Jungleball
Jungleball Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Jungleball is a dexterity game. It is played through a sequence of turns where players will throw small wooden disks at their opponent's characters, hoping to land on them and get them out. Activating a character allows the player to move that character anywhere on the board, use that character's unique ability, and then throw dodgeballs (wooden disks) from their characters!
Components
- Terrain (large stone, small moss-covered stone, bush, tree)
- Field markers (x2): center marker and left/right play bounds markers
- Dodgeballs (x10)
- Character cards (x21)
Character Cards
Character cards are the primary thing you'll be interacting with in the game besides the dodgeballs. There are 21 to choose from and each is totally unique!
- The large number in either the top right or top left corner (depending on the card) indicates how many dodgeballs must land on a character for that character to "go out" and be placed in the out pile.
- The textbox at the bottom of the card includes the character's name and their ability.
Symbol Legend
- Dodgeball
- Number of dodgeballs (shown as a number on a dodgeball)
- Critical hit (shown as a shield-shaped dodgeball icon)
- Character(s) (shown as a character silhouette icon)
Winning the Game
Land dodgeballs on your opponent's character cards to get them out. Get all of the characters on the other team out to win!
Set Up
- Agree on the center point of the table or surface equal distance from both players, and place the center marker on that spot. The dividing line indicates the separation between the two players' play areas.
- Agree on the left and right bounds of the play area and place the left and right play bounds markers accordingly.
- Give each player one dodgeball to add to their supply, then place six around the center circle.
- Give player one the large stone and bush and player two the tree and small moss-covered stone. Each player places their two pieces of terrain anywhere on their side of the play area.
Draft Your Team
- Randomly deal 10 of the 21 character cards, face-up, to the center of the table.
- Place the remaining 11 cards back in the box; they will not be used.
- The first player in the draft is the player with the tree in their area.
- Players then take turns, starting with the first player, picking one character at a time until both players have four characters in their roster.
- All remaining cards are returned to the box.
- Arrange your 4 team characters however you would like within your play area.
Players may opt to draft more or fewer characters for a longer or shorter game. Four is the recommended standard of play.
How to Play
Once players have chosen and positioned their team, play will commence. The first player is the player with the most 1s on their team. If both players have the same amount of 1s, the player with the tree in their area will go first.
Your turn will consist of:
- Moving a character.
- Activating that character's ability (if you choose to).
- Throwing dodgeballs.
Moving & Abilities
A player begins their turn by choosing which of their spry characters to activate. If it is your first turn, all your characters will be spry (untapped).
- Choose a character to activate.
- Move that character anywhere within your play area.
- Choose whether or not to activate that character's ability. Some characters will have active abilities you may choose to use; other characters, such as Rosa or Anna, have passive abilities that always resolve.
- If an ability is activated, resolve its effect.
- You may only activate one character and one ability per turn.
Things to Note
- Active abilities always take precedence over passive abilities.
- An active character always takes precedence over non-active characters.
- Card abilities can/do effect all characters unless explicitly stated otherwise!
Throwing the Ball!
Players may throw the wooden disk (dodgeball) however they like (flicking, tossing, flipping, etc.). Though they must throw with some part of their hand within 1-inch (above, left, right, or behind the card) of the card they are throwing from. Players may never cross the front edge of the card with any part of their hand when throwing.
Example: Player 1 can activate Alexei and throw from the one inch area above, right, left, and behind the card. Player 1 cannot throw from Igor because he is resting.
Players must throw each ball from a different spry card. The active card will be the first character the player throws from, the player then alternates throwing a single ball from their other spry characters until they wish to stop or run out of dodgeballs. A player may not throw from the same character until they have thrown from at least one other character. If the player has only one character remaining they may continuously throw from that character. A player must throw at least one ball on their turn.
Hit: Some part of the disk must be obscuring the card for it to be considered a "hit." At the end of the throwing phase move any dodgeballs that are considered to be "hitting" a character to the center of that character card.
Example: a dodgeball that is partly over Bongo's card is a hit; a dodgeball that is not obscuring the card is a no hit.
Crits & Hits
Players will always throw with the blank side facing up and the crit side facing down unless a card effect allows them to do otherwise.
- A dodgeball with the blank red side facing up counts as one hit against that character's total number.
- A dodgeball with the crit side facing up (a critical hit) counts as two hits against that character's total number.
Ending Your Turn
- Turn the activated character to its resting position (tap that card).
- Remove any characters you got out and add them the "out pile."
- Any dodgeballs that are on a character remain on that character (until they go out) (or a card effect removes it) even if you land a ball on one of your own characters.
- Your opponent takes any dodgeballs that did not land on a character and adds them to their supply.
- Any dodgeballs that land in the center remain in the center as though they were always there (explained further in the center section).
Characters Going Out
A character goes out when the number of dodgeballs on their card matches or exceeds the printed number in the top corner. Any dodgeballs that were on top of now-out characters go to your opponent's supply.
The Center
The center is the primary way new dodgeballs will enter the game. At the start of the game, six dodgeballs will be placed in the center circle. When a character ends their movement with some part of their card touching the center, that character may pick up a dodgeball from the center, add it to their supply and throw it that turn. The only way to remove dodgeballs from the center is to end a character's movement with that character touching the center. Any dodgeballs that land inside the circle or so that they are touching the center are added to the center supply.
If a character ends their movement touching the center they are able to pick up a dodgeball from it and add it to their throwing supply that turn. There are some characters that are able to break this rule, such as Chip. Chip is able to take a dodgeball from the center no matter where he ends his movement; this also means if he ends his movement touching the center he will pick up 2 dodgeballs that turn!
Resting vs Spry
After activating a card and completing your throwing phase, you will turn the card to its resting position. A card that is resting cannot be activated again until it is returned to its spry position (think of it as your characters taking a breather). Once all of your cards in play are resting, you immediately turn them all back to spry.
Example: if Alexei and Igor are both currently resting, as soon as you would switch Bongo to resting, instead switch all your characters back to their non-resting positions.
Terrain
Once placed, terrain can only be moved by throwing dodgeballs at it during your turn.
Terrain serves as a respite from the fast-moving dodgeballs but, take care of when, where, and how you hide because a fallen tree could be a career-ender!
- If terrain falls over onto a character, that character goes out due to an injury.
- If a piece of terrain slides onto a character but does not fall over, nothing happens.
- At the end of the current player's turn, that player moves any terrain that is still standing but on top of an active character so that the terrain is touching one of the four edges of the character card.
Character Abilities
The reference list below is printed on the last page of the rulebook. "DB" means dodgeball and "C" means character. Each card's ability is also printed in its textbox.
- #1 Alexei: Give your opponent 3 DB, throw all your balls this turn with the crit side face up.
- #2 Rosa: Crits don't effect Rosa.
- #3 Chip: Take one DB from the center.
- #4 Bongo: Move one DB from any other player onto Bongo.
- #5 Dr. Heat: Force any player to rest.
- #6 Morris: Choose any character, flip a DB on that character to its other side.
- #7 Kenneth: If Kenneth has 1 DB on him, choose an opponent's C, both that C and Kenneth go out.
- #8 Igor: Copy any other character's ability.
- #9 Anna: End your turn after moving Anna. You do not throw.
- #10 Yasmin: Move any player.
- #11 Chloe: When Chloe rests take 2 DB from the center.
- #12 Rosemary: Remove one crit from any other player and return the DB to the center.
- #13 Blu: Throw one DB crit side up for every card in the out pile.
Source Notes
- The Alexei card textbox reads "Give your opponent 2" while the ability list above reads "Give your opponent 3 DB". Both are transcribed as printed; the discrepancy is in the source.
- The source contains small typos that are kept as printed: "is is" (Overview), "abilty" (Moving & Abilities), "effect" for "affect" (Rosa), "opponents C" (Martha), and "opponent'ss" (sidebar on Characters Going Out).