's a legal move and all the cool kids are doing it!

Playing the Game

The game consists of as many rounds as there are players (except in a 2 player game, see Changes in a 2 Player Game). In each round one player is the Catcher and the other players are the Runners. Each round consists of 3 phases.

Phase 1 — Round Setup

1. Each Runner attaches one of their fish tokens on each of the three doors marked with the fish symbol.
2. The Catcher places his penguin in the Kitchen (box nr. 2) anywhere within the orange lined area. The placement of Runners is described below.

Phase 2 — Playing the Round

It's go time! The round is played in clockwise order starting from the player on the left of the Catcher. So in a 4 player game the sequence goes Runner — Runner — Runner — Catcher, and then repeats until the round ends.

A player's turn consists of one flick. The player on the left of the Catcher starts the round by putting his penguin on the red circle in the Classroom (box nr. 1) and flicking it. Then the next player in clockwise order does the same. The Catcher starts from the spot in the Kitchen where he placed his penguin during the Round Setup. In each next turn the player flicks the penguin from the place, where it stands at the beginning of his turn.

Note! For each Runner's first flick of the game, if he fails to move away from the red circle or the runner lands back on the red circle, he must repeat the flick until he moves his penguin away from the red circle.

Events that can happen in a player's turn:

• If the Runner completely goes through a door with a fish token of his color on it, he takes it and draws the top card from the fish card draw pile. You look at the card and put it face down partly covering your color reminder card. Each fish card gives as many victory points as the number on the card. It is possible to go through multiple doors and score multiple fish during your turn if your flick is good enough.

  Important! Going through the door completely means that before the flick, the entire penguin is on one side of the door. Then after the flick, the entire penguin is on the other side of the door (see the 3 pictures below).

  Jumping Over Doors! If you make a jump over a door with your color fish token on it, you do not receive the fish token. You must move through the door to receive the fish token! Bummer!

• If the Catcher at any point during his turn touches one or more Runners, he takes away their ID cards.

• Also if a Runner at any point during his turn touches the Catcher, the Runner must give his ID card to the Catcher.

  ID taken! If a Runner's ID card has been taken, don't worry! He is not out of the round and can still continue to play and collect fish!

Card Special Abilities

Ice Skates

If you have two fish cards with value 1, you may turn them face up at the end of your turn and immediately take another turn and flick your penguin following the regular rules. These cards must remain face up so you don't use them again for an extra flick. If you have enough cards, you may take more than one extra turn in a row. This ability may be used by both the Catcher and the Runner.

Tasks

Each fish card with value 1 also has a task that you may try to complete to score additional points. There are 3 possible tasks:

• Jump into an adjacent room (over the wall from one box to another). Your penguin does not need to end its turn in that room.
• Pass through 2 doors with one flick (it does not need to follow a straight or direct path).
• Bounce off the wall and then pass through at least 1 door (it can be multiple bounces).

You can only complete one task on your turn. To complete a task, you must announce the type of task you are attempting before taking your turn. If you successfully complete the task, then flip the card face up (to show it has been completed) and draw a new face down fish card from the deck.

If a value 1 card has been used to take an extra turn, it cannot be used to complete a task, and vice versa.

Two Fish, Move Fish

If you have two fish cards with value 2, you may turn them face up at any point during your turn to immediately move a fish token of any color to a different door. This fish cannot be placed on a door in the same room as the penguin of the same color.

Example: If the orange penguin is in the small middle room, his fish token cannot be placed on any of the 3 doors, that are leading out from the small middle room. But it can be placed on any of the other doors.

You do not lose these cards and still get points for them at the end of the game!

Phase 3 — The End of the Round

Round ends when:

1. Any Runner has collected all 3 fish tokens of their color.

   OR

2. The Catcher has caught all Runners (he has all ID cards).

Now that the round has ended:

• Each player, starting with the Catcher, draws 1 card from the fish card draw pile for each ID card they have. The Catcher will always get 1 fish card for his own ID card, plus an additional fish card for each ID he captured. A Runner will only get a fish card if he wasn't caught.
• Players take back their ID cards and 3 fish tokens for the next round.
• The player to the left of the Catcher becomes the new Catcher for the next round.
• Start a new round with Phase 1 — Round Setup.

For changes in a 2 player game see Changes in a 2 Player Game.

The End of the Game

The game ends after as many rounds as the number of players (each player will be the Catcher once). Count the victory points from your fish cards and the player with the highest total of victory points becomes the winner! Don't forget to also count your revealed ones!

In case of a tie, the tied player with the most cards becomes the winner. If this is also a tie, the tied players share the victory! For changes in a 2 player game see Changes in a 2 Player Game.

In the rare case you don't want to play another game of "ICECOOL", pack the boxes in the order shown below.

Special Situations and Clarifications

Orange Lines

If your penguin is close to a wall (and doors are part of the wall) or stuck in a door, before your flick, you may place it on the closest free point on the orange line (so the center of the penguin is on the line).

Orange Line is Covered! Sometimes the orange line is covered with artwork. In such cases, the line is considered to be present under the artwork.

Getting Stuck in the Door

First, why are you getting stuck in doors? You probably shouldn't have skipped all those gym lessons...

In order to get your fish token, you have to go completely through a door with your fish token on it in one move. Even if a small part of your penguin remains in the door frame (looking directly from the top) it hasn't gone through and it's "stuck". The Penguin has to be flicked completely through in a following turn from an orange line (see below).

Important! It can happen that your penguin goes completely through a door and then rotates back and becomes stuck in the same door. In this case going through the door counts and you get your fish token and the card.

In case of being stuck in a door:

• Before your flick, if looking directly from the top of the door you can see a small part of your penguin on either side of the door, you can place it on either room's orange line.
• Before your flick, if looking directly from the top of the door you can see the penguin on only one side of the door, you can place it only in the room where the part of the penguin is visible.

Note! Once stuck in the door, to get the fish you will have to move your penguin to the orange line and go completely through the door in one turn. This means you cannot just flick your penguin through the rest of the door.

Events Outside a Player's Turn

If another player during their turn pushes your penguin either completely through a door with your fish token on it or into the Catcher, you resolve all these effects as well. This means you would take off your fish token and get a card for being pushed through the door or lose your ID card for being pushed into the Catcher. Your penguin remains in the new spot after being pushed.

Ending Your Turn Out of the Game

If your penguin ends its turn outside of all the boxes, then it is put back into the box at the exact point where it started and your turn immediately ends (but you may still use two 1's to "Ice Skate").

If your penguin is somehow forced out of the game during another player's turn, the penguin is put back in the box at the exact same point where it started. There is no penalty for this.

Accidentally Moving Another Player's Penguin

If at any point you touch and move another player's penguin with your hand, put that penguin back in its previous spot.

Changes in a 2 Player Game

Wondering if the game is great for 2 players? Yes, it is. There are just a few changes in the rules for 2 players:

1. The Catcher has to catch the Runner twice before the round ends. When the Catcher touches the Runner for the first time, he takes away his ID card as usual. Then the Runner is moved to the Classroom and the Runner immediately takes a turn starting from the red circle like in the beginning of the game. The Catcher's turn completely ends and he cannot play two fish cards with value 1 to take an extra turn before this immediate turn of the Runner.

   The round ends when either the Runner has collected all 3 fish tokens or when the Catcher has caught the Runner for the second time. However, catching the Runner for the second time doesn't give another benefit for the Catcher apart from ending the round.

2. The game ends when each player has been the Catcher twice (the players alternate between the rounds for who plays the Catcher and who plays the Runner).

All other rules remain unchanged. Have fun!

Tournament Scoring

If you want to play a less random game, or maybe just see how scoring is done during official tournaments, you can use this scoring variant instead of the standard one.

During setup, there is no need to shuffle the deck of fish cards. Everytime a runner goes through a door, he takes the top card from the deck without turning it over, and it scores it as exactly one point. The same is true for ID cards — at the end of the round, each ID scores exactly one point.

Because the values on each card are ignored, special abilities of cards are also ignored (and cannot be used).

At the end of the game, the player with the most points is the winner.

Credits

Author: Brian Gomez. Illustrations: Reinis Pētersons. Brain Games Publishing SIA. © 2016 Brain Games Publishing SIA.

Special thanks for helping develop the game: Aaron McMillan, Aigars Grēniņš, Agnis Škuškovniks, Alise Mišņekova, Anna Peipiņa, Barduchi, Dora Grasmane, Eduards Ignatjevs, Elīna Zaķe, Emils Endele, Hellevi Talimaa, Ieva Bernauska, Ilze Rence, Imants Priedītis, Ivan Ivanov, Jana Singh, Jerry Haerle, Josh Davison, Kalvis Kincis, Kārlis Jēriņš, Kārlis Jurjāns, Krišjānis Nesenbergs, Krišjānis Zviedrāns, Laura Pastare, Marta Jurjāne, Milda Miliūnė, Oskars Veilands, Pāvils Jurjāns, Raivis Kalniņš, Reins Grants, Rita Stieģele, Roberts Zilvers, Silvija Krasta, Toms Grasmanis, Toms Vāvere.