Kazaam
Kazaam Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
General rules
The game is designed for 2 to 5 players. Each player is creating his own homunculus piece by piece until it consists of nine parts: a head, a torso, a tail, two hands, two legs and a pair of ears.
Inside the box
Enclosed in this box you will find the following components:
- 63 tiles representing homunculus limbs
- 96 ingredient counters
- 6 alchemist cards
- This rulebook
If any of the game components is missing from the box, please contact us at [email protected] and we will send it to you as soon as possible.
Game setup
Before you play the game for the first time, carefully punch out the cardboard tiles and counters from their frames.
Shuffle the alchemist cards. Each player draws one card at random to determine which alchemist he will play this time. Return the extra cards to the box. Each card shows the alchemist's portrait and his favourite ingredient and contains space to place homunculus tiles, with the alchemist's favourite homunculus shown in the background.
Mix the homunculus part tiles and place them face down in the middle of the table so everyone can reach them easily. Place the ingredient counters nearby, they will form the ingredient pool. Each player draws three tiles at random and takes them in his hand, without showing them to other players.
The player who has most recently turned lead into gold starts the game. If there is no such person present, choose the beginning player randomly. The first player completes his turn and then the player on his left takes his turn, and so on.
The turn sequence
When it is your turn to play, you can perform three actions, choosing from the available actions below, in any order you like. You can decide to perform the same action more than once in a turn, or even perform the same action three times.
- Draw a tile from the face down pile.
- Play a homunculus tile. You may play a homunculus part tile from your hand and place it on the table. You must discard a combination of ingredient counters shown on the tile to play it.
- Use a homunculus part. You may flip over a homunculus part tile which you have in play to use its special ability.
- Extract ingredients. You may discard a homunculus part tile from your hand to take the ingredient counters shown on the tile from the pool. In addition, you receive one counter for your favourite ingredient.
- Flip back homunculus parts. You may use your action to flip back all homunculus tiles which you have previously flipped over.
When you have completed three actions, now it is the turn of the next player on your left.
Drawing
When you decide to draw, you take a random face-down tile into your hand, without showing it to other players. You can have six tiles at most in your hand – if you already have six, you may not draw any more until you play or discard some of them.
When the face-down tiles are used up, reshuffle the discarded tiles to make a fresh pile.
Playing a homunculus part
There are tiles representing parts of seven different homunculi in the game. You can tell them apart by their look, background and tile border. Each homunculus consists of nine parts: a head, a torso, a tail, left and right hand, left and right leg and finally left and right ear.
When you play a part tile it can belong to any of them, but you can have only one of each part type in play. For example, your creation can have a Woodling left ear, a Fireling right ear and a Stoneling torso, but it is not allowed to have two heads, two tails or two left ears. The parts you play don't have to belong to the favourite homunculus of your alchemist shown on the card, but if they do, you can get a point bonus (see below).
To play a homunculus part tile you have to discard a combination of ingredient counters that are shown on the top part of this tile. The counters go back to the ingredient pool. If you do not have the necessary ingredient counters or do not wish to discard them, you are not allowed to play the tile.
When you play a tile, you should place it face up on your alchemist card in order to gradually build a complete picture of your creation from nine tiles, three each in three rows.
Using a homunculus part
Each part of the homunculus has its own special ability. To use this ability, you have to flip over a homunculus part tile you have previously played, so it is now face down. The tile stays face down until you use up an action to flip your tiles back.
The eavesdropping ear: When you flip over an ear tile you may see the tiles in the hand of one of the other players.
The scrounging hand: When you flip over a hand tile, you may draw a tile at random from another player's hand and take it into your hand. NOTE: You can't do this if you already have six tiles in your hand.
The burrowing leg: When you flip over a leg tile, you are allowed to browse though the discarded tiles and take one of them into your hand. You can't do this if you already have six tiles in your hand. NOTE: The players not currently using this ability are not allowed to look through discarded tiles!
The digesting torso: When you flip over a torso tile, you may take any three ingredient counters from the pool.
The striking tail: When you flip over a tail tile, you may target one of the homunculus tiles of another player already in play. If it's face up, its owner must flip it over immediately. If it's already face down, it must be discarded. NOTE: You can flip over or discard your own homunculus tiles using the tail ability, which is the only way to get rid of them. However, you cannot get rid of the tail itself this way.
The foreseeing head: The head special ability is unique, because it is not used as an action. You can flip over a head tile when another player is using the special ability of his homunculus part. The ability of this part doesn't work, but the tile is still flipped over as a result.
Example: Minerva flips over her homunculus's leg tile to look through the discarded tiles. The sneaky Severus was waiting just for that; he immediately flips over the head tile of his own homunculus. The special ability of Minerva's leg is cancelled and she is not allowed to look through discarded tiles or take any of them, but the leg tile stays face down.
Extracting ingredients
Alchemical ingredients are necessary to bring homunculus parts into play. Extraction is the basic method of gathering ingredients. When you decide to extract ingredients, you discard a tile with a homunculus part from your hand and take ingredient counters that are shown on the top part of this tile from the ingredient pool. In addition, you receive one counter of your alchemist's favourite ingredient, which is pictured on your alchemist card.
(Ingredient icons on page 4 of the source are captioned: unicorn horn, phoenix feather, sulphur, dragon blood, mandrake, quicksilver.)
Example: Severus extracts ingredients from a homunculus's right hand, which has symbols for unicorn horn, phoenix feathers and sulphur shown on its tile. He discards the right hand tile from his hand and takes one unicorn horn counter, one phoenix feather counter and one sulphur counter from the pool. In addition he receives one counter for quicksilver, which is his favourite ingredient (shown on his card).
Flipping back
You may also use your action to flip all your homunculus parts, which are currently laying face down, back face up. NOTE: if you are using this option, you must flip back all parts, you can't choose to leave some of them face down.
Ending the game
The game ends when one of the players brings his ninth homunculus part tile into play, completing his creature. He then has to speak out the magical spell – "Kazaam" – which breathes life into his homunculus and makes it an independent being. It does not matter if all his homunculus tiles are face up or not; his homunculus is complete even if some of them are face down. Sometimes it is even more desirable to have some non-matching tiles flipped over to score a point bonus (see below).
The game ends at the moment when the player speaks out the magic "Kazaam!" word.
Scoring
When the game ends all players score their points to determine the winner. Each player scores points for homunculus parts tiles he has in play, but only if they are laying face up. Face down tiles are completely ignored; on one hand, they don't contribute any points to the final score, but on the other hand they can allow to score some extra points (see below).
The scores are as follows:
- 1 point for every ear, hand or leg face-up tile you have in play.
- 2 points for each head, torso or tail face-up tile you have in play.
- 1 bonus point for each homunculus part tile if all face up tiles in play belong to the same homunculus. The ear, hand and leg are then worth 2 points each and the head, torso and tail – 3 points each.
- 1 bonus point for each tile belonging to your alchemist's favourite homunculus pictured on the alchemist card.
- The player who has finished the game and completed his homunculus first receives 4 bonus points.
Scoring example
Example: Severus has just played the last tile of his homunculus. The game ends immediately and everyone scores points.
Severus has in play two hands (each worth 1 point), two legs (each worth 1 point), one ear (worth 1 point), a head and a torso (worth 2 points each). He has also played another ear and a tail, but they are flipped over, so they don't add to the total amount of points, as if they were not there at all.
He gains (2x1) + (2x1) + 1 + 2 + 2 = 9 points for these homunculus parts. Then he checks for possible bonus points. Because two parts of his creation (a hand and a leg) belong to the homunculus pictured on his alchemist card, each of them is worth an additional point, increasing his total points to 11. If all face-up parts in play belonged to the same homunculus, they would be worth one extra point each, but this is not the case, so there is no extra bonus for him.
It was Severus who played the ninth homunculus tile, ending the game. He gains 4 bonus points for that and finishes the game with 15 points in total.
Victory
The player who scored most points wins the game. If there is a tie, the player who has more face-up homunculus part tiles in play wins. If there is still a tie, the player with more ingredient counters wins. If this still doesn't help determining a winner, the game ends in a tie.
Quick reference
Actions
Perform three of the actions below:
- Draw a tile into your hand.
- Play a homunculus tile. Discard the ingredients and play a homunculus part tile from your hand.
- Use a homunculus part. Flip over a homunculus part tile in play and use its special ability.
- Extract ingredients. Discard a homunculus part tile from your hand and take the ingredients.
- Flip back homunculus parts. Flip back all homunculus tiles.
Scoring
- 1 point for each hand, leg and ear.
- 2 points for a head, torso and tail.
- +1 point for each tile if they all belong to the same homunculus.
- +1 point for each tile belonging to your alchemist's favourite creature.
- +4 points for ending the game.
Homunculus parts
- The eavesdropping ear. See the tiles in another player's hand.
- The scrounging hand. Draw a random tile from another player's hand.
- The burrowing leg. Take any discarded tile into your hand.
- The digesting torso. Take three ingredient counters from the pool.
- The striking tail. Flip down or discard a homunculus part tile in play.
- The foreseeing head. Cancel an ability of a homunculus part.